My name is Mercedes Jones. That's Mrryh-Say-Deez Jones. I would tell you all that most of my friends call me Kayce, but I'd be lying. Truth is, people do call me Kayce for short, but I don't have any friends. I'm pretty much just out here in this world on my own. My father passed away from stage four cancer when I was eleven years old and my mother died in a house fire not too long ago.

They told me, after my mother had died, that I would have to go and live with some family. Nope. I couldn't do that, so I ran away-ran as far as my legs would take me. Now, being a big girl, I hadn't run for long and after a while I had found myself sleeping wherever my head gave me leverage.

I could never be used to living like this though. I'd had a good life up until my mother passed away. I was spoiled-had everything anyone could ever think of, but still I had no friends. Don't get me wrong, I had people who I could chill with, but I'd never had any true friends. No wait! There was one girl who I had considered to be my best friend, but that was in middle school and we hadn't lasted long because we were nothing alike. Truth is, we just did not click. While she had every guy on every corner, even when said guy had a girl of his own, I'd never even had a boyfriend; I hadn't even had a chance to have sex.

Not having sex was of my own free will though. Not because I'm insecure of my body or anything, but because my mother had always stressed the importance of not having sex before marriage. After my father died though, she had stopped saying much of anything to me. She had always made sure I had everything and anything I needed, but she just wasn't the same as I'd remembered her to be. She had stopped stressing my curfew, my grades in school, hell she had stopped stressing almost everything to be honest. Since I'd respected her so much though, I had never dared to do anything to hurt her more than she was already hurting so I had respected every one of her wishes no matter what they may have been.

"Got damn, Bitch! Can you get a bath!"

I continued to walk as a couple of guys threw insults my way. Since LA is so big and since I had been walking these streets for what seemed to be months now, I was sure that I was in another part of town as I recognized nothing and no one.

I needed a bath sure enough, but did people really feel the need to take it upon themselves to announce it every time I walked past them? As if they couldn't already tell that I was going through enough.

"Man, move over on the sidewalk, this hoe reeks of sewage." A guy shoved his friend to get away from me and I wanted to yell out, "I wasn't always this way, you know."

I'd quickly decided against it though. Besides, who would care or even more, listen to what I had to say with the ripped jeans and torn shirt that I had on?

"Do you think you could spare a couple of dollars?" I sat on the ground with my one bag and a blanket that I'd found on a bench near a subway.

A woman looked at me and kept walking, and a few others followed behind her, not looking at me at all.

How do people live this way for so many years?

I continued to sit there, my stomach growling loudly as people continued to pass me. Women, men, children; they would all just walk past me. How could people be so heartless? At a point in life when everything was good, I'd always felt a pain for those whom I had seen on the side of our roads and even when mama and papa had told me I didn't have to, I'd always given to them. These people of today though were downright horrible.

I hadn't even realized that I'd fallen asleep, until a loud horn honked across the street and woke me up. For me, sleeping was always a way to forget about the hunger. But then there were days when even sleep didn't help and I would be so hungry that I couldn't even close my eyes without it hurting even worse.

I stood up from the ground, grabbed my bag, and folded my blanket as best I could before I started on my way again.

The streets were dark now, except for the lights of the businesses and restaurants. I would sleep in a park tonight, but first I would stop by the restaurants and search their garbages. There were usually pretty good things left behind from by-passers. One night, I'd found a few days worth of meals in one of the garbages behind a restaurant and I couldn't have been more gracious. I'd checked the food and it hadn't looked like anything was wrong with it, so I'd figured the restaurant maybe had gotten an order wrong and had simply thrown it out. I'd eaten good those few days, until I'd been forced to go out and search again.

Tonight I would search as well.

"Ma'am, you can't sleep in the park," I heard a voice nearby and I quickly sat up. It was an older white guy who looked really bad off. "You'll get in trouble if they see you sleeping here." he added before continuing on his way, and that was the last I saw of him.

It must have been close to sunrise now because I could hear birds chirping and-damn, I sure could use a shower.

Quickly making my way out of the park and down the street, I came to a small diner and I looked up to read the sign before entering. "Hey, may I please use your restroom?"

I didn't expect the woman behind the counter to allow me to do so since they usually sent me away without hesitation, but to my surprise, she nodded her head yes.

