Just want to thank everyone again for actually taking time out of their lives and using it to get involved with a small piece of mine. It's really cool.
24;
Three and a half weeks had passed with the girls running through the same routine day in and day out. They woke up on their dirty blanket covered mattress, spoke with Tess, split up to beg on the streets, and then would meet somewhere to eat. Most of the time it was at the soup kitchen to save money, other times at the local café to splurge. Afterwards they would head back to the overpass, combine and stash their money, and fall asleep. And though their lives were still no better off than they were since they left the orphanage, the two had grown much closer and their difficulties slowly became easier to deal with as a result. One of which, to a degree, was Ethan. After the night he confronted them there was an unmistakable air of discomfort between them. And though little occurred afterward, it hung over them like a heavy fog.
The rotating sleep schedule at the Safe Haven allowed them a warm bed and actual comfortable sheets one or two times a week, which they took advantage of without hesitation. For every day they were scheduled for a bed they would also inquire into their process through the system, and each time were let down by the lack of an update. Their latest visit however, nearly a month after first arriving in the city, was the exception.
"Girls. Good, you're here." Henry pulled a small pile of paper off one of his desks and dropped it onto the table the bulletin board hung next to. "Your paperwork came through yesterday. You're all set."
They stood wide-eyed as they were unsure how to process good news said in such a quick and stately manner. "So, wait. That's what we were waiting for? That's it?"
"That's it. I'll give you the address in a minute, but I should tell you that the place is a congregate shelter. It's essentially a small apartment you'll share with a few other people. Keeps the rent down a lot."
"Totally fine. How much is it?"
He flipped open the packet of paper and shuffled through it until he stopped at one and folded it back. "Says here about eighty-five a month. That's dirt cheap."
"Almost ninety a month doesn't sound like it."
"That's like three bucks a day, Riley. We're making a bit more than that."
"You're making money, that's good. Are you working?"
"Not yet. Still just begging."
"I see. Well that's common. I'll look into some more options for you girls in depth soon. Here, you should take this." He unpacked the papers and passed half of the pile to Ellie. "You'll need this, it's proof you're moving in. The address is on the top as well as which room you'll be staying in." Henry looked a bit apprehensive before speaking again. "So, just a heads up. This place isn't exactly luxury. So don't expect much."
"Yeah, well, can't be any worse than sleeping under a highway for a month straight."
"True, but it still won't be great. Also, I would recommend you both get some pepper spray or mace. Just in case."
"Shit, is it that bad?"
"Most likely not. But two underage girls living on their own? Better safe than sorry is all."
"Alright, we'll pick up some later."
"You'll also need to pay the rent to the housing department every month. They're located downtown somewhere, address is on the paper." He looked around then tapped on his half of the pile. "I think that's it. Any questions?"
"How long can we stay there?"
"It's yours until you move out. Or at least until you stop paying for it."
Ellie joined their back and forth. "How can we thank you?"
Henry simply smiled and his posture eased. "What I tell everyone. Just better your lives. Don't get kicked out to the street again, get some jobs, go back to school. The whole thing. Just... do what you can."
Ellie nodded and shook his hand, Riley doing the same.
"Remember to check back here weekly. Jobs don't come up much. And when they do, they go quick."
"Got it."
They left the small building they still referred to as 'the refuge' in high spirits. Once the door closed behind them they immediately burst into a laugh and a cheerful scream.
"Holy shit, finally!"
"This is fucking amazing, we're gonna have our own place."
"Come on, let's get go get our stuff."
They hurriedly followed the street that ran alongside the highway until they reached the old busted fence just outside the camp. It was still early in the morning and the only person there, as usual, was Tess. She was playing a card game on the ground on top of some cardboard with her coffee mug sitting next to her. She looked up as she heard the dirt crunch under the girls' feet as they walked in.
"Hey you two."
"Hey, Tess." They replied in unison.
Ellie walked directly up to Tess while Riley went to retrieve their stashed cash. "We just wanted to drop by and tell you something cool."
"Yeah? What's that?"
"Our application went through and we're getting our own place. Well, we're gonna be sharing it with others, but still."
Tess laid down the cards in her hand, stood up with a groan, and wrapped her arms around her. "That's great news. I'm happy for you guys." She dropped her arms and moved back. "Have you seen it yet?"
"Not yet. We needed to grab a couple of things before we left."
Riley joined in not soon after, their money in her pocket, and was suddenly embraced too.
"Again, I'm happy for you guys. Beats the hell out of living here." Her expression deflated and her eyes dropped slightly. "Just promise me something. Both of you." They both looked at her with eyebrows raised. "You're both beautiful and wonderful girls, and at your age you both could be my daughters, so I'm just looking out for you when I say this: your bodies are yours and only yours, respect them. Don't fuck 'em up with drugs or… what I do."
