Welcome to chapter 2 everybody; in case you forgot everyone's nicknames from last chapter here they are for quick reference:
Owen ~ Muscles
Tris ~ Platinum
Dallas ~ Lone Star
Maya ~ Mouse
Drew ~ Spikes B
ianca ~ Raven
Adam ~ Freckles
Clare ~ Trouble
Fitz ~ Bruiser
Miles ~ Dollar
Cam ~ Puck
Eli ~ Gloom
Ch. 2 The Neon God
(OWEN)
"Near the food court is the best place but keep your eye out for mall security, they'll toss you out for pretty much any reason," I tell Clare when we get to the mall.
"You gotta know how to pick your mark, look real presentable for the ancient ones, Grandma and Grandpa types. Tell them you lost your purse with your money and phone and you need bus fare home. You can use the same story on Mom's with kids but not single business women. For guys, pretty much all of them, just show them a little cleavage," Bianca says pulling Clare's top down a little so that her cleavage is showing.
"Really Raven? They're going to think she's soliciting," I comment.
"What? Show more boobs, get more dough, everyone knows that," Bianca shrugs, "anyway we'll all be close by if something happens."
Bianca gives Clare a few more tips on panhandling and then Clare tries it on her own. She starts with a little old couple; she covers her cleavage again and zips up her hoodie. She does just like Bianca told her and tells the old couple she needs bus fare home. They give her a few coins and she smiles tucking them in her pocket. Adam and Tris break off to other parts of the mall to start begging too. Most of us are keeping a close eye on Clare since she's new at this but as always I'm aware of where everyone else is and making sure they're all safe.
"Hey Mouse," Cam says and I look over at him, "you want to sit in the food court with me?"
Sitting at a table at looking young and pathetic often scores the younger kids money or free food. Maya nods, Cam puts a hand on her back, they start walking to a table and Miles follows them.
"Bet I get better food than you," Miles says.
The three of them sit at a table and start begging to the passing moms with kids. Well Miles and Cam are begging but they're also competing again for Maya's attention. Every time one of them gets money or food they look back at Maya. She just sits at the table looking sad and hungry; several of the moms and grandmas take pity on her and give her money or food. We're there about an hour before mall security catches on and I see them coming so I whistle for everyone.
"Let's go," I order and they all follow me, all but Adam who must have wandered farther into the mall. "Spikes, text your brother and tell him to meet us," I tell Drew and he nods getting out his phone.
Adam catches up with us and we walk back to the drug store, sitting in our usual spot. Clare sits next to me and Fitz sits right next to her, we have a couple cardboard signs in baseball hats asking for money but we don't ask every person that walks by, gotta pick your targets.
"If we get enough money I'll take you for a nice dinner Mouse," Cam tells her.
"A good dinner to you is a burger at the diner," Miles disputes, "you should try authentic French food. I'll take you to Paris one day. You'd love it Maya, there's art everywhere and amazing architecture, you can see way beyond the city if you go to the top of the Eiffel tower."
"They both really like her, it's cute how they compete for her," Clare comments.
"Yeah it's been going on a while, they both joined us around the same time and they both started vying for her attention at the same time," Adam tells Clare.
"Mouse watch me," Cam says getting up and showing off by doing a handstand back flip off a car.
"She really never says anything does she?" Clare questions when Maya just smiles at the stunt.
"She can speak, she ain't mute or nothin' she just don't like to talk," Fitz tells her.
"She will when she has to but she has to trust you first usually. Her Dad was verbally abusive and she just sort of stopped talking. At least that's what she told me," I inform Clare as Miles starts showing off too.
"Has Dollar really been to Paris?" Clare asks.
