Not Broken

One: I'm the VICTIM!

ROMEY'S POV

"What about that guy?" my roommate/only friend in the world Acid asks, pointing at a guy in his mid 40s who's wearing entitlement like its the peak of fashion. His entire demeanor screams "entitled douche bag" and I get a sudden overwhelming urge to wipe the smug look off his face as he waits for his food in a cafe across the street from us.

"his watch is probably worth every penny I made last year." I get up from the table we were sitting at outside of a Starbucks. I study the man for a couple seconds noticing how he fidgets with his watch every 30 second or so. he seems terrified to lose it which makes my job 10 times harder. "he checks his watch too often for me to be able to snag it and get far enough away for him to not see me when he notices its gone." I think for another couple seconds and come up with a good plan. Acid will hate it but thats his problem not mine. "We're gonna have to do a 'you took my wallet' distraction."

he glares at me. "I HATE doing those bro! they get too much attention."

"I didn't realize your acting skills aren't good enough to distract him for 3 minutes while I hop in an Uber." I turn away so he can't see my grin when he grumpily agrees to the plan.

"here you go asshole."

I pocket his wallet and start heading across the street to a place where I'll be walking towards him as he leaves with the cafe. I pull out my phone pretending to be so distracted by it that I run into the man and grab his left arm tightly pretending to almost fall as I deftly undo his watch off his right wrist and then slip Acid's wallet into his pocket after I release his arm. I profusely apologize for my "clumsiness." he looks at me like I'm the dirt on dirt's shoes and then acts like I don't exist. what a douche bag!

i melt into a group of pedestrians as soon as he glances away from me and turn into the nearest alley and discreetly watch as Acid barely bumps into the man and then keeps walking as if nothing happened. Acid pauses not even 3 steps later and yells loud enough for people in a different state to hear. "Give me back my wallet ASSHOLE!"

Douche Canoe turns around, instinctively checking his watch, then realizes he's watch-less and looks ready to murder Acid. "What did you do with my watch you little shit?"

"EXCUSE ME?! What did I do with your watch?! what did you do with my wallet?!"

My Uber driver texts saying they'll be here in two minutes so Acid has to keep His Royal Highness of Entitlementia  occupied until I get in it because right now the memory of bumping into me is in the process of being permanently forgotten but if he sees me again today he'll remember and realize i'm the one who stole his watch.

the argument is still going strong and both men will probably have sore throats tomorrow from their screaming match.

"I DONT HAVE YOUR WALLET GIVE ME MY WATCH!!!"

my uber just pulled up at the other end of the alley so I whistle once as loud as possible so that Acid knows to end the fight and disappear.

"Okay asshole!! lets both empty our pockets then!! it'll prove to these nice folks that I'm the VICTIM here," Acid immediately empties every pocket and basically gives himself a pat down in front of the crowd of nosey fucks--I mean pedestrians. "see! no watch! your turn!."

Suited Douche starts emptying his pockets shaking with rage and freezes when he pulls out Acid's wallet. since the show is basically over I jog over to my Uber and start heading to my fences house. Acid will make his way back to our shitty apartment and we'll split the cash I get for the watch 50/50 then go to a different area of town steal a few wallets and stay out of this area for a month or so. screaming matches are fun to watch but they're also memorable so we can't afford Acid being accused of stealing in front of anyone that was on the street today because that's too suspicious.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ later that night

"Damn I cant believe we made 3 grand each in 15 minutes" Acid jumps around the apartment a stupid grin on his face. "I'll never understand how people work 9-5 when they could be doing this."

"dude you need to shut up about how much money we have in here!" I whisper yell at him. we live in THE shittest, sketchiest, jankiest, most dangerous apartment imaginable. there are zero locks on the doors and windows the walls are paper thin and have holes in some places meaning we are blessed with the noise of our neighbor's every move. we pay rent weekly and everyone in this building is either a criminal, broke drug addict, was homeless last week but managed to scrape together enough money to stay in this hell hole for a week, or about to be homeless again because they can't afford rent. announcing that two kinda scrawny 21 year old guys have 6 grand in their lockless apartment was more dangerous than begging a serial killer to murder you in your sleep.

"fuck you're right," Acid whispers looking so remorseful I consider giving him a hug but then forget the idea when my stomach growls and I realize we have no groceries because we spent all the money we had yesterday paying rent and phone bills.

"I'm going to get us some food. stay here and run to our meeting place if all hell breaks loose," I hate leaving him alone because out of the two of us I'm the only one who can fight but we need food and no way in hell are we walking around with 3 grand in our pockets or leaving the money after Cid stupidly announced we have it.

"ok survive."

"Ditto," living on the street for the past 10 years has taught me that no matter how hard me and Acid try to protect each other shit will inevitably hit the fan so we decided that instead of "goodbye,"   "I'll miss," or "stay safe" we'd just promise to try to survive. we both know one of us could get killed at any moment. thats a fact of life for homeless people who steal from strangers for a living. so we just promise to fight like hell to survive.

Walking down the street at 10 o'clock at night is stupid and I know I should've gone shopping earlier but my fence, Will, took longer than usual because she didn't have enough cash and I refused to leave without all of it. I guess it'll just be a late night.

I glance over at a familiar looking car driving by me. I spend the next 10 minutes trying to figure out whose car it was then hear a noise behind me and then everything goes blank.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ the next day

pain.

wait...why the fuck am I in pain?

someone slaps my face and pours a liquid that smells like piss, but hopefully isn't, on my face. I open my eyes and immediately want to be unconscious again.

"hello pretty boy, how was your nap?" a man I begged god to never make me see again asks.

"Damian?" he nods an evil smile on his face. apparently god answers everyone else's prayers and ignores mine. great.

"where've you been Romey? you were supposed to bring me the money you stole on a job that you did 6 months ago but disappeared instead. I thought you died but apparently you've been living your life happily ripping me off. well let me tell you something," he bends down so he's right next to my ear. "you're gonna wish you died 6 months ago long before I'm done with you."

he punches me and everything thankfully goes black again. my last thought is me hoping Acid can survive without me. he's a good person who doesn't deserve to be homeless. he deserves to live.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

for the next year and a half my days follow a simple pattern of. wake up, get the shit kicked out of me, steal at least $100 dollars without causing a scene, eat whatever spoiled food Damian wants to torture me with, have "sex" with whoever wants to fuck me, get the shit kicked out of me if I try to say no, pass out from pain and exhaustion. repeat the next day.

every fucking day.

the only thing keeping me alive is the fact I promised Acid I would survive. I don't know what happened to him and I'm not killing myself until I know he's safe.

A/N 1,495 words. Holy shit I didn't know I could write that much! haha :)

thanks for reading!!! stay safe <3