One Last Breath
~By: Lauren~
T H E
R O P E S
"So what exactly is 'the group'?" Meimi stood up, stretching her aching bones.
"It's just us four. We travel to a town, find a place to stay for as long as we can before we move on to the next. Plus we know some people in different places so they let us stay with em' sometimes." Marie piped up, bouncing up and down happily. "Now the girls will out number the guys!" She stuck out a tongue to her brother.
Tony grabbed her arm angrily, yanking the girl over to him.
"Wwwwhaat?" She wined. "Let go of meee!!"
"Excuse us." Tony turned, motioning Tammy and Aaron to his side. The group crowded around in a tight circle. "How can we trust her? And what if she's a run away from her family? This could bring us trouble too. Police might be after her even. We've no idea who she is. And look at her face. Be careful with her, it's obvious she's hurting. Don't we have enough people?"
Tammy glanced back at Meimi, who sat picking the mud off of her aching leg with a frown. "She doesn't look like trouble if you ask me. I have a weird feeling about her, sort of like I can trust her but I don't know if it's just my imagination. By her reaction when we asked if she had parents, I can tell she doesn't, at least I think. She had a look of grief, of pain. One I'm sure we're all familiar with." The brunette crossed her arms. "She has my vote."
Aaron blinked, a hint of amusement in his eyes. "You accepted Tammy and I to come with you both when we needed it and we all helped each other. Now it's our turn to accept someone else who needs help. She has my vote."
"Plus, she can join and if she truly causes any trouble or whatever, then we'll vote for her to leave. Give her a chance." Marie's eyes lit up at her brother. "She has my vote."
Tony sighed, rubbing a few fingers on his temple before he crossed his arm. He gave Tammy a pleading look but the girl just smirked. "Fine. She can stay, for NOW. One slip up and she's gone, got it?"
"YESSS!!" Marie leapt into the air, embracing her brother happily. "Oh, thank you! Thank you!!"
Tammy smiled, giving Tony a wink. "It'll all turn out in time. Remember? It all did with us."
They all turned towards Meimi, who stared ahead at them with hopeful eyes. So they didn't appear to be the greatest people but they were willing to help her. Tony stood up tall wearing a pair of dark blue jeans along with a white tank top. Over that he had a long sleeved black shirt unbuttoned. Over his head he had a rag tied, holding his hair back, which stuck out around his ears and the back of his head. Marie was wearing plaid dark blue and green pants with a hole torn in one knee. She had a forest green tank top with a sweater tied around her waist while her hair was pulled back with a ponytail. Tammy sported a pair of loose fitting dark gray drawstring pants along with a form fitting lighter gray tank top. She had a black jacket tied around her waist also and a black newspaper boy-like hat on her head. Lastly Aaron stood, beaming a giant smile. He was wearing a pair of dark jean pants and tennis shoes with an overly big short-sleeved emerald shirt that had a large blue dragon imprinted on the front. A blue baseball cap turned backwards topped it all off. So they weren't TOO rough looking. Meimi shrugged. She had no other choice or people to turn to. She had to take what she could get and this was the only thing she had.
"Welcome!" Marie smiled, running at Meimi until she brought the redhead into a tight embrace.
Meimi returned the action, a bit in shock. "Just like that you're going to trust me?"
"And just like that, we're going to trust you and I'm assuming you trust us. It's a mutual thing. No crossing the lines and everything will be ok." Tony gave Meimi a strong look. She knew at that moment this was one person not to cross the lines with.
She nodded yes, a bit frightened by him then the corners of his mouth curled up in a smile. The redhead relaxed. "So what now?"
Tammy spoke up to answer Meimi. "First of all we're going to find a place to stop, get a bit to eat and get a good night's rest. If you have some spare money, we defiantly need to get you some new clothes and a new style. Lose the innocent church girl look." She pointed to Meimi's baby blue skirt and pink sweater. "You can keep the shades though because they're very cool. Tomorrow afternoon we ride. The group has stayed long enough in this town."
"Do you have your license to ride one of those?" Meimi pointed to the motorbike. "No offense or anything."
Tony sighed. The girl was already starting up trouble. "I just got my license, not that I haven't started driving until now. Tammy's a good rider but she's only old enough to get a permit so I, erm, made her a license. We ride double but since we now have you, for a while we can squeeze three on one bike but pretty soon you'll have to learn to drive one and we can hook you up with something. Got it?"
Marie chuckled. "I told you my brother was a freak with details."
