Because Mom Wasn't Enough

Got kicked out of your hotel and lost your shoes

I walked along the sidewalk with my bag slung over my shoulder. The weekend was the hardest, I had no where to go during the day. I slept in alleyways and ate whatever I could. I had only left a few days ago, and I had been on my own in the streets before, but I almost always had Cali with me. I thought about going back, but I couldn't even look at Sam right now. He had always been a little hot-headed, but I never expected that.

I turned into an alley and saw an abandoned graffiti attempt. Spray cans littered the ground, and there were two handkerchiefs thrown away in their haste. Two people. I shook the cans of pray paint and most of them were almost completely full. It was starting to get dark, so I took one of the handkerchiefs and the paint cans and put them in my bag.

I continued wandering around the city looking for a good place to leave my mark. I found a few good places and decided to start on a blank white wall of a factory building. I waited for the streets to clear out a little. I wrapped the handkerchief around my face to avoid the paint fumes. I uncapped the red paint and started spraying the wall.

I painted the same heart with the ribbon wrapping around it that I tattooed on Tony on a bigger scale, but I changed the lyrics. This time it said "Enough's Enough, We're Done!" It may have been a stab at Sam, but that's okay because he's not my problem anymore.

By the time I finished it, I had only used about half of the paint and it only took me around two hours, so I decided I could risk one more painting.

I repeated my painting on the other side of the city, but this one only took me about an hour. In it I wrote "I'm A Chemical Kid" But as I finished up the lyrics I heard sirens blaring and blue and red lights flashing. There was no doubt they were coming for me. I dropped the can and ran in the opposite direction.

I heard people running behind me and yelling. I turned into another alley.

"...Footprints!" What? Footprints!? I looked down and realized my shoes were covered in paint. I turned a corner and quickly yanked off my shoes and kicked them away. I couldn't carry them, and I was quieter without them anyway.

I turned out of the alley and onto a main road...the last thing they would expect. I crossed the street and slowed to a walk. I must have lost them by now. I turned down one more street, quickly glancing behind me, although knowing all too well no one would dare follow me here. At least none of those cops. They were from the wealthy part of the city; me, not so much. I knew where I was, Bulldog territory. Bulldog was a gang leader, and let's just say doesn't do legal things too often. And let's just assume that the cops are too afraid of the rest of the gang to bother with this side of town. Thankfully, I knew Bulldog, and his gang. I was actually in the gang for a while, but Bull kind of likes me and thought it was 'too dangerous' for me to get mixed up with 'his crowd.'

I always came to Bull when I needed a place to stay. He was literally my favorite person in the world. Just finding him was the problem. They always had some sort of headquarters kind of place, but that changed every couple of weeks for security reasons, and I hadn't been here in a while. I walked by a street lamp and saw something on the wall of a building near me. I walked over to it and traced my fingers around in the red splatter. It was blood. A symbol was drawn above it, and it wasn't a Bulldog symbol.

Something terrible happened. I wasn't in either gang, but the fact that I came here for Bull put me in more danger than I was comfortable being in. I had to get out of there quick. I only had one more place I could possibly go: my mom's.