"No, no, she really doesn't want her car washed." Flynn interrupted before Ariel could answer the homeless man herself.
Because it was the the second to last day of spring break, the club was packed; Ariel had to park on a completely different street, one affectionately nicknamed Hell , Ariel had asked why it was called that. Flynn and Aladdin had looked at each other.
"Because it's the street that gets the hotter than Hell in the summers." Flynn said, smiling. Aladdin had nodded and had given her a thumbs up, but secretly face palmed. It was really called that because of the amount of homicide victims police find there on a monthly basis. But that's besides the fact, because the homeless man had the longest beard the gang had ever seen, and on a scale of importance, guys with long beards beat homicide victims by at least four points.
Techno music blasted from far away, the bass vibrating the car. "Yeah, we don't have any money to give."
But the old man still didn't back down, pointing insistingly at the car.
Flynn looked disturbed. "I mean you can, but what would you clean it with?" Aladdin nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly. The man didn't have any sponges or buckets. Or water. Or soap. They both shuddered, imagining the guy cleaning the windows with nothing but his spit and his beard.
Ariel just shrugged and handed the man a five dollar bill. "You can clean it if you really want to. Bye bye!" She waved and walked down the street, locking the car. Flynn and Aladdin enjoyed the view Ariel gave from behind for a second, then took off running after her when the homeless man cat-called her, both of the boys locking arms with her to ward off any more future creepers.
Peter closed his eyes. The grass itched the back of his neck, and the symphony of night traffic passing was too close for his taste. There were no stars. That sucked. Also Wendy had her hair up. That was weird, he had always seen it down when she was a kid.
He was trying to focus on anything but Tink. The numbness he mastered to kill the pain lasted a year. But now, memories flared up, red and fiery spots of activity.
Last year's Christmas was when it started.
Nobody knew exactly what had happened to Tink's parent's except Peter Pan, though Flynn and Aladdin had a general idea. Her dad left a long time ago when Tink was five, but her mom stuck around. But around Christmas last year was when it happened.
It all started with Tinkerbell's famous words:
"I'm not getting you guys anything this year,"
Aladdin, Flynn, Peter Pan and Tink were all outside a salvation army store, people watching. It was one of their all time favorite activities; they could stare at people for hours and hours without saying a word to each other, simply making assumptions about the people that would stroll by. The Salvation Army store was the best place to do it, especially in the bitter cold. All the poor and homeless people needed some kind of warmth or insulation, so the Salvation Army was always a safe haven to them. So the four pre-teens sat on a concrete wall a small distance from the store, in the freezing cold, at night, watching the people walk in and walk out.
"What do you mean, you're not getting us anything this year?" Flynn stared at Tink, his thick eyebrows converging under his blue beanie.
"What do you mean what do I mean? I'm not getting you guys anything this year. Fucking deal with it," she turned away, her breath visible in the light of the street lamps.
"I thought it was your News Years resolution not to curse." Aladdin said, smiling.
"Ima wash your mouth out with soap if you continue to curse that way young lady," Peter mocked her.
"It's not New Years yet, I can curse as much as I want," she paused. "dumbasses." Peter Pan grabbed her head, and shoved his jacket sleeve in her mouth.
"Young lady!" he said, Tink struggling to get his sleeve out of her mouth, "I told you not to curse!" he laughed as she finally escaped, punching his arm multiple times.
"God! That's not even soap!" she wiped her mouth, "and who knows where that's been!"
"It's probably got some of his spit, traces of food, weeks of dirt and worse," Aladdin raised his eyebrows, "if you know what I mean,"
Tink groaned at the thought, and Aladdin and Peter Pan laughed.
"But wait, why aren't you getting anything for us this year?" Flynn persisted while the laughter continued.
Tink sighed as a distant look crept into her eyes.
"Look, it's a rough year, alright? Let's just leave it at that,"
Peter Pan looked at her, "not to be an asshole, but you make our presents,"
"Which isn't a bad thing!" Aladdin said quickly, noticing the indignant look on Tinkerbell's face, "your presents are the best. They're the thing we look forward to every Christmas,"
"Which is why you should bring them back," Flynn said, "we'll ask Tiana's dad to make an extra batch of sugar cookies this year for you."
"As much as I love sugar cookies, I can't do it." she blew a strand of blond hair from her face, "and honestly, we're starting to get way too old for Christmas anyways."
With that, she propelled herself off of the wall, falling about seven feet and landed perfectly on her feet.
"Faith trust and pixie dust!" she called their famous greeting/goodbye catch phase to them. She ran off, her long green skirt flowing in the freezing wind.
Peter really didn't know how well she was good at hiding it. Maybe she didn't know the severity of her situation at the time.
That the government was going to take her away from her mother.
It turned out, Wonderland did ID. And they sure as hell did not let Ariel, Flynn and Aladdin in.
Defeated, they sat on the sidewalk, the cold wind biting their cheeks. Ariel shivered, she was wearing a light purple cardigan and a green tank top with blue jeans, thinking they would be inside somewhere. But nooo, nothing had to be the way it was supposed to be when the orphans were involved.
While Flynn cursed the freezing weather, Aladdin stood up. "We gotta keep our blood pumping guys, or we'll end up getting frostbitten" He yelled, the music beating in their ears. With that, he leaped on a table that was outside Wonderland, and started dancing to the raunchy hip hop music. Ariel whooped and hopped on with him, dragging Flynn with her.
And they made the most out of it by dancing terribly, laughing until their sides hurt while Peter Pan was on the other side of town, starting to forget what happiness and laughter meant.
"Tink's mom, Emily, was a meth addict. But she stopped after she was arrested in her teens. At least Tink thought she did." Peter allowed himself to say to Wendy, closing his eyes. "On Christmas Emily's parole officer came by after years and-" Peter swallowed. "Her mom was using it again. They arrested her. Again. And Tink was put through the foster care system. We only saw each other once a month. After each month she looked worse and worse."
"Tink was smarter than all of us combined. She could make anything, she used to work at mechanic shops. When she lived here she basically lived at Silver's Mechanic. She stopped all of that." Peter's lip trembled. For some reason, when she stopped fiddling with car parts and making tin can robots, that was the stab that almost did it. Peter Pan almost lost his sanity.
"She said some terrible things to me." He whispered after a long pause. Wendy couldn't look away.
"After we got in a fight, she overdosed on crack cocaine in her foster parent's house."
A gasp escaped Wendy's lips, and Peter turned to face her.
"She made it." He whispered. "But I never saw her again."