Abandoned

chapter two.

I stand at the bottom of the steps as Justin Bieber comes strolling into the room. I never knew Mrs. Mallette was his mom.

He used to tease me in elementary school, and then in the 9th grade I was paired up with him for a science project and he was impossible, insisting that he was right about what chemicals to put in the volcano to make it overflow, but he ended up causing it to blow up and a kid had to go to the ER to get his eye scraped. We failed, obviously.

After that, we had never spoken. He has a lot friends and good grades and is ridiculously hot. I don't like him. His dark brown eyes or scruffy brown hair sticking up in different directions, or the tattoos running up the length of his arms. Nope, not one bit.

His constant smug, cocky expression disappeared when he saw us and was replaced by a confused one.

"This is Rayna and Rose, they're going to be staying with us tonight." She said nicely like it wasn't a big deal. I wonder if she makes it a habit to pick homeless kids up off the side of the road. "Can you show them to the guest room?"

He still looked a little confused, but he shrugged and said "Sure, follow me."

Rose and I trailed behind Justin as we made our way up the carpeted steps.

"Just out of curiosity, can I ask why you guys are here?" He glanced back and asked.

"We don't-" Rose started to talk before I covered her mouth with my hand. Wow, she is talkative today.

"Long story." I said. He gave me a weird look, but turned around and walked into a room. It had it's own bathroom and a queen bed, a little Tv on the wall and a dresser with a giant mirror. It took about three seconds for Rose freak out.

"Oh, wow!" She yelled, running around the room then up onto the bed. "It's so nice!" She jumped up and down.

"Rose, don't jump on the bed." I said while standing against the wall, already feeling uncomfortable.

"It's cool. That's what they're for, isn't it?" Justin smiled at Rose.

"Yeah, Ray!" She exclaimed like Justin was some kind of God who I should be taking notes from. I rolled my eyes.

"Um, dinner should be ready soon so you guys can come down whenever." Justin said.

"Thanks." I said bluntly, probably coming off rude. I wish I had the energy to care. He just nodded and walked out.

"Rose..." I said after shutting the door. She stopped jumping. "What did I tell you about talking about where we live?"

"But if you didn't have your car, where would we sleep?" She plopped down into the bed.

"I could have scraped up enough to get a hotel room. We would've been fine. We will be fine. It was nice of Mrs. Mallette to let us stay here but don't get used to it, okay? The less people we get involved with the better, yeah?"

"I guess." She shrugged and gave me a small smile. She couldn't understand. I wish I didn't have to be so restricting of her, but it's only to keep her safe.

"Only a few more months. Then you can say hello to a nice new bedroom of your own." She smiled wider.

"Like this one?"

"Even better."

Once Rose was watching a TV show I went downstairs to see if there was food ready. If we were staying here we might as well take advantage of an actual meal instead of gas station or fast food garbage.

I started to walk towards the entry way that looked like it would be the kitchen but stopped when I heard Justin talking. I side-stepped and pretended to look at the pictures on the wall. Justin was a cute kid, and there was a man in a lot of the pictures, probably his dad. I wonder where he is now since he doesn't seem to be around.