The sudden advice came as a shock, and though they knew it was meaningful, it was a heavy subject regardless. "We won't."
"I'm serious you two. It's really easy to get involved in that stuff in our situation. And if you do, chances are you'll get stuck."
"…understood."
Tess looked at the two carefully and slowly nodded her head. "Alright. Well it's been nice knowing you girls. I'll miss you dearly and our daily talks, but I hope I never see you again." She genuinely smiled. "At least not on the street anyway. And as always make sure to stick together. It's clear you two care about each other, so it's important you guys are each other's support system. Okay?"
The girls meekly smiled at each other before Ellie turned back towards the woman. "We will."
"I'll tell the others you've gone."
"Thanks, Tess. It's been really nice talking to you too. We'll come visit when we can."
They stashed their blankets and clothing into their backpacks where a few cans of food that Riley managed to sneak were already waiting. They hugged Tess again and walked out from under the shadowy underpass and back out into the bright cold morning.
As they walked down the street Ellie pulled out the papers from her backpack and found the address for their new place: 8314 W. Setter Rd. They asked around and eventually found someone who pointed out that it was a couple mile's walk through downtown and onhe other side.
They set off and arrived a little less than an hour later and analyzed the building as they stood just outside its entrance. White letters were screwed into the hard brick just above it. 'Setter Road Apartments.'
"Real original."Looks like the place though."
The building itself was rather generic, but had its own old charm. It was built almost entirely from a dark red brick, its seven floor façade broken up at regular intervals by air-conditioner-clad windows. Each long side of the building had about eleven windows per floor, and the short sides about four. All four sides, however, did share a commonality, a rusted teal fire escape attached to the brick which ran to the ground in a repeating Z-shaped pattern. The top five feet or so of the building was painted in a slightly darker teal color.
A brick structure jutted out from over the doorway they were standing next to and onto the sidewalk, apparently taking the place of an awning. It was adorned with two short gray cracked statues they couldn't identify.
Riley walked first through the doorway which led immediately into a barely discernable lobby and a dim staircase shortly beyond it. There was a window to their left that exposed a small room beyond it. The window itself had a small rectangular hole cut out near the middle to speak through.
Behind the window was an older lady but perhaps only appeared that way due to her generous physique. She entirely filled out the chair she was sitting on, which looked like it could give way at any moment, and was watching a TV that was situated in the back left corner of the little isolated room. The interrogation-like light above her made apparent the sheer amount of smoke that was floating in the room, an amount unbreathable for most.
Riley hesitantly knocked on the glass which caused the woman to spin in her chair towards the noise and reveal her front side. Ellie guessed she must've been easily at least three hundred pounds, nearing four. She pushed herself off the chair with a loud grunt and waddled over to the window not unlike a penguin would. She put her face to the glass and spoke with a low raspy voice, likely deteriorated from a lifetime of smoking.
"Yeah?"
"Uh… hi. We're moving in today. We got assigned through th-"
"Room number?" The cigarette in the corner of her mouth bobbed up and down as she spoke, its smoke reflected backward by the glass.
Riley was quickly annoyed but held off until they got what they needed. "301."
The woman reached just out of their sight to the side of the glass and pulled a key from a series of hooks before sliding it through the hole in the glass.
"That it?"
"Yeah."
"You don't need the paperwork?"
She sighed and motioned for it. Ellie unfolded the papers and pressed the front page up against the glass.
"Great."
She waddled her way back to the TV and fell onto the chair which barely managed to keep its shape from the sudden impact.
They glanced at each other in confusion and headed to the staircase to their right. They spoke quiet criticisms and insults about the building and the lady to each other as they climbed to the third floor. The stairs were old and wooden and creaked under every footstep. Wall sconces mounted once per floor lit their way in the otherwise sun-impenetrable staircase. The walls inside were made of the same brick as the outside, though some graffiti marred their otherwise natural appeal.
They reached the third floor and read a sign situated in front of the landing: '300-315', with an arrow to the left, and '316-331', with an arrow to the right.' They followed the hallway down to the left and stopped in front of the door with their assigned number alongside. Both girls looked left and right at their new neighbors.
"I don't feel good about this place."
"Me neither."
Ellie sighed and watched as Riley slipped the key into the keyhole and pushed the door inwards. It opened just a few inches before getting snagged on a metal chain that was draped across the gap.
Riley tried to angle her head to get a glimpse inside. "Anyone in there?"
A few moments later a man's face appeared in the gap and eyed her up and down. "Who are you?" He spoke with a deep scratch in his voice, somewhat southern in dialect.
"Your new roommates, I guess."
"Huh..." He grunted and closed the door quickly.
Riley's eyes shrunk into a glare, but before she could pound on the door she heard the chain being undone from the other side before opening completely. The man who opened it was already walking back to a chair near a window on the far side of the room.