"But isn't it.illegal?" Meimi muttered nervously. So maybe they WERE cereal killers after all.
"Is it illegal to strive to survive?" Tony snidely replied, turning on his heel as he walked up to the road. "Let's go to the junkyard."
Tammy grabbed Meimi's hand and gave her a gentle nudge. "Don't mind him, he gets cranky sometimes. Especially when someone questions him on what is right or wrong. None of us really want to be in this position but we have no choice. And we'd rather be here than some stupid foster home. We sleep mostly at junkyards or places like that unless we have a friend in the town. You can bunk with me, this time I got to sleep in the limo we found. Oh and you'll be riding with me also because Aaron is the smallest. He usually rides with me and we have more room than Tony and Marie."
Tony handed Marie a helmet, which she put on with a few grumbles of protest. They both jumped onto the motorbike, revving it up for a moment. Aaron slid a helmet on also and Tammy started the bike. Taking a deep breath, Meimi slid on, clinging to Aaron's small body in front of her. She had an eerie feeling that she would fall off. With a jerk, the two bikes flew forward as Meimi bit her lip from releasing a cry of fear. She closed her eyes, clinging on as tight as she could. Finally, after what seemed like hours, it came to a stop. A light laugh caused her to slowly open her eyes to find the world wasn't flying by her anymore. She knew her hair was all blown back. Ever so carefully she lifted her leg over and stumbled to the side to be caught my Tony before she fell.
"Don't worry you'll get use to it." Tammy chuckled. Meimi glanced around. On all sides of her were thousands of old and rusted cars piled on top of each other. In the distance she could see a crane and a small building but it was so far away it seemed much smaller. They were right on the edge of the junkyard. There were a few other items such as old toasters, TV's, telephones and a computer.
"Welcome home. For now that is. You'd be surprised what people throw away. Some of this stuff is as good as new. For money Tony fixes em' up as we go along and sell them. He's good at that kind of stuff." Aaron smiled. A fence surrounded them as Tony pushed part of it back in place. He had cut a large circle big enough to fit the bikes with the people on it through.
Tammy stood next to a rusted limo with the back crushed in. "Bed's in here. Bathroom is beyond that pile over there. Toilet paper is in this bag. Each time we swap turns with digging the toilet and burying it when we leave. And make it far away. If anyone is caught peeking on anyone else, there will be a grave punishment." She nodded to the left. "And if you need water there are some water bottles in our saddle bags. Those things are amazing, they're like Mary Poppin's bag; they can fit anything and everything in it at the same time. We each have our own set of utensils, a plate and a bowl. We have an extra one that'll be yours along with a pillow and blanket. We fill up our water bottles at every water fountain we find."
"Y-you actually l-live like this?" Meimi murmured in awe.
"Hey, we have no choice. It's not like we got no pampered home to run back to, ok? If you don't like it then leave." Tony rolled his eyes, bringing out a match. He lit a tiny fire in a pit that had been dug before Meimi arrived. Pulling a pot out of a side bag, he placed it in the fire to heat up. "For supper we shall have cooked beans and meat stew." He pulled out a pocketknife in which he slammed into a few tin cans, cutting off the top. Suddenly he stopped what he was doing. "I've got it! She'll take the test!!"
"Come on Tony, give it up. We all voted on it and she's staying as long as she wants to." Marie rolled her eyes, giving Meimi's clueless face a reassuring smile.
"We all voted and I was against it. If she passes then I'll leave her alone and she can stay as long as she wants to, ok? Hey, what I say goes, got it?!" He crossed his arms firmly, his lips taking on a tight smile.
"Fine, whatever." Marie retorted, turning to Meimi. "We've always had this little test thing for new members. If you're not in bad shape then you take it. Tammy didn't have to but Aaron did and he pasted so I'm sure you can too. Look, don't worry about it until tomorrow."
"Um..ok." Meimi frowned. So it wasn't going to be as easy as she thought. "Would I be able to get use to this kind of life anyway?" She glanced back to where she was told the 'toilet' was. She sighed when suddenly she heard a scratching noise coming from behind her. Glancing back she noticed her black bag was moving. "CRAP! I FORGOT ABOUT RUBY!!!!!!!!" Meimi jumped up in shock and worry, unzipping the bag.
"You have a ruby gem?!" Aaron mumbled, a bit frightened by her unexpected outburst.
"No! Ruby's my pet hedgehog!" The redhead sighed with relief, as she held out the small animal that was gasping in fresh air.
