Destructive (On Hold)

Alleycats

"Shit," I muttered, rubbing my face again. I could still feel the glass scratching my flesh, though I'd pulled it all out with tweezers an hour ago, after I finished my chores. It was nearly 9.00. Aunt and Uncle don't care when you go to sleep here, as long as we aren't loud. Again, I thought about Calypso. How I could join her if I wanted.She was the only thing on my mind since the night I met her. I found myself thinking that I'd rather be out on the streets than in here, but my captivity ensured Aunt and Uncle their glorious money. I looked in the mirror - a cracked old thing with a picture of a frog on the other side - and my face crumpled when I saw the noticeable red blemish covering my entire left cheek, where the glass had been. I was hideous. Ugly, ugly, ugly. But that was nothing new. I'd never liked my reflection.

Calypso would be pretty if she got the soot and muck off her face. If we were normal, if we both lived in suburbian homes with lovey-dovey parents who were lawyers and doctors, if we had friends and went to birthday parties, I'd give her a makeover. But we are not normal, deprived of the regularity so many people take for granted.

She's leaving today.

So?

You could get out of here.

Pfft, as if. My chances are about a million to one. Calypso can hold her own, and so will I.

You'll regret this opportunity.

I know. But she will be gone by now. Won't she?

I risked a glance out the window. They hadn't fixed it yet and I doubt they were going to do it for at least another month. They will make me freeze for my non-existent actions. The pale curtains flapped widly in the wind. My clothes were on the floor, dishevelled and carelessly strewn about. The window was wide open, the grass and the freedom mere feet below its edge. Why not?

Yes, why not?

It was seldom that I lost my train of thought and went through various motions while my mind disconnected, but this was a time where my head forgot and my heart forgot and I had nothing but my body and my feet to propell me around the room, collecting my few - VERY few - precious items or things I'd need on the way. I found myself drifting around, mentally farewelling the horrid room and imagining what wonders and obstacles lay beyond the window. Finally, my mind snapped open and I was gazing down at my bed, clothes folded neatly among other things in a mediocrely sized backpack. Looking around once more at my humble abode, I retreated and swung my backpack out the window. It landed with a thump on the soft ground mellowed by Uncle's constant watering of the garden. I quickly followed, swinging my hips out of the window, knocking stray shards of glass back into my room as I prepared for the jump. Swiftly, I plunged into the darkness, the descent lasting for only a second until my feet hit the ground, almost trodding on my bag.

All right. What next? The night was a dark around me, the ebony air interrupted be the small crevice of light the moon provided. Luckily, I had thrown a small battery torch in my pocket as I left.

A raspy laugh activated my paranoia. I stiffened, and turned to the source. Addie. She was a blonde teenager  and only a couple months away from her own legal freedom. She smirked at me and then took a drag on her cigarette and exhaled slowly. A perfect grey tendril rose up through the navy night, swivelling and squirming until it faded away. I watched Addie raise it to her lips again in awe - nobody was allowed out after 8.30 p.m in the orphanage, let alone to smoke. She must've stolen one of Uncle's.

"Good luck," she said. "You'll need it,"

"Thanks," I said breathlessly, even though someone with the mental capacity of a squirrel would have caught the sarcasm in her voice. I headed out of the yard, latching the gate behind me and heading to Calypso's alley.

I felt like a lone stray alleycat, waltzing through the streets in the darkness on my own. I wish I could say I was doing it without a care in the world, but my shoulders where heavily laden with the million burdens I was carrying. I worried until I felt the creases on my forehead becoming frozen together as the cold picked up its pace. Breathe in, breathe out. I watched my feet because they knew the way to the alley, which now would probably be empty as I'd been stupid enough to leave it too late. But then I heard a shuffling - like in Autumn when I have to wade through the leaves on the front steps to open the door that I wouldn't have to open anymore - and it startled me immensely. For all I knew, it could have been an axe murderer, or Aunt. I didn't know which was worse.

But the familiar stooped over, raggedy dark figure was scuffling with her worn sneakers and dodging roots that stuck out of the ground like land mines. I leaned my ear in the faint silhouette's direction and heard distant singing, she was humming to herself. Despite her seemingly optimistic attitude the first encounter I had with her, and seemed sad and lonely. Well, she wouldn't be for long. 

"Calypso?"

Her head snapped up, wild bedraggled black hair flailing wildly as her wide brown eyes rested on mine. Her solemn expression spread to a smile.

"Ruby! What are you doing out so late? Don'tcha got a family to go back to?"

I faltered momentarily, and then shook my head. "I've decided I want to come with you to... wherever it is you're going," I announced.

She raised her eyebrows incredulously. "Chicago. But the road's a dangerous place for someone the likes of you. I'm better off alone," Calypso replied, before turning her head back to the ground and dragging her feet towards the main road again.

"Well, I know a thing or two about traveling. And we're about the same age, just, just different circumstances," I stammered, "I could help you. There's nothing for me here."

"You don't know how lucky you are, Ruby," she sighed. I started after her, until I was walking hurriedly beside her, backpack stung over my shoulder, bulging with clothes and broken ornaments that I felt I needed to treasure.

"I'm not lucky," I said crossly. "My parents are dead and I live in a crappy, run down orphanage with second-hand clothes, expired food, bullies, and abusive foster parents. I don't get presents on my birthday. I don't have any friends, and my grades are descending like a rock dropped off the Grand Canyon. And I want to be with you, to be in the city where maybe I could find my share of fame and fortune."

Calypso ceased her shuffling, stared at me briefly, and embraced me for a long, long time. She smelt like seaweed crackers. It was a neutral smell. She was warm too, I noticed, perhaps the droopy leather coat she wore was an endless supply of insulation. "It's a dream, Ruby. I'm just a tad ambitious, yeah? But sure, follow me if ya like. You're not going to enjoy bein' homeless. It's not fun unless you have friends. That's why I make them all the time, no matter what age or anythin'. They're probably looking for some friends too. D'ya got any talents?"

"Er," I stated, bewildered. I hadn't been asked a question like that before. "Maths," I drawled. "Yeah, I can do maths. And I can play piano."

"Good!" she cried. "Good, I can sing and dance! I pleased Mrs. Marshall down the road when I danced for her. She said I reminded me of her granddaughter. We'll be a musical act!"

"Okay," I said, even though I really wanted to be a scientist when I grew up, or an inventor. Because it would be so cool to invent things or discover things, like cures for lethal diseases for I could imagine up creations that help people in everyday life. Then I'd make a lot of money and a lot of people happy. But I guess music does the same things, in some ways. Calypso was starry-eyed and emotionally distant, staring up at the sky with a small smile on her face, revealing her deep dimples.

"But," I interrupted her daydream, "we need money. Lots."

She waved the idea away like it was silly. "Nah. Haven't had a bill in my life and I've gotten by," she said.

I gaped at her. Surely, money runs the world? 

"Just gotta be friendly and people give ya stuff. Food and whatnot."

"And here I was, thinking that money outweighed love," I pondered.

"Oh, it does. Of course. Everyone wants money, money's on the mind. But'cha just gotta find the people that aint like that. There's very few, but enough for us."

I smiled at her and she returned the favour. And then we began to walk.