"Yeah probably," I respond just as Cam takes a flying leap over the hood of some car into the street and very nearly gets run over. "HEY YOU FUCKING IDIOTS STOP DICKING AROUND BEFORE ONE OF YOU GETS KILLED!" I yell at them and they come sit down again. "Dollar's dad used to be a real big wig; owned some big shot business. Until his mom got sick with cancer and she passed away, his dad stopped going to work and an accountant at his company embezzled millions. The company went bankrupt without Miles' dad even noticing. Miles came home from school one day and found the house foreclosed on and his dad gone. He hit the streets and found us," I enlighten Clare.
"And Gloom? What's his story?" She questions.
"Don't know you'd have to ask him, Gloom ain't one of mine," I reply.
"You don't like him," Clare observes.
"I don't have anything in particular against the guy he's just…cocky, can be kind of a jerk sometimes, plays by his own rules. And I don't approve of hooking, it's dangerous, even if you never catch an STI," I reply and hear Clare's stomach grumble.
"Hey let's get some dinner," I call to everyone and we all stand up.
Drew and Dallas gather the hats and we sit in a booth, I pool the money and order for everyone. When she's almost done eating Clare's phone beeps.
"It's Gloom with his room number," she says.
"You want to sleep there?" I ask her finishing my food.
"It's worth looking at right? I mean the apartments are better than outdoors but I want to see the motel," she says a little nervously.
"It's cool I'll walk you there," I tell her putting the money on the table. "Lone Star settle the bill then you guys head to the apartments and get beds for the night. I'll meet you there after I take Trouble to Gloom."
Clare gets out of the booth with me, I tell her to watch herself and call for anything as we walk to the motel. She promises she will and I tell her if she calls me and I don't answer by the second ring then she should call Drew, Fitz and Dallas, in that order. She tells me she will just as we reach the motel and I ask her what room number Gloom has.
"Twelve," she says so I walk down there.
"Meet us at the diner tomorrow morning," I tell her and she nods. I knock on the door so that Gloom knows I dropped her off and he knows I know which room is his.
"Hey Muscles," he smirks when he sees me then he offers his hand to Clare, she takes it and goes into his room.
"She's meeting us at the diner in the morning, if she's not there by ten I'll be here for her," I inform him.
"What's wrong Muscles don't trust me? Relax I'll get her there," Gloom says.
"I'll see you tomorrow," Clare smiles.
I smile at her and turn around walking to the apartments, everyone is in when I get there, Maya is in the lobby watching Miles and Cam show off again. Drew and the others are out back so I go out and join them.
"Are you sure it was a good idea to leave Trouble with a freak like Gloom?" Bianca questions.
"She'll meet us at the diner in the morning and she knows to call me if anything happens. I don't really like the guy but he's not Chains and those goons. Anyway if I tell her to stay away it will just make him more intriguing to her and she'll go right to him. Warning her that she needs to be careful around him keeps that idea in her head that he's not to be trusted," I tell her.
We stay up for a while talking and hanging out but move up to the rooms before too long to make sure no one else tries to take our beds. I actually expect Clare to call but she never does, I wake up early and grab my backpack going downstairs to wait for the others. It takes about an hour for everyone else to wake up. Almost everyone is down by 9, only Maya and my brother are still asleep so I go wake them up.
"Come let's go meet Clare at the diner," I announce shaking my brother awake.
"Do we have enough money to get breakfast?" Tris groans.
"Yeah we'll get some breakfast but you have to get up." I point out.
They both get up and grab their backpacks, gathering the others downstairs we head to the diner and Clare is waiting there with Gloom. He sees us, smirks, kisses her cheek and walks off.
"Morning," she smiles.
"You alright?" I ask her.
"Yeah the motel was a lot warmer than the apartments, Gloom is nice. I found out his story," she tells us as we go in and sit down at a booth.
"So what's his story?" Adam questions.
"His longtime girlfriend got hit by a car after they had a fight, she died and he couldn't deal so his parents kicked him out," she explains.
"You going back there tonight?" I inquire.
"I…I don't know, he wants me to be his girlfriend," she tells us, I feel Fitz tensing beside me and Dallas looks a little disappointed.