"Awww, she's adorable!!" Tammy gave Ruby a little rub under her chin, causing the hedgehog to smile happily.
"What a cute lil' girl!!" Marie joined Tammy alongside Meimi.
"She's my baby." Meimi smiled, looking at the two girls. Somehow.when she was with these people, the confusion and chaos inside her seemed to fade away some.
"Just great. Aaron, we're out numbered even MORE now by the females." Troy frowned, stirring the food.
"Is that such a bad thing?" The blonde chuckled, hiding a smirk from Troy who stared at him with his eyes opened wide.
~*~
Meimi shifted in the leather row of seats. She pulled the blanket tighter around her as she snuggled against her pillow. She glanced over to Tammy's sleeping figure across the room as tears filled her eyes. She wasn't quite sure why she was crying; maybe it was the way that she was accepted so easily. If they knew the truth about her, about what she'd done once, they'd hate Meimi. They'd have to. Pushing back the thought, she closed her eyes then opened them again, hearing Ruby snoring. "They're not such bad people. They generally get along and have a fun time.maybe it won't be so bad.I just hope I can pass this test of theirs." Meimi bit her lip, trying to hold back the sudden flood of feelings inside her. "I'm so..sorry mom.and dad." And then the tears began to flow.
Tammy glanced over to Meimi's shaking figure. She knew the girl wasn't shaking because she was cold either. Tammy wanted very badly, all of a sudden, to go to Meimi, to comfort her...because, jeez, she knew what it felt like for the girl. She knew what it felt like to have no home left for you, to depend on the people around you even when you don't know them at all and to feel as if you were the fault of some messed up situation. Lord, she felt so responsible for her mother's death for it haunted her every night. She knew what it felt like to curl up on a bed and wish for sleep, because sleep was the only relief from the pain and the memories and the tears. She knew what it was like, and it was horrible, and why on earth should someone like Meimi- someone she found to be good and kind and so much better than her- have to suffer through that alone? Why? It wasn't fair. But Tammy knew better than to go over to the girl and comfort her. Her limbs stayed frozen as sleep soon over took her.
~*~
Sad eyes follow me
But I still believe there's something left for me
So please come stay with me
~By: Lauren~
T H E
R O P E S
"So what exactly is 'the group'?" Meimi stood up, stretching her aching bones.
"It's just us four. We travel to a town, find a place to stay for as long as we can before we move on to the next. Plus we know some people in different places so they let us stay with em' sometimes." Marie piped up, bouncing up and down happily. "Now the girls will out number the guys!" She stuck out a tongue to her brother.
Tony grabbed her arm angrily, yanking the girl over to him.
"Wwwwhaat?" She wined. "Let go of meee!!"
"Excuse us." Tony turned, motioning Tammy and Aaron to his side. The group crowded around in a tight circle. "How can we trust her? And what if she's a run away from her family? This could bring us trouble too. Police might be after her even. We've no idea who she is. And look at her face. Be careful with her, it's obvious she's hurting. Don't we have enough people?"
Tammy glanced back at Meimi, who sat picking the mud off of her aching leg with a frown. "She doesn't look like trouble if you ask me. I have a weird feeling about her, sort of like I can trust her but I don't know if it's just my imagination. By her reaction when we asked if she had parents, I can tell she doesn't, at least I think. She had a look of grief, of pain. One I'm sure we're all familiar with." The brunette crossed her arms. "She has my vote."
Aaron blinked, a hint of amusement in his eyes. "You accepted Tammy and I to come with you both when we needed it and we all helped each other. Now it's our turn to accept someone else who needs help. She has my vote."
"Plus, she can join and if she truly causes any trouble or whatever, then we'll vote for her to leave. Give her a chance." Marie's eyes lit up at her brother. "She has my vote."
Tony sighed, rubbing a few fingers on his temple before he crossed his arm. He gave Tammy a pleading look but the girl just smirked. "Fine. She can stay, for NOW. One slip up and she's gone, got it?"
"YESSS!!" Marie leapt into the air, embracing her brother happily. "Oh, thank you! Thank you!!"
Tammy smiled, giving Tony a wink. "It'll all turn out in time. Remember? It all did with us."
