Fighting to Live

Chapter One

"Time to get going kiddo!" I yelled through the apartment trying to pull on my own shoes. For some reason I always think it's easier to not untie my shoes when I take them off, but it always comes back to bite me.

"Coming!" A four foot monster, with unbelievably curly blond hair, comes tearing around the corner. He was the definition of cute with his bright blue eyes and pink cheeks.

"Did you get your lunch from the fridge?" I ask while pulling on my leather jacket.

Miles rolls his eyes, "Duh. It's in my backpack." He holds up his Superman backpack to prove his point.

"Just making sure, geez kid." I laugh as he sticks his tongue out at me. I lock the apartment door behind us as we step out into the hallway. A few doors down we stop, and I knock on the door.

"Come in!" I hear Nicole yell from the other side.

Sure enough, her door is unlocked. Something I'm constantly telling her not to do. Who cares if there's security on the ground floor? You never know what kind of people live near us.

On the other side of the door, Nicole is running around like a mad woman trying to pick up a million little messes. Her short brown hair was flying out in every direction. Overall though, she looked like the perfect woman. She was wearing a clean business suite and professional heels that suited her, even though she's already 5'11" without them.

"Cam and Miles are here, will you come put your shoes on now?" Nicole sighs, "I was really hoping some of Miles would rub off on Austin by now." She stalks off towards Austins room, threatening him with a grounding.

I really couldn't do what I do without her. It was rough the first few weeks when Miles and I moved here, not knowing anyone and trying to balance work and his life. But Nicole has been great, even though she's ten years older than me, we get on great. And Austin is a year older than Miles, so we saw each other at school often. Eventually she started offering to watch Miles when I had to work. She was my life saver.

Miles was sitting down on the couch, playing on his tablet when Nicole came dragging a grumpy looking Austin out of his room. Even though he was a year older, he was about the same height as Miles. But, he had brown hair that he liked to keep in a neat buzz cut. "Sorry, I know you need to get to work. Someone would rather ignore his mother and play video games all day."

Austin glared at the ground in response.

"It's fine. I still have some time, thank you so much as always, for watching Miles." I smile. Picking up on the cue, Miles comes over and gives me a hug, "Be good for Nicole tonight okay? I'll see you in the morning." I give him a kiss on the cheek before ruffling his hair.

"Good luck tonight, you'll do great." Miles kisses my cheek in response and then turns to Austin. They start talking about some video game and how to get past a level.

"I'll come by first thing in the morning like usual to get Miles." I say to Nicole.

"Of course! No problem. You're so lucky, I wish my son was so well behaved..." She sighed, "Anyways, have a good day at work! It sucks that they make you work so many doubles."

I just went with the assumption that Miles was my son. It was easier to explain that I had had him when I was a teenager than it was to tell the truth. At first he thought it was weird, but at this point he didn't even blink at it.

"Yeah, hopefully it'll be slowing down soon." I give Nicole a hug and say goodbye to Austin before leaving and heading down to the parking garage.

I unlock my car, a white Volkswagen Golf GTI ,and slide into the drivers seat. Nothing too fancy, but not too plain, and has just the right amount of speed. But, it also blends into most places that I go to. Like my day job for example.

I pull into a parking spot and quickly put my headphones in my ears to avoid talking to my co-workers. I preferred to keep to myself and not share any personal details. I was here to work, not to make friends.

I stepped in through the side door and walked through the garage until I got to my boss Shawn, "What do you have for me today?"

"Some college kid brought in his Mustang," Shawn put extra emphasis on his, conveying the general idea it was probably funded by 'mommy and daddy', "Said it was making some kind of noise when he drove it." He laughed at the vagueness.

Without a response or smile, I took the keys and headed out to the customer parking lot. Sure enough, there was a brand new, blue, Ford Mustang. No way that a kid could have bought it himself. I unlocked the door and slid in to drive it around the block.

By the time I was raising the car into the air, I had figured out the sound was just some loose bolts causing the exhaust to rattle around. I tie up my long brown hair before reaching into my toolbox.

From the corner of my eye, I notice Todd, another of my co-workers, heading straight towards me. I pretend that I hadn't just seen him and get to work on tightening the loose bolts.

"Hey there Cam." Todd smiles, "What are you doing tonight?" He glanced back at a group of other guys who were crowded together and failing to hide their laughter.

Todd was new, and while most of the guys had hit on me when I first started working here, they quickly learned to leave me alone. Just because I was a mildly attractive girl working in a mechanic's shop, didn't mean I was interested in any of them. Clearly, they hadn't been nice enough to share the news with Todd.

I looked at him to point at the headphones in my ears, feigning that I couldn't hear him. Causing him to try and repeat himself, but louder this time.

Ignoring him, I looked back under the car and turned so that he was looking at my back. I hoped he would get the hint and move on, but he just walked around the car lift so he was in front of me again.

Opening his mouth to try again, I cut him off. "I can hear you, idiot. Fuck off." I turn again so that I'm not facing him, but this means that I'm facing the rest of the guys who are all but rolling on the ground laughing.

The rest of the morning passes uneventfully. I eat my lunch outside of the shop at a picnic table. Drowning out the sounds of the city, I message Miles who is also on his lunch break at school.

He tells me about a new book they started reading in class, and that there is a science fair coming up. Smiling, I respond with how great that is, and encourage him to think up some project ideas he would like to do. I put my phone back into my pocket and head back to work shortly after.

I finish off the afternoon with a few oil changes and soon, it's time to clock out. Now it's time to get ready to head off to my second job, part of the double shift Nicole thinks I'm working.

While I feel bad lying to her, it just makes life easier for both Miles and me if people don't know too much about us.

A/N: Hope you guys enjoy Chapter One, I know it's a bit slow. But setting up characters takes a minute. It'll be getting exciting in another chapter or two! Like and comment below what you think so far!