"Are you going to?" Tris queries.
"I don't know, I don't know him that well and I…I don't know that I'll be as safe with him as I would with you guys. He's on the street a lot to hook and that would mean I'm on my own a lot," she says nervously and looks at me.
"You're one of mine weather you date Gloom or not," I assure her and she smiles.
Adam adds up all our cash, I order shortcake stacks and coffee for everyone, it isn't much and it'll have to get us through the day but we won't starve. After breakfast we go to the park, Clare lays on the grass in the sun and falls asleep, meaning she probably didn't get much last night. Tris and Maya go to one side of the park to panhandle pretending to be brother and sister, Bianca goes to the other side, Drew follows her of course to keep an eye on her. The rest of us are watching Maya and Tris, well except for Adam who's skateboarding. Clare sleeps for about two hours, wakes up suddenly and looks around like she thinks we would have left her.
"Didn't get much sleep last night?" I inquire.
"We were up late talking," she responds and looks around, "I'm going to go panhandle near Bianca," she says.
"Lone Star, Bruiser go keep an eye on her," I order and they get up following her to the other side of the park.
We stay in the park for most of the day but it starts to rain in the late afternoon so we pack up and head back to the apartments, swinging by the bus station to get our backpacks and dry clothes. Everyone's soaked, there's a few blankets in the house but they're all dirty and it's not like we can just toss our clothes in the dryer.
"Everyone change into dry clothes before you get sick," I order.
Bianca takes Clare and Maya into a room so the girls can change together, the rest of us change in separate rooms. Most of us hang the wet clothes anywhere we can that's dry and clean. Just about everyone that regularly sleeps here shows up and we all hang out in the lobby, for warmth mostly. When it starts to get dark Eli shows up, looking for Clare.
"So, you think about what I said?" Eli asks.
"Yeah," she nods and bites her lip looking back at me for a second, "I'll be your girlfriend," she says but very quietly like she's not quite sure she wants to or she's embarrassed.
Eli smirks and puts his arm around her, "Good, I got you a key to the room because I thought you'd say that. I'll get us a cab, take you to the room it's raining so business is slow tonight," Eli comments.
"Meet us at the diner in the morning," I tell her and she nods.
"Don't worry Muscles I'll take care of her, I'll even spring for a cab back to the motel," Eli smirks tightening his arm around Clare and they start walking to the door.
"Hey Trouble," I call to Clare and she looks back at me, "remember to call if you need to."
She smiles and nods then they go through the door. I decide the rest of us should go claim bedrooms so I whistle and everyone follows me upstairs.
(CLARE)
"I'll see you at the motel later, I got us the same room," Eli tells me when he drops me at the diner to meet the others.
"Okay see you tonight," I reply.
I've been on the streets for two weeks now and was settling into this new life pretty well thanks to Owen and the others. I've also been Eli's girlfriend for pretty much that whole time. I liked sleeping in the motel, I even liked Eli but he could be scary too. He always came back to the motel super late and after…whatever it was that he did with the people that picked him up; he would come to the room and want to have sex. I didn't come to the streets a virgin but I'd only had sex a couple of times with the only other boyfriend I've ever had. Eli liked it rough, quite rough and I had bruises, all of them from the sex, Eli didn't beat me, he just…got carried away when he was in the mood I guess. I didn't tell Owen about the bruises, I didn't think there was any need to, but I did feel the need to hide them.
"I'll go to the drug store later you want anything?" Eli questions.
"Toothpaste," I tell him, he smirks and kisses me hard before walking off. He's going back to the motel to get some more sleep, the only reason he even gets up so early is to get me to the diner by ten so that Owen doesn't come looking for me.
"Hey Clare," Fitz smiles when I enter the diner.
"Hi," I grin.