They all turned towards Meimi, who stared ahead at them with hopeful eyes. So they didn't appear to be the greatest people but they were willing to help her. Tony stood up tall wearing a pair of dark blue jeans along with a white tank top. Over that he had a long sleeved black shirt unbuttoned. Over his head he had a rag tied, holding his hair back, which stuck out around his ears and the back of his head. Marie was wearing plaid dark blue and green pants with a hole torn in one knee. She had a forest green tank top with a sweater tied around her waist while her hair was pulled back with a ponytail. Tammy sported a pair of loose fitting dark gray drawstring pants along with a form fitting lighter gray tank top. She had a black jacket tied around her waist also and a black newspaper boy-like hat on her head. Lastly Aaron stood, beaming a giant smile. He was wearing a pair of dark jean pants and tennis shoes with an overly big short-sleeved emerald shirt that had a large blue dragon imprinted on the front. A blue baseball cap turned backwards topped it all off. So they weren't TOO rough looking. Meimi shrugged. She had no other choice or people to turn to. She had to take what she could get and this was the only thing she had.
"Welcome!" Marie smiled, running at Meimi until she brought the redhead into a tight embrace.
Meimi returned the action, a bit in shock. "Just like that you're going to trust me?"
"And just like that, we're going to trust you and I'm assuming you trust us. It's a mutual thing. No crossing the lines and everything will be ok." Tony gave Meimi a strong look. She knew at that moment this was one person not to cross the lines with.
She nodded yes, a bit frightened by him then the corners of his mouth curled up in a smile. The redhead relaxed. "So what now?"
Tammy spoke up to answer Meimi. "First of all we're going to find a place to stop, get a bit to eat and get a good night's rest. If you have some spare money, we defiantly need to get you some new clothes and a new style. Lose the innocent church girl look." She pointed to Meimi's baby blue skirt and pink sweater. "You can keep the shades though because they're very cool. Tomorrow afternoon we ride. The group has stayed long enough in this town."
"Do you have your license to ride one of those?" Meimi pointed to the motorbike. "No offense or anything."
Tony sighed. The girl was already starting up trouble. "I just got my license, not that I haven't started driving until now. Tammy's a good rider but she's only old enough to get a permit so I, erm, made her a license. We ride double but since we now have you, for a while we can squeeze three on one bike but pretty soon you'll have to learn to drive one and we can hook you up with something. Got it?"
Marie chuckled. "I told you my brother was a freak with details."
"But isn't it.illegal?" Meimi muttered nervously. So maybe they WERE cereal killers after all.
"Is it illegal to strive to survive?" Tony snidely replied, turning on his heel as he walked up to the road. "Let's go to the junkyard."
Tammy grabbed Meimi's hand and gave her a gentle nudge. "Don't mind him, he gets cranky sometimes. Especially when someone questions him on what is right or wrong. None of us really want to be in this position but we have no choice. And we'd rather be here than some stupid foster home. We sleep mostly at junkyards or places like that unless we have a friend in the town. You can bunk with me, this time I got to sleep in the limo we found. Oh and you'll be riding with me also because Aaron is the smallest. He usually rides with me and we have more room than Tony and Marie."
Tony handed Marie a helmet, which she put on with a few grumbles of protest. They both jumped onto the motorbike, revving it up for a moment. Aaron slid a helmet on also and Tammy started the bike. Taking a deep breath, Meimi slid on, clinging to Aaron's small body in front of her. She had an eerie feeling that she would fall off. With a jerk, the two bikes flew forward as Meimi bit her lip from releasing a cry of fear. She closed her eyes, clinging on as tight as she could. Finally, after what seemed like hours, it came to a stop. A light laugh caused her to slowly open her eyes to find the world wasn't flying by her anymore. She knew her hair was all blown back. Ever so carefully she lifted her leg over and stumbled to the side to be caught my Tony before she fell.
"Don't worry you'll get use to it." Tammy chuckled. Meimi glanced around. On all sides of her were thousands of old and rusted cars piled on top of each other. In the distance she could see a crane and a small building but it was so far away it seemed much smaller. They were right on the edge of the junkyard. There were a few other items such as old toasters, TV's, telephones and a computer.
"Welcome home. For now that is. You'd be surprised what people throw away. Some of this stuff is as good as new. For money Tony fixes em' up as we go along and sell them. He's good at that kind of stuff." Aaron smiled. A fence surrounded them as Tony pushed part of it back in place. He had cut a large circle big enough to fit the bikes with the people on it through.
