Beside You...

No one ever told me that life would be easy. In fact my mother told me at age five that my life would be a living hell. And she was correct about that. At age sixteen my parents kicked me out of the house for going to a party. I have been in and out if woman's shelters for about a year. I am struggling to keep my grades up at school and I guess you could say I am the 'bad girl' at school. Why? Because I party. And when I party I party hard. I never stop to think and maybe that will affect me but at the moment I couldn't give a damn.

I am Jasmine Hunter and my life is pretty fucked up. If your brave enough join the ride. But keep in mind there is a monster within me and any second I will break. How do you fix the screw up? You don't. You break them even more. The moral of this is that life is a fucked up place.

~

I walked along the sidewalk carrying the bag that held all of my belongings. I sat down on the curb across from the little shop that I always go to when I'm hungry. I opened my bag and pulled out a plastic cup. I set it down next to me and began to sing. Hopefully tonight I could make enough to buy an apple.

People kept walking past and every so often someone would stop and put a nickel or a dime in the cup. At seven o'clock I stood up and grabbed the cup. I peered in and saw that it was almost filled to the top. I smiled and headed across the street.

I opened the door to the shop that I never bothered to learn the name of. I walked along the aisles and spotted a display of apples. I grabbed on and headed to the register.

"Hello Jasmine." The old woman who owned the shop smiled at me.

"Hi." I said shyly.

"Ashton will ring you up." She said and called for the boy.

"Coming!" Someone called from the back of the shop. Soon a dirty blonde boy came to the register.

"A dollar fifty please." He said. I handed him the money and smiled. I grabbed my apple from the counter and walked to the door.

"You forgot this!" The boy called after me. He walked over to me and handed me the cup of change.

"I'm Ashton by the way."

"Jasmine."