I sit down and Owen gets us all breakfast, we go to the park after and I fall asleep using Adam's lap as a pillow. Adam has become my best friend, I found out he's trans but I still just see him as a guy. I always nap in the park, it's hard to get to sleep in the motel by myself and if I do get to sleep Eli always wakes me up around four in the morning when he gets back to the room. While I'm asleep I dream about being a little girl again, living in a nice house with my mom, dad and sister. Of course when I wake up I'm in the park with a bunch of homeless teens, I have no house and I have no family anymore. I sit up and Adam smiles at me, I yawn and fix my hair looking around for the others. Tris is panhandling at one of the park, Owen is close by to keep an eye on him. Bianca's at the other with Drew nearby.
"Enjoy your nap?" Adam questions.
"Yeah it was nice," I nod sitting up and bringing my knees to my chest. "Should we be helping with the panhandling?"
"Nah they got it covered," Adam shakes his head.
"Hey Mouse watch this," Miles calls to her and then does a walking handstand.
She smiles and claps so of course Cam has to show Miles up and does a black flip. She claps for Cam and the boys keep showing off by doing stunts. Then Cam jumps out of a tree landing on Miles and their showing off turns into a fist fight when Miles accuses him of doing it on purpose. They start throwing punches and yelling at each other, Maya looks worried but Cam and Miles only get angrier at the other.
"HEY BREAK IT UP!" Owen yells at them. Owen and Dallas pull the two of them apart and keep them from fighting any more. "Both of you go take a walk and cool down, when you're cooled off go back to the apartments and wait for us," Owen tells them both. The boys snarl at each other and walk off in opposite directions. "Let's go to the drug store," Owen says when Cam and Miles have walked off.
He whistles for Drew and Bianca and they come over, we all walk to the drugstore in one group and sit down. Spending the rest of the afternoon there, a few people walking by drop coins in the begging hats. After a while I get tired of sitting and get up to start begging on my own. Most people just sort of look past you, if you sound too pathetic people just seem to be rude, like they know you're faking. There's a sort of balance, you have to be nice, have just enough of a pathetic tone and story to earn their pity but not too much. You also have to know who to beg from, men almost always give me a $1 coin or a $2 coin; a couple even gave me $5 bill. Old women or couples will give me spare change; moms give me $2 coins, sometimes paper money and usually advice or an offer for help. I give all the money to Owen cause he keeps track of all the money and buys all the food and everything. He gives me back a $5 telling me to hang onto it in case I need it for something. We eat in the diner like always and I'm used to having two meals a day now, two pretty small meals but we don't starve. We head to the apartments before it gets dark, I have a key to the room so I can walk there later, and the motel is only a couple blocks from the apartments. When we walk into the apartments we see Miles but not Cam.
"Where's Puck?" Owen questions.
"Don't know I got here a couple hours ago haven't seen him," Miles replies.
"He's probably still walking around you know how hot-headed he is," Dallas says.
"Dollar you eat?" Owen asks.
"No," he shakes his head.
"Bruiser go to the drugstore and get something for Dollar to eat and Puck when he gets back," Owen instructs giving Fitz some money.
"I'll go with you, I think I'll head to the motel now," I speak up.
"Take her all the way to the motel first and then swing by the drug store," Owen commands and Fitz nods.
"Is Gloom treating you okay?" Fitz questions after we've been walking a short way.
"Yeah," I reply nervously rubbing a bruise on my arm, under my sleeve, that he gave me last night while we were having sex.
Fitz gives me a look like he doesn't really believe me but he doesn't say anything. It's dusk and the neon sign at the motel is visible even though we're a block away. Like a beacon calling me home for the night, a neon pinnacle culling the despondent, destitute and hopeless under its light blue glow.
Fitz walks me to my room and waits until I have the door open, "We'll see you at the diner tomorrow, be safe."
