Perfect Illness || lookism x reader

17. Escapades

Extra long chapter cuz i'm procastinating on finals!!!

Jace kneeled down and dipped a finger in the red puddle. "What is she up to?" he murmured to himself, inspecting the blood. "She can't get away forever," he reassured Vasco. "We'll see her on Monday."

""""""""""

YN, incidentally was not actually in school the next day. She had in fact spent the day skirting God Dog territory, hoping to apologize, but not quite knowing how. Her black hoodie now carried a distinct shade of red as she would duck into allys and have to deal with an onslaught of memories.

None of them were particularly significant to her, just random snippets of her life of the street. Apparently her photographic memory found it necessary to return every single detail. THe life threatening moment on the fire escape? Just one of the many escapades that she had done, many of which she had seen today whenever there was a nosebleed.

The memories seemed to come in phases. Whenever something similar happened or something that reminded her of the memory, they would return. And running from Jace and Vasco had triggered every single time she had run from someone or something.

At least she knew essentially how she used to make money to survive for two years between leaving her the fam and Big Deal. It was usually swindling people, pickpocketing, rigged games, or busking and stealing from them. And it was often with other street children. Their faces hadn't quite returned to her, but she wondered if she would ever see them again.

Finally it was around the time school ended and YN wanted to burn the bloody hoodie before Eli returned home. She dumped it in the dumpster outside of their flat before entering for a long shower.

As the water splattered on her head and flowed over her body staining the shower floor a watery red, YN thought about what she would do now. She felt strangely restless. How had she lived without the thrill of a fight for so long? She was so...bored.

As she began to scrub her body free of the metallic scent of blood, her mind was blank of possibilities. When she had been at Big Deal, there had been a plethora of tasks for her to complete in order to keep the street running and safe. That's all she remembered. She didn't remember how she had got there, how she had met Sinu, or anyone else for that matter. For some reason, none of the memories from the Big Deal era had returned. Which was quite depressing granted that those were the memories she valued the most. At least she was regaining some of her survival skills.

She changed into clean clothes, but was disappointed to find that she no more black hoodies. She was tempted to go fish her old one out of the dumpster but then decided that Eli would not permit the stinky blood-soaked garb into the house.

YN sighed, grabbed her phone and walked out. She didn't want to be home when Eli was. She decided to go find another hoodie until her shift at Star Coffee began. She didn't want to think about how Jace would grill her. Her finger flickered over her phone, tempted to call in sick. Slowly, she walked to a nearby mall, feeling exposed without her usual hoodie. She browsed various stores and still didn't find the just right one. She sighed sitting on a bench in a quiet store. Nothing would ever match up to the Big Deal clothing stores, she supposed. The other hoodies also fit so weird, or had burrs already, or were meant for people a lot skinnier than she was. Bruh, at this rate I should make my own.

Wheels in her head started spinning. Maybe I should make my own. Already her fingers were dialing the manager's number to call in sick. Then she began running to Wright's office because she had a great idea.

***

"YN."

"Oh hi Vasco!" YN waved cutely, hoping he would have forgotten her great escape. She hadn't been in school for a week, and had moved her shifts around to avoid Jace. Vasco walked silently over, grabbed her tray of food, and set it down on a table. Then he intertwined his calloused fingers with hers and sprinted out of the cafeteria, yanking her along. The force almost pulled YN's arm out of her socket, but she ran along too. "Vasco! Wait! Stop!"