Tammy stood next to a rusted limo with the back crushed in. "Bed's in here. Bathroom is beyond that pile over there. Toilet paper is in this bag. Each time we swap turns with digging the toilet and burying it when we leave. And make it far away. If anyone is caught peeking on anyone else, there will be a grave punishment." She nodded to the left. "And if you need water there are some water bottles in our saddle bags. Those things are amazing, they're like Mary Poppin's bag; they can fit anything and everything in it at the same time. We each have our own set of utensils, a plate and a bowl. We have an extra one that'll be yours along with a pillow and blanket. We fill up our water bottles at every water fountain we find."
"Y-you actually l-live like this?" Meimi murmured in awe.
"Hey, we have no choice. It's not like we got no pampered home to run back to, ok? If you don't like it then leave." Tony rolled his eyes, bringing out a match. He lit a tiny fire in a pit that had been dug before Meimi arrived. Pulling a pot out of a side bag, he placed it in the fire to heat up. "For supper we shall have cooked beans and meat stew." He pulled out a pocketknife in which he slammed into a few tin cans, cutting off the top. Suddenly he stopped what he was doing. "I've got it! She'll take the test!!"
"Come on Tony, give it up. We all voted on it and she's staying as long as she wants to." Marie rolled her eyes, giving Meimi's clueless face a reassuring smile.
"We all voted and I was against it. If she passes then I'll leave her alone and she can stay as long as she wants to, ok? Hey, what I say goes, got it?!" He crossed his arms firmly, his lips taking on a tight smile.
"Fine, whatever." Marie retorted, turning to Meimi. "We've always had this little test thing for new members. If you're not in bad shape then you take it. Tammy didn't have to but Aaron did and he pasted so I'm sure you can too. Look, don't worry about it until tomorrow."
"Um..ok." Meimi frowned. So it wasn't going to be as easy as she thought. "Would I be able to get use to this kind of life anyway?" She glanced back to where she was told the 'toilet' was. She sighed when suddenly she heard a scratching noise coming from behind her. Glancing back she noticed her black bag was moving. "CRAP! I FORGOT ABOUT RUBY!!!!!!!!" Meimi jumped up in shock and worry, unzipping the bag.
"You have a ruby gem?!" Aaron mumbled, a bit frightened by her unexpected outburst.
"No! Ruby's my pet hedgehog!" The redhead sighed with relief, as she held out the small animal that was gasping in fresh air.
"Awww, she's adorable!!" Tammy gave Ruby a little rub under her chin, causing the hedgehog to smile happily.
"What a cute lil' girl!!" Marie joined Tammy alongside Meimi.
"She's my baby." Meimi smiled, looking at the two girls. Somehow.when she was with these people, the confusion and chaos inside her seemed to fade away some.
"Just great. Aaron, we're out numbered even MORE now by the females." Troy frowned, stirring the food.
"Is that such a bad thing?" The blonde chuckled, hiding a smirk from Troy who stared at him with his eyes opened wide.
~*~
Meimi shifted in the leather row of seats. She pulled the blanket tighter around her as she snuggled against her pillow. She glanced over to Tammy's sleeping figure across the room as tears filled her eyes. She wasn't quite sure why she was crying; maybe it was the way that she was accepted so easily. If they knew the truth about her, about what she'd done once, they'd hate Meimi. They'd have to. Pushing back the thought, she closed her eyes then opened them again, hearing Ruby snoring. "They're not such bad people. They generally get along and have a fun time.maybe it won't be so bad.I just hope I can pass this test of theirs." Meimi bit her lip, trying to hold back the sudden flood of feelings inside her. "I'm so..sorry mom.and dad." And then the tears began to flow.
Tammy glanced over to Meimi's shaking figure. She knew the girl wasn't shaking because she was cold either. Tammy wanted very badly, all of a sudden, to go to Meimi, to comfort her...because, jeez, she knew what it felt like for the girl. She knew what it felt like to have no home left for you, to depend on the people around you even when you don't know them at all and to feel as if you were the fault of some messed up situation. Lord, she felt so responsible for her mother's death for it haunted her every night. She knew what it felt like to curl up on a bed and wish for sleep, because sleep was the only relief from the pain and the memories and the tears. She knew what it was like, and it was horrible, and why on earth should someone like Meimi- someone she found to be good and kind and so much better than her- have to suffer through that alone? Why? It wasn't fair. But Tammy knew better than to go over to the girl and comfort her. Her limbs stayed frozen as sleep soon over took her.
~*~
Sad eyes follow me
But I still believe there's something left for me
So please come stay with me