I watch Fitz walk away and then lock the deadbolt; I can't lock the chain though because Eli won't be able to get in if I do. I take a long hot shower which feels nice, then put on one of Eli's shirts and a pair of his boxers to wash my clothes. I only have a couple changes of clothes and this is the first time they've been washed since I've been on the street. It's a little nerve wracking being our here in the dark alone, lots of other homeless teenagers stay here as well as pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers and anyone else that can't afford any better than this place. I've learned to not look anyone directly in the eye and if someone looks like they might cause trouble then stand tall. If they make a comment then make one back, no one respects meek out here, you can't be meek, you have to be strong or you'll be dead, Owen taught me that. I get my clothes in the wash and go back to the room, after 45 minutes I put it in the dryer and I watch TV while I'm waiting. I don't really like being in the motel room alone but I do like sleeping here better than the apartments. TV is the only thing that passes the time and the motel only gets about ten channels but it's better than sitting in silence. After getting my clothes from the dryer I fall asleep to the TV, waking up when Eli comes in the room.
"Hey Trouble," Eli smirks walking into the room.
I rollover and look at the clock, it's nearly five in the morning and I'm exhausted but he gets in bed and starts kissing my neck. His hands grip my shirt pulling it over my head and just like every night he gets us both naked, gets out a condom and we're soon having sex. I just lay there, letting him do it, it hurts more than anything. It's always like this though, the pain isn't that bad and usually goes away by morning, but suddenly Eli stops and reaches for the nightstand. Then I hear a clicking sound and see something metallic and shiny reflecting the flashing neon motel sign.
"Eli what are you doing?" I inquire feeling my pulse start to race.
"I want to taste you," he replies.
"What does that m…" I gasp when grabs my wrist and presses the blade into it and drags it down cutting my skin and drawing blood.
Then he licks my wrist, lapping up the blood, for some sick reason he enjoys all this. He speeds up and climaxes just a few minutes later. Then, just like every night, he falls asleep almost immediately after sex while I get up and go into the washroom as I can feel my wrist still bleeding. He didn't cut across or vertically instead he cut diagonally but he opened the vein, not bad enough that I'll bleed out but I'll bleed for a while. I take the washcloth and hold it on my wrist; going back to bed I turn on the TV again while I sit there and try to stop the bleeding. Eli groans but doesn't really wake up. The white washcloth is nearly all crimson by the time I get it to stop bleeding and I never get back to sleep. Eli wakes up when the alarm goes off at nine, rolling over at blinking at me.
"You're up early," he yawns.
"I never went back to sleep, you hurt me last night, more than usual," I tell him.
"I'm sorry Baby, next time I'll cut right here," he says tracing a line along my breast.
"Next time?" I question as my voice gets tight.
"You better get dressed so we can get you to the diner," Eli replies getting out of bed.
I get up and get dressed, grab my backpack and we walk down to the diner. I see everyone else in there waiting for me, Eli kisses me goodbye and I go inside.
"You look a little pale, you feeling okay?" Dallas asks when I sit down.
"Yeah fine," I reply and look around the table, "where's Puck?"
"We don't know, he never did come to the apartments last night," Owen replies and he sounds worried.
We eat breakfast and go out to the park as usual; Dallas, Fitz, Drew and Bianca say there're going to look for Cam. Owen tells them all to check in an hour before they go. I lie on the grass, using Adam's lap as a pillow and start to get comfortable when Adam suddenly grabs my hand pulling down the sleeve and exposing the cut.
"Trouble what did you do?!" Adam exclaims.
"What?" Owen asks while I sit up.
"It's fine," I reply after Owen gets up to look at my wrist.
"Fine?! It looks like you tried to commit suicide," Owen comments with both anger and worry in his voice.
"I didn't," I tell them.
"Then how'd you get your wrist cut?" Tris questions and I bite my lip.
"It was Gloom wasn't it? That fucking prick I'm going to kill him! You can't ever go near him again you two are no longer a couple!" Owen growls, before I can say anything Fitz comes running up.
"Muscles you better come see this," Fitz says with urgency and anxiety in his voice.
Update Friday May 23rd from right here and an appearance by the Bakers.