Their first impression of their new home was a mixed amount of hopeful and depressing. Immediately to their right was the kitchen, a seven by four foot area with a white refrigerator, an old white stovetop and minimal counter space with some drawers below them. The walls were made of the same brick as the outside, but, for whatever reason, were painted a mustard yellow that had faded out over the years. The apartment's floor was pure hardwood, but was so pale and scuffed over it was hard to tell the change from one plank to the next. There was a small table to their left, directly opposite the kitchen, that was large enough to only seat two people at once.
Beyond the table on the left side were three doors crammed against each other at slightly different angles. Two of them lead to bedrooms and the third to a bathroom. Behind the kitchen on the right was a fourth door, the last bedroom.
The area directly ahead of the entrance was what could be considered the living room. There was a large window that stretched the height of the wall with an arch at the top that dominated the room and showed off a view of the street and another building directly across. Though attractive, it was also poorly fitted into its frame and allowed the air to freely enter and leave through the gaps along the edges.
A television was perched atop a small bookcase a few feet away from an old couch and chair, the latter of which was occupied by the man that opened the door.
"And lock it behind ya."
They stepped inside and followed his command. They moved about halfway through the apartment in only a few steps and stopped dead center of the room.
"So... I'm Riley and this is Ellie."
"Alright." He kept his eyes glued to the screen in front of him.
She immediately grew disinterested. "Which room is ours?"
"Whichever one that ain't bein' used."
"That's helpful."
"Yeah."
Riley groaned as she checked the left doors and Ellie the right one. Riley opened up the door facing the entrance and found it messy but void of any clothes or possessions.
"Over here."
Ellie quickly walked over and followed Riley through the door and closed it behind them.
Their new room held a single medium-sized bed in the middle, a sliding mirror closet on the left side, and just a few cabinets and drawers on the wall nearest the door. On the right side of the room was an unexpectedly large window that opened up the space to light and a view of the street.
Ellie rested her back against the door and looked around with a sorrowful expression. "Well this place is depressing."
Riley exhaled deeply and looked around their new room as well. "Yeah, it really is… but think about it this way. We've lived in an orphanage for nearly our entire lives filled with other kids. Now we have our own room together." She grabbed Ellie's hands and swung them outward. "Just you and me and all the privacy we want." She leaned forward and pressed her lips against the freckled girl's for a moment before pulling away and resting their foreheads together. "Despite how depressing… and gross…and small..."
Ellie couldn't help but grin as she shoved her back. "Yeah, you really sound like a pessimist."
"You're here." Riley smirked as she threw her bag onto one of the shorter cabinets immediately followed by Ellie doing the same.
They replaced the sheets on the bed with their own blankets and pulled out their few changes of clothes and laid them in the drawers, planning to clean them whenever they could.
As they finally settled in and took a moment to rest, the door to their room creaked open and a curious face moved through it which was soon followed by a second. The first was of an middle-aged black woman with dark pulled-back hair. The second was of a boy maybe a few years younger than themselves, also with dark, but short, hair.
"Thought we heard someone come in. I assume you're the new tenants?"
"Just moving in. Yeah."
"Wow, you're both really young." She put her hands on the boy's shoulders who was standing in front of her, somewhat shorter than the woman herself. "Doesn't matter. Anyway, this is my son, Aiden, and I'm Marlene. Welcome to the building. It's not much, but it has a roof."
He glanced the two over before flashing a toothy grin. "Hey."
"We've been here for a couple of years now. So if you have any questions I'm the person to ask."
Ellie glanced over at chest of drawers. "What's the laundry situation like here?"
"There are a few machines down in the basement, only washing ones, no drying. You'll also need to buy your own detergent and softener. There's a vending machine down there for those too."
"And what about the man in the other room? What's his deal?"
Marlene chuckled at the girl's bluntness. "His deal, as you call it, is that he's just a bit jaded. He's been here longer than me and I still don't know much about him." She shrugged her shoulders. "You'll get used to him."
"What's his name?"
"Joel. He's not very social, but he'll help you out with pretty much anything if you ask."
"Good to know."
"Well, just wanted to say hi. We'll let you get back to unpacking your stuff. "
"Thanks."
The woman smiled and shook their hands, along with the boy, before heading back out of the same door.
Riley walked over and rested her back against the door after shutting it for a second time. Ellie yawned as she grabbed Riley's hand and pulled her onto the bed with her. They stretched out as much as they could on the cramped bed and stared at the ceiling.
"It's an actual bed, Riley. Not a mattress on the ground under a highway. An actual bed."
"It's been a while."
Ellie rolled onto her side, threw an arm around Riley, and pulled her in tightly. They cuddled together on top of their worn blankets and listened to the low hum of the TV through the torn up wall until they fell asleep.
Yep, Marlene and Joel living in the same apartment. And Aiden is obviously where I stray a bit from canon (ignoring the whole AU aspect), but he's got his role.