The first time she saw her was on her way home from work. It happened so quickly, that she wouldn't have noticed that someone tried to reach into her purse to steal everything that is in there, if her phone didn't ring, the scrawny, filthy looking girl, stuck with her hand deep into a strangers purse,could have run away with a lot of money to buy food, so that her empty tummy could finally have something in it, after four long days without anything to fullfill its needs.
But the woman saw her, just in time to catch her wrist in a strong grip.
"What do you think you are doing?" the angry voice of the intimidating looking woman scared the girl out of her trance.
"I.. I wanted to. Please. Let me go, I swear. I leave you alone." The girl had trouble to bring a whole sentence out of her mouth. She just wanted to go away and run right back into the alley, were she sleeps at night, or she tries to sleep at.
"Oh, well. I see what you wanted to do. And now you want that I let you go, so that you try to steal from someone else?" She strengthen her grip on the girls wrist, her face turning red from anger. " I don't think so. Whats your name, kid?"
"It's Bo. Ma'am." She speaks so quetly, that Santana has trouble to understand her.
"Bo, huh?! What are you doing out here, all by yourself?"
"..." Bo is speechless. She has no answer to that question. And she isn't going to tell her, that the street is her home and that she has nowhere else to go, no one who cares about her. No way, she is going to win the lottery before that is going to happen.
"No answer? Well, then you are coming with me. To the police!" Santana starts walking and drags Bo with her. Never losing the grip on the girls wrist.
"No! No, stop. Please. I don't want to go to the police! Please, don't make me go. They are going to..." Bo swallows. Yeah, they are going to take her away. She would have to go to one of these homes, she heard stories from the other kids without a future. Gruesome things. Ugly things. Nothing anyone would want. "Please, don't. Please." Her voice is just a whisper now. It's just the way she feels right now. Tiny and scared. She tugs with all her strenght on the death like grip the woman has on her. This act surprises Santana. She didn't reckoned the strenght of the tiny, slight girl, stumbles and falls to the ground with a heavy thud. Bo falls down right on top of her. The shock is still in Snatana's bones, as the girl jumps quickly to her feet and is halfway down the street before Snatana can even register why she is lying on the floor.
"Dammit" Snatana, still shocked about the way the girl looked, and how she was so desperate not to go to the police. She can not help herself to feel a little bit sorry about the girl. How old was she? 16, 17 maybe. Not old enough to take care of herself. She wouldn't have to steal from srangers and risk to get herself hurt in the act, if she could handle living on her own. She doesn't look like a girl who has something to life in. Her clothes looked dirty and her grey pants and the black sweatshirt had a lot of holes in it. Her long blond hair looked very shaggy and just as dirty as her clothes. Santana doesn't even want to think about the way she smelled. That wasn't a girl who lives happy with a caring family, somewhere in a warm house.
Santana stands up and collect her things. I have no time to thing about some girl. She doesn't even have the time to think about herself. She has papers to grade and school hours to prepare for. She can't remember why she listened to her mom and took the job as a history teacher at the local highschool. She hates school. But she hates the kids more. Teenagers. The boys are acting like neanderthals, and the girls are little bitches. She wasn't like that in her teenagers years. Sure as hell not.
She shakes her head and continues her way home. No scruffy homeless girl is going to ruin her weekend. School is ruining her life, the weekend is hers. No time to think about the problems of other people.
/../.../
"Just run. Don't stop. Run, run, run!" Bo doesn't stop. She can't even see the woman anymore. No name. Just 'the woman'. She wanted to take her to the police. She is bad. No need for names.
She runs half an eternity befor she allows herself to take a brake to breathe. She is scared shitless. She can't let anyone see her, let alone know her full name, or the place were she lives right now, or rather were she is hiding her stuff. The dirty, dark place, in an alleyway between McDonalds and an abandoned subway station isn't even attractive for rats or stray cats. But it's something to stay. And it is safe during the nights. No one is going to look there for anything. But she can't stay much longer in that alley. The nights are shorter and it's getting colder.
Bo is walking at a steady pace now. She can't risk to get attention at herself. There are a lot of gruesome people out there who could hurt or. They wouldn't stop hurting her, not even if she is already lying on the ground.
She sighs loudly. Why is everything so fucked up? "It's all my fault." She nearly screams at herself in her head. " If I could be normal, my Mom would sure love me and my Dad wouldn't have shoved me out of the house without as much as the clothes I am wearing now."
She smiles a little. There, at the end of the street, she can allready see the neon yellow lights of an McDonalds restaurant. Her safe place. The stuff lets her sit there for a while. She doesn't have to order anything. They don't ask questions, not that Bo would answer any of them.
She drags her tired form through the entrance and lets herself sink in one of the booths near the windows.
"Evenin' girl!" One of the waiters calls over to her. She comes over and places a burger and a cup of water in front of the tired looking girl. "You look like you could use it. And no, and don'twant to hear you complaining, girl. I am paying for you. When was the last time that you ate something?"
Bo couldn't answer that. Not that she wouldn't, but she couldn't remember that day.
"See." The waitress ruffled through Bo's hair. "Eat it. Stay as long as you want. I'm here through the night. You can ask me if you want anything else."
"Thank you, Miss. I really appreciate it." Bo smiles a little and grabs the burger of the table. "Thank you."