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It was cool outside. Somewhere in between walking around with a hoodie if someone preferred it or just a tank. I wished I had a jacket. Kelly had brought me two hoodies she couldn't quite fit anymore. They were balled up in my bag. I now wished I had kept one out for a time like this. The feeling of security a simple jacket could bring. Much like my backpack. It was really the only reason I kept it around.
Mr. Phoenix was in a sleek black SUV idling along the curb. The sky was noticeably darker which I'm guessing is the reason he had his high beams on. The few steps it took to reach the curb somehow felt like an entire staircase and the steps after that felt like a marathon walk. I approach the vehicle looking both ways before I got in. It was only six in the evening but the streets were empty.
I could make a run for it. Just go. A voice in my head was telling me but get into the car or bolt down the alley next to the abandoned building a few feet away wasn't specified. It felt like everything was going all too slow. From the time I actual open the door to getting in. It felt like hours. Like my hand was moving impossibly slow and body was that of a snails.
I gingerly get inside the vehicle closing the door with a soft click. I press myself against the door. Feeling impeccably small. The beige and black interior made it look sophisticated in the only way it could accompanied by the febreze car fresheners that were all too strong for my liking. Mr. Phoenix was in the drivers seat one hand on the wheel looking almost as uncomfortable as I felt. He clicks his seatbelt off.
"I forgot to give Kelly something."
He gets out the car. Nothing in his hands. He wasn't a good liar at all. I take in the space. There wasn't much to it. Two seats in the front that had much room, and the two sets of back seats. Eight seats in total. It's as am I'm looking around I notice the black wallet on the center console. Either he really left it or this was a test. I take my chance and open.
License registered to: Derrick Graham Phoenix, 6'2, brown hair, hazel eyes, 225 lbs. The rest was his address which was in Chelsea, Manhattan. Definitely a place I had never ventured towards. I kept myself in the lower east side. Where there were hot dog stands every time you turned the corner. Construction almost every week. The rancid sewer smell was always prominent.
I look out the window. He showed no signs he was coming out soon. The smell of his cologne wafted through my nose as I sift through his wallet. It smelled expensive and it had to of been being that he was carrying six hundred dollars on his person along with various credit and debit cards. I could take it. All of it. Or just the money. I could take it and run. Buy myself a ticket out of this state. Start new.
I was contemplating it. I really was. It would all be so easy. Take the money, live in the streets or maybe leave and live on the streets in a place that doesn't get cold. So easy. Too easy. Maybe that's what he was expecting. Maybe that's what he wanted. He probably didn't want to take me in, in the first place. How could he have said no to sweet, pregnant, Kelly? Who just leaves their expensive wallet out with a stranger in their vehicle.
