Our Boys

On the Streets Pt. 2

One year earlier on the streets of London:

Three pairs of eyes watched hungrily as the man in blue jeans and a black t-shirt placed the bag into the bin in the McDonald's car park. The first pair of eyes was distracted momentarily by his younger friend pulling his knees to his chest and trying to tuck his bare feet under his shirt to warm them.

Josh looked back to the bin, knowing he would have to hurry. A couple of homeless men had moved in on their territory and Josh and Ethan were too small to do anything about it. More than once the man with the scraggly beard had stolen the leftovers that Josh had scavenged from the bin. Josh wasn't about to let him steal this bag. He was hungry and it looked like the man who dropped the bag had barely eaten anything and put a full bag in the bin.

The dark haired boy looked around carefully, making sure scraggly beard wasn't in sight, then darted to the bin and reached inside. He snatched the bag, which was surprisingly heavy and walked quickly back to where his friend sat.

"Come on Ethan. We better go home before they find us."

"Okay," Ethan complied. He stood up and trotted barefoot next to his best friend as they walked towards their 'home.' "Is it good stuff?" asked Ethan. "I'm hungry."

"Come on," urged Josh, walking a little faster. He had the creepy feeling that someone was watching them.

...

The third pair of eyes cursed softly. It was just his fucking luck that some homeless kid would stumble across the drop. Big John would kill him if he didn't show up with the money. It would be easy enough to just grab the bag from the kid, but there were people around and the only thing that riled Big John more than losing some of his drug money was drawing attention to his operation. He'd wait. He'd follow the runt and teach him a little lesson as well as getting his money back.

...

Josh looked back again. He was still there. The man in the leather jacket had been following them since they left McDonald's. Josh pulled on Ethan's hand and hurried faster.

"Ow, Josh!" Ethan protested, unaware of any danger.

"Run Ethan!" Josh hissed, pulling him into the street as a bus roared past. He pulled Ethan as fast as the bare feet would carry the other seven year old and they hurried around the corner into the alley, and crawled quickly into the window well. Josh pushed open the window and pressed Ethan inside. He winced as he heard the crate fall and Ethan's yelp of pain. He didn't mean to hurt the boy, but they had to get out of sight quickly. He slipped through the window, dangling his feet for the crate, but all he found was air, and so he reluctantly dropped from the ledge, more frightened of the man outside than the fall to the floor.

Josh gasped as he hit the floor, a piece of a broken crate digging into his side. Ignoring it, he moved quickly, accidentally scratching his arm on a nail in his rush to hide.

Ethan was shaken up by the fall from the crates that they had stacked to be able to reach the window, their entrance and exit from their 'home', but he knew when Josh said to do something, he was to do it quickly and without question. His heart pounded as he crawled behind the big crate in the corner and squished over so Josh could get into the tiny space as well. He pressed his forehead against his knees, hoping in vain if he couldn't see the bad thing, it couldn't see him either. He felt Josh press tightly against him and could hear the other seven year old breathing hard.

Josh peered around the end of the crate, watching the small window that was the entrance to their home, the basement of a rarely used building. He saw feet pause beside the window briefly, but they moved past. A few minutes later, they passed a second time going the opposition direction, but didn't stop. Josh waited another ten minutes before he moved out from behind the crate.