Fade

Chapter Two

"We're broke," Christina said with a gusty sigh, throwing an empty Pringle's can that we used to hide our money at me. I ducked, letting the can hit the ground with a thunk. "What now?"

I was surprised we made it to late December with only eight hundred dollars. We spent around two hundred a month on food and a few other basic necessities.

Nobody was willing to hire Katrina, Christina, or me. Katrina and Christina both has their birthday pass in the near four months we had been on the streets, making Katrina 17. She would be a legal adult in no time.

It was already December twenty-eighth. Christmas passed and it was more than disappointing. We ate at a restaurant, the last thing we could afford to do, then slept out in the cold.

I was freezing, damp, starved, and all around exhausted. To make things even better, it was snowing again.

Waringston was beautiful and scenic from a window view, until you stepped outside and realized it was either sweltering or cold enough to turn you into an ice sculpture.

The sound of a car rushing by overhead caused me to look up.

Ever since Christmas, we had been staying on an abandoned road under a bridge. We'd been tight on money, so a hotel wasn't an option, and neither was a shelter after our last incident at one. All our other spots had been taken by homeless addicts or drug dealers.

"At least the scenery is nice," was what I first said when we found the spot. We were close to a bakery too, so it always smelled nice in the mornings. But by the afternoons, the sweet fragrance of peppermint and freshly baked desserts in the air was drowned out by the horrible scent of rotting food in the trashcan we were sleeping near.

Bahumbug.

The only things we had were the clothes on our backs, our duffle bags, a torn up blanket to share, and an empty Pringle's can.

Oh, and the constant fear plaguing us that we might not wake up after we fell asleep.

Katrina's stomach growled, breaking the silence. I met her eyes, the life they were once full of replaced with exhaustion.

Maybe we should have stayed with Miss Claudia...I think I'm ready to go back. Would she even take us in again? No. We'd be sent to a group home. Separate ones, probably.

"We could shoplift," Christina suggested. "That'll only get us so far, though...What do we do when we actually need money?"

"Rob a store," I muttered, only half joking.

Katrina glared at me, the look out of place on her sweet face. "That's too risky. I don't want any of us to get caught. We'd go to jail or a juvenile detention center."

"What about pickpocketing?" Christina asked.

I'd lost count of how many times Christina suggested pickpocketing. The problem was, none of us knew how to and we'd obviously get caught on the first attempt.

"Do you know how to pickpocket?" I countered.

"How hard could it be?"

Harder than my dad hit me, knowing our luck.

"Let's stick with the shoplifting idea for now."