The Fire Escape

Chapter Six (Lucy, Lany, and Lacy)

        This didn't mean we were dating.  Although Luke took to calling me baby, sweetheart, and muffin (not sure about that last one.)  I protested thouroughly.  He was not my boyfriend!  Luke was bad news.

        Luke has been my best and only friend for two years now.

       He has three sisters; Lucy,-21, Lany-13, and Lacy -5 (my father was not the only one with a unique way of naming children.)

        When he was little he and his sisters moved around in the foster system for awhile until his mother was able to get him back when he was twelve.  When Luke turned fourteen his mom married a low-life jack-off who isn't the nicest to Luke or his sisters.  Luke is now sixteen.  He'd put up with his stepdad for the entire time I've known him now.

        They all still lived at home.  Lucy has been moving in and out with every guy she's met while the other two girls are stuck at home.

        When I was thirteen and Luke was fourteen he tried to break into my house.  He had climbed the fire escape on a snowy night and happened upon my room which was empty and looked abandoned.  My mom and I had justed moved to the city from the suburbs.  I walked in my room carrying boxes and saw a lanky awkward looking boy laying on my floor shivering.  I didn't tell my mom.  I gave him a blaked and let him stay the night and we've been best friends ever since.  It's never been complicated.

        He's pretty much the only person I ever talk to besides Vega.

        I thought about her letter.  I would be going to Arkansas soon.  It's October.  My couple months would be cut short due to this poetry contest in January.  I've never writen a decent poem let alone read one aloud.  Maybe the south would inspire me.

        "Mom!"  It has been two days since Luke and I KISSED kissed and it was getting colder in Chicago.  The Arkansas air could do me some good.  I thought of Luke in the alley.  It would start snowing soon and he wouldn't have anywhere to stay.

        Mom didn't yeall back which either meant she wasn't home or she was waiting to speak with me in an 'inside voice.'

        "Mom,"  I said again entering the kitchen.

        "Yes?"

        "Vega said in her last letter that..."

        "Yes," she cut me off.

        "When do I leave?"

        "Whenever you'd like I suppose.

        "How about after Halloween?"

        She looked kind of sad that I wanted to leave that long before Thanksgiving but she nodded and left the room saying, "I'll call your father so he can contact the other school and let them know you're coming back for a few months."  She was reffering to a little parent run school that took me in when I spent long periods of time with my dad.

        I opened the window once I returned to my room and a gust of cold air met my face.  I climbed down the fire escape.  I don't think my mom would have minded me going out and I probably could went out the front door but I've become so accustiomed to using the escape that it didn't occure to me. 

        I roamed the alley for awhile looking for someone I knew.  The only person I ran into was the homeless person who often tried to sell Luke and I drugs outside the adult book store.  I've never done drugs before evenm thought the homeless man assured  me they were wonderful.  I don't know about Luke though.  I'm not sure what he does or who he hangs around with when he's not in my alley.

        Anyway, I told the man no and walked over to a park to feed some filthy pigeons.  But when I got there Ashley and her "crew" travelled in their usual pack taking selfies or whatever girls who can afford smart phones and Ugg boots do.  I tried to walk away but I head someone yell my name.

        "Hey Trinity! Where're bae??"

        "Trinity-August you did not tell me you have a boyfriend!" Ashley said this as if we were good friends and she was intitled to know such things. 

        "He's not my boyfriend."

        "Why would Leslee lie?"

        "He sprung her from poetry club on Friday," it sounded like she was tattling.

        "He's not my boyfriend," I repeated.

        "Well who is he then?  Is it Eddy?  He's kinda gothy." Ashley thinks she's a match maker. And I'm not a goth....

        "Who's Eddy?" I asked.

        "Oh my gosh.  It's totes Andy right??  He writes for the school paper.  It makes sense that you'd date a writer!"

        "I don't know who Andy is either... and I don't have a boyfriend."

        "It's not Andy.  I don't think he goes to school with us.  I've never seen him before Ashley.  Cutie bad oy type! Probably does drugs or something,"  Lesless felt the need to add this into the conversation.

        "Luke doesn't do drugs," he might have. But I wasn't going to let her insult him.  But I knew as soon as the words left my mouth that I shouldn't have said anything.

        "Luke?" Ashley asked.  She was intrigued by my life.  It angered me how much pleasure she was getting from this.  My life had nothing to do with hers.

        "I've got a bus to catch." I left the park and sat on the bus stop bench and Ashley and her friends followed.  Thankfully there WAS a bus pulling up.  So I got on.  I wasn't sure where this bus let off at but I didn't care.