Break Me If You Can (Anthony Padilla)

Chapter 11 || The Streets

We sprint out of the hotel as fast as possible, ignoring the people in the lobby giving us strange looks.

Anthony and I run a few blocks, our feet hitting the pavement, until we reach a small drugstore on the corner of a plaza.

"I think," I say, bending over and panting. "We'll be okay here for a few hours."

Anthony nods at me, and also takes multiple deep breaths.

We straighten ourselves and nonchalantly walk into the store.

Elevator music plays throughout the store.

It is basically empty, except for the one sleeping cashier.

We stroll through the aisles, picking out a few necessary things; sandwiches, water bottles, pills, t-shirts, and a few books and magazines.

I quickly put a 50-dollar bill on the cashier's counter as we walk out of the store.

And we head out, searching for a place to stay.

-Part 2-

After endless hours of trying, we still haven't found anywhere to spend the night.

"I give up," I say, throwing my hands up in the air. "We're mever going to find a place! Everyone here hates us!"

"Shh," Anthony says, placing his hand on my shoulder. "It's okay, Katia. Calm down. We can just sleep outside tonight. Um, its not that cold yet.."

I sigh, facing the facts.

"Fine," I breathe. "We can just stay in this alley."

I point to an alleyway a short ways in front of us.

Anthony nods and we walk to where we'll be spending the night.

I can tell that neither of us like this idea, but it seems that we have no other choice.

I sit down in the alley, leaning my back against one of the brick walls that surround us as Anthony lays out 2 small blankets qnd a few towels on the ground.

He digs in one of our suitcases and pulls out two sweatshirts.

"Here," he says, throwing one at me. "At least we'll be warm."

We smile weakly at each other.

I pull the sweatshirt over my head and lie down on the makeshift bed.

Anthony lies down next to me and we huddle together for warmth.

Not knowing what to expect the next day, we fall asleep in the chilly L.A. night.