I slowly walked to the restroom. There was only a toilet and a sink, so I locked the door before setting my bag down on the floor. I didn't have much, but I would use some of the paper towels and hand soap to cleanse myself then change clothes.

Before I could even take off an article of clothing, a knock came at the door, startling me. I wondered if I should respond and have the woman tell me to come out of the bathroom just to send me away. But if I didn't respond, she would definitely think I were up to something or maybe even dead.

"Yes?" I called out then waited for an answer.

"Can you open the door?" The woman called back, and I sighed.

Here it was. She was about to put me out.

I opened the door slightly and she held out a small face towel, a bar of soap, and a stack of clothes. "Sometimes I don't change into my work uniform until I come in to work in the morning to unlock the doors." I took the things. "You take as long as you need to now."

I couldn't say anything. I didn't say anything. I simply closed the door again and stared at the things in my hand.

Surprisingly, the clothes that the woman had given me fit, and minutes later I was walking out of the bathroom, having managed to get my long hair to look presentable in the ponytail that I always wore now.

"Thanks." I said softly and with a forced smile. It was sad that I couldn't even find the strength to smile at good deeds anymore.

"No problem." The woman spoke sweetly and with a smile of her own.

I gripped my bag and started to walk towards the door until she called out to me.

"Hey."

I looked back at her.

"My employees won't be in until another hour or so. I could wash your things and maybe you could stay for some breakfast."

Something in me wanted to tell her no thank you, but I wouldn't have dared. Besides, I needed this. Hell, I needed any help that anyone was nice enough to offer my ass.

"I-sure." I responded slowly, now walking back towards her.

She took my things and soon, she was back with a plate full of breakfast and you have to know, my eyes were wide.

"Is this-is all of this mine?" I asked and she nodded with a smile.

"Take as much as you need," Then she gave me a bowl with a lid on it. "And if you can't eat it all now, take some for later."

I did exactly that, piling some of the food into the bowl first before eating the small portion that I'd left out.

"Would you like any syrup?" The woman asked, and I nodded.

She handed me the syrup, and I washed my fingers on a napkin before taking it and pouring some of it on everything on my plate. Maybe I was just terribly hungry, but this was some of the best food I'd ever had in my life.

While I ate, she brought me a tall glass of tea and a small glass of water, and I was done with both of them by the time I'd finished all of my food, so she gave me a bottle of water as well. I would definitely keep the bottle.

As soon as I finished eating, she took my plate and then went back to doing whatever I hadn't noticed her doing in the first place, since I had been so busy stuffing my face.

She wiped down tables and sat things upright, and she looked so content with her life while doing so.

"Your clothes will be dry in a minute." She spoke up all of a sudden, and I nodded my head.

"I'm Mrs. Janette Moore, by the way." She smiled again, and I had to admit her smile was beautiful.

"I'm Mercedes," I said simply. "Mercedes Jones."

"That's such a pretty name." She nodded her head. "I have a daughter whose name is Amiya. I think I might have her name my granddaughter your name once she gives birth next month."

I wanted to smile, to tell her congratulations, but I couldn't. There was no reason to smile about new life being brought into a world like this. "Um-may you tell me what day it is?"

"It's the seventh." The woman said, and I turned my eyebrows down.

"Of what month?"

"What month?" The woman asked. "Baby, it's August."

August? I'd been out in these streets for longer than I'd thought-almost three months now, and I knew this because our home had burned down exactly a week before school let out. "I missed my birthday." I thought aloud.

"Huh?" The woman asked, and I shook my head.

"I just thought it was the early beginning of the month for some reason. My birthday was three days ago if today is the seventh. I turned eighteen."

The woman only looked over at me then. "Well, baby it sounds like you need some cake."

"No-I-no thank you," I said, shaking my head. "I'll be fine."

"No, you won't be fine." The woman was already making her way behind the counter again. "I'll just wrap you up a piece and you can have it for later."

And that's exactly what she did.

She wrapped the cake up, gave me my things, and soon, I was on my way again. Going where? I had no clue.

Heyyy! Did you like it or did you love it? This is a new story I've decided to write and I imagine Acacia as Amber Riley. Let me know what you guys think of my new story and if you do like it please, comment and vote. Let me know if you would like to see more and what you might like to see in the chapters to come. Thank you. Until next time! :)