The Malik's Dolls || z.m.

Two

The sounds of different kinds of vehicles' honking and driving on the streets, woke me up from my slumber. I slowly peeked open my eyes and winced once the daylight attacked me. I let out a quiet groan as I laid down flat against the cement floor.

Once I was able to open my eyes entirely, I turned to face Zoey who was still sleeping as she softly snored away. My lips curved into a small smile as I reached forward and gently moved a lock of hair away from her face. Then with the same hand, I reached down to caress my thumb against her soft, cold cheek.

"Zoey." I softly called out for her. "Wake up baby."

Zoey rolled over to her side- away from me and let out a quiet groan as she mumbled, "No."

I chuckled to myself as I sat up. "Come on Zo." I said rubbing her arm. "We don't want anyone to yell at us and kick us out of here, right?"

Hearing this, Zoey immediately sat up and faced towards me with a worried expression written across her face. I couldn't help but let out a laugh as she looked absolutely ridiculous but adorable also, with her hair being a mess and sticking out from all over.

"Come on, let's get going." I got up to my feet and began to pack our stuff back into my backpack again with Zoey's help.

Once we left the building's side, we began to seek for a gas station to freshen up in it's public washrooms. Two blocks from where we were, I spotted the tall sign of one which displayed it's name and prices for the petrol.

As we walked down the sidewalk, a few people gave us odd and sympathetic looks. I was used to this by now, but it still annoyed me since they were looking at my little Zoey the same way too. I gripped my hand around Zoey's more tightly and quickened my pace by just a bit so we could reach the gas station sooner.

After walking through the station's compound by being alert of the passing vehicles, we stepped inside the small air conditioned convenient store. Zoey and I immediately looked for the washrooms and I was thankful it was vacant.

I began to work on my hair to put it in a messy bun while Zoey searched inside the backpack- which now stood by my feet, to retrieve our toothbrushes and the tube of toothpaste.

"Oh crap." I hear Zoey say.

"What happened?" I look over towards her to see her looking at the toothpaste in her hand.

"We ran out." she said frowning.

I let out a heavy sigh and closed my eyes for a moment. After opening them again, I went to rummage through the pockets of the backpack to see if luck was by my side and I had some change in them.

I triumphantly smiled as I fisted the coins in my hand and pulled it out. "Got some."

"Is it enough?"

"Should be." I nodded.

I never had the intention to sit on the streets with my younger sister and beg for money. It wasn't safe to at all. But due to some kind and generous people, they would spare us some of their change when they would see us and in the condition we were in. At first I would be hesitant to accept it but the logical part of me soon realized every penny would be of help.

"Stay right here. I'll be right back."

Zoey nodded as I stepped outside to find ourselves a new tube of toothpaste.

***

Looking a tad bit more decent and cleaned up now, Zoey and I walked down the streets of the city to start our day, even though there wasn't really anything to do for us.

"Here." I whipped out a wrapped croissant from my hoodie pocket towards Zoey as a smirk played at my lips.

"Where did you get this from?" she asked with wide eyes as she carefully took the soft roll from my hand.