DROWN YOUR DEMONS | "i've loved you since we were children, i just didn't realise it until now."
Toby McAllister was just like any other troubled teen. With a sharp toungue and glare that could cut glass, few dared to see past the sarcastic remarks...
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Toby grimaced as she rode her bike through the north side of Kildare island. She'd always thought everything was just too perfect on the figure eight. The roads were paved and smooth, her wheels gliding seamlessly over the flat surface. Identical bushes lined the sidewalk, trimmed so meticulously that there wasn't even a single leaf out of place. She passed driveway after driveway, all leading to the same white walls and clean glass of the three story houses.
With her unkept hair, second hand clothes and rusted bike, the teen felt as though she stuck out like a sore thumb. She didn't belong in a place like this, and the hostile glares shot her way by every kook she passed by only supported her thoughts.
But despite her distaste for the figure eight — and everyone who lived on it — there was no denying its usefulness in her day to day survival.
The faded green rucksack was heavy on her back, filled to the brim with all the essentials she and her dad would need for the week. Toby had long since gotten over the moral dilemma of stealing. She remembered when her dad had first set her to the task, legs shaking and palms clammy. She had gotten all of two steps into the convenience store before hightailing it out and running back to her father with tears streaming down her face.
'Toughen up, Toby' he had said, a firm grip on her bony shoulders. 'Those assholes shit money, they ain't gonna miss nothing we take.'
Surprisingly, Fred's words were, for once, helpful. All these years later, she had absolutely no qualms in taking what she needed, and maybe a bit extra for fun. The kooks who owned the shops would hardly notice a few groceries going missing, and it certainly wouldn't impact their financial status. Besides, if simply being born on the cut meant, in their opinion, she was a no good degenerate teen, then she might as well live up to the expectation. What was the point in trying to change their minds when it was already made up the second they saw her?
Toby was in the middle of gaping in disbelief at a literal water fountain in someone's driveway when her phone buzzed. She had to steal food to eat, and they had a fucking water fountain. She fumbled to take it out of her pocket and keep the bike steady, but she managed to put the old phone to her ear without embarrassing herself by flying over the handle bars.
She didn't bother to read the name of her caller, there was only two people who ever called her. One was her dad, but it wasn't six pm so he was either passed out somewhere or too high to work his phone, which meant that it could only be—
"Yooo, T-Dog. Where you at?"
Toby rolled her eyes at the hyper voice on the line, but she couldn't stop the smile that inevitably spread across her face whenever she heard the voice of her best friend.
"Chill out JJ, I had some shit I needed to do, I'm like five minutes away." She responded, purposefully not mentioning exactly what she had been up to that morning. It wasn't like the blonde was against a little thievery, god knows he had no moral high ground to stand on, but for some reason he never liked it when she risked trouble if he wasn't right there by her side.
