Which One's Which

Alone and Unloved

Miles:

I can't remember much before I was on my own, although I do remember waking up one day and my "family" being gone. I was once an only child, so I didn't think much of the disappearance until 3 days had passed. I was so young at the time. I believe I was 3 or 4 years old.

I wasn't quite old enough to remember any name. My parents mainly called me "kid". So eventually when I left my house, I knew that I needed one. Unfortunately, I was too young to know many names, so I lived a long time without a name.

It didn't really matter, because nobody ever bothers asking the name of a "lazy" homeless kid their name.

On the street I learned how to survive, but as I got older it got more and more difficult to beg. Anyone will feed a 4 year old, but as I aged people started to care less.

I've barely been getting by, with only one "meal" a week. When I say meal, I mean whatever scraps are thrown at me every once in a while.

A few months ago I was sitting on a curb in a nearby city, but I was forced to move due to a pride parade being set up. At the time, I had no idea what a "pride" was, but I felt like I should.

Consequently, instead of leaving as instructed, I found a place to hide inside of the area the workers were building a fence around. It took many hours, but when people started filling in the fenced area, I came out of hiding, and what I saw was gorgeous.

There were so many people dressed in bright colors, wearing different flags as capes, and painted faces. There were booths scattered everywhere, and there was music playing. Where I was hidden, I was able to hear the music and all of the people, but putting an image to it made it a thousand times more beautiful.

I started to notice people crowding along the fence to look at something, but I couldn't tell what. I tried to wedge myself around people to get a better view, though it was difficult. I just happened to be small and skinny enough to make it to the front. There were brightly painted vehicles, and people holding signs saying things like: "You are loved" and "Don't listen to their hate". It was truly inspirational to see so little hate. I wished it could never end.

After the parade was finished, I walked from booth to booth. Though, I spent the most time at a booth titled "Education 4 Allies".

They taught me a bunch of different expressions, and things you can say vs what cannot be said. They taught me what "gender" was, and how what I feel can be described as A-Gender. Although they said if I wasn't comfortable with labels they wouldn't try to give me one. Afterwards, this really nice person named Mya helped me come up with the name Miles. I felt like this name really suited me well, as in my life I have traveled so many miles to survive.

Mya helped me a lot. For the first time in a decade, I had somewhere to live. They helped me with my identity. They fed me 3 meals a day, and they were there to talk to me. They were the only person I could ever remember having a real conversation with. They were 17 while I'm around 14 years old. They graduated early, meaning they had their own apartment. They were like an older sibling to me.

Though, good times can't last forever. About 2 weeks later, their mom died. They had to move across the country to move back with their family, but they were unable to bring me along.

So here I sit on a curb waiting for someone to throw me some scraps or loose change. A person just walked past me, and I'm quite hungry, so I guess I'll just beg her for spare food.

"Miss, do you have any spare food? I haven't eaten in days."

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