Homeless

2.

Over the past few weeks, Jade slowly got to know every single person living in the home. Some had such terrible back stories leading to their new life, some had been recovering alcoholics or drug abusers, one or two still very much addicted. Coden worked extra hard with those men and women.

There were plenty of adults of all ages in the house, but Jade quickly narrowed down the three main ones in charge. The first was the biggest man, skin as dark as dirt itself, and always at battle ready with a pocket knife or ax in hand. His name was Ty, and even though his voice and expressions looked like he wanted to harm everyone, he loved the young ones just as much as Coden did.

The other was a woman, six months pregnant and still very much a leader. Ruth, that was her name, had told her in an interview they conducted that her husband had beat her so much she decided to have enough and run away with her baby, Morice, who was not even two months yet. She hadn't even realized she was pregnant again until her bump was showing.

That's when she met Coden. The third person in charge. He was in charge of well... everything. Ruth was the mother to all, teaching the younger ones and guiding the older. Ty acted like a protector, teaching everyone self defense from time to time.

Coden went to school everyday, went to his job and brought money to feed everyone and give them anything they really needed. Jade watched as absolutely everyone lit up when he walked in. And she certainly couldn't miss the smile on his face as he saw them.

It surprised her how much this eighteen year old did in a day. He helped Julia with her mental problems, the drug abusers, even scraped up enough money for Cassie to go to school.

He was like a prophet, she thought. Never in a million years would she have imagined he was this good of a person.

Even if the days were especially hard, he managed to scavenge enough food for all, even if it meant none for him.

She couldn't get enough of it. All of the people had been so kind to her, despite their up close and personal conversations. Especially Mama cj, they called her.

Her story was short and sweet, she was a crazy old lady gone mad and didn't want to spend her days In a home.

But besides that, Jade couldn't help but notice another thing. Over time, Coden had slowly started opening up to her more, and she even found herself laughing with him.

Their relationship had changed so quickly over a period of time, but Jade seemed to change the most.

She didn't hang out with her friends as often as she once did. Seeing what true friendship was like, she realized just as quickly that those girls were never truly her friends.

So she found herself hanging out with Coden even outside the project.

Eating lunch together, or helping each other with other classes.

She even found herself liking taking the train. She found out they could take It anywhere they wanted, anywhere at all. Coden told her how he wanted to travel the world one day, with nothing but a twenty in his pocket and the clothes off his back. Jade laughed, thinking it was a joke, but quickly realized that the crazy boy was dead serious.

Even though she liked the trains, it didn't mean she immediately became good at them. Everyday she would practice jumping off the 140mph train and landing. It was extremely dangerous, and sometimes hurt her legs incredibly badly, but Coden seemed to roll out like it was nothing.

One day, she jumped with him, and finally landed correctly. The both of them immediately smiled at each other, and hugged tightly as a celebration of not being drenched in the mud that always remained.

But of course, after a few seconds of hugging, the two of them immediately slipped in their embrace and both landed into the wet dirt.

And laughter erupted from both of them.

She didn't even realize that he was holding his arms up right besides her head, staring down at her. "I would love to have a mud bath here," He joked.

"Ew," Jade laughed so hard she snorted, shoving mud into his chest, making them slip more.

He fell right onto her, their chests touching and their smiles glowing. They seemed to realize how close they were on the train tracks, in the middle of nowhere, and yet they didn't care. Infact, he cupped her cheek, still looking down at her, their noses touching and their foreheads pressed together.

Jade's heart kept beating, and she loved the feeling.

So much so she repeated the moment for hours in her head, late into the night.

Another day, the girls of the home had been complimenting her cute rompers, as they always did with her clothing. Jade had told them how she thought their style was incredibly cute, but then immediately felt bad for realizing that they might've not had an option.

Instead of getting offended, however, the girls laughed and even offered her a makeover.

So a half hour later she looked into the mirror and saw herself in a completely different way.

Her hair was in braids, and her romper had been replaced with some very thick pants and an actual stunning coat, with fur on the inside. It was very old, and falling apart at the seams, but she could feel the love and hope that had been worn with it.

Coden had been out at the time, buying subs for everyone for dinner. When he came back he immediately noticed and paused in his tracks. She couldn't tell if he was mad or couldn't care less. She could immediately understand if he had been mad at her. Trying on the less fortunates clothes.

But he smiled, and looked over at Cassie, who was beaming with pride. "Who's responsible for this?" he sang, seeming to immediately know it was her. She grinned back at him, not bothering to hide it.

"It was me, but doesn't she look pretty? She looks good in anything!"

Coden, who had multiple bags of sandwiches in his hand, looked back at her. "She sure does." he said, nicely.