Murphy's Law ✔️

Chapter Five.

February, 2020.

"Don't you ever get tired of this life, Kitty?"

The question was asked almost desperately by Murphy, who was laying across the park bench with her head in her friend's lap. The older girl, Kitty, shrugged and continued to braid the top of Murphy's head with expert fingers.

"Sometimes I do, but then again, I don't know another life," Kitty responded, her dark eyes watching her fingers.

Murphy sighed. "Exactly. Don't you want to... Y'know, learn more about the world? Do something you really love? Maybe even find someone to share it all with?"

Kitty smiled down at the girl, her burgundy colored lips stretching across her slender face. "As lovely and wonderful as that all sounds, dear, the real world isn't much better than ours is. It's tough and competitive and lonely. At least where we are now, we have protection."

Murphy huffed at that, squinting her eyes- one of which framed by a dark bruise- up at the girl. Kitty frowned in apology.

"There's no protection," Murphy argued gently, "they don't care about us. Zayn doesn't care about me and Louis doesn't care about you. They just house us and use us for our money."

"And what makes you say that?"

"If it were any different, for one, we'd have days off," Murphy started, licking her dry lips, "and two, they'd allow us to go to school and further ourselves for the better. Instead, we have curfews, allowances, and we get treated like shit. We're overworked and we don't even get to keep the money we make," Murphy continued, her stomach burning with the rush of ranting. Kitty sighed and halted her braiding, looking down at the younger girl.

The two had met a few years prior, when Zayn took Murphy to an 'outing' and introduced her to his best mate, Louis, another pimp who was apart of the gang they affiliated themselves with. Standing beside Louis was a gorgeous, dark skinned girl who stood about four centimeters taller than Murphy with wild, curly hair on her head. She had wonderfully white teeth framed by plump lips colored burgundy with a dress to match. Needless to say, Murphy felt like a dumpster standing next to the should-be model.

The girls were able to sneak away from their dates for the night for a few minutes and huddled up on a bench outside the venue, talking and catching up on what each of their lives entailed. Murphy learned that Kitty was born in Paris and moved to London when she was a child where both of her parents passed away due to illness. She was thrown into the foster system at a young age and once she got out, she met Louis and the rest was history. Kitty was four years older than Murphy and spoke with a faint French accent that had slowly dissipated over time. The two of them then requested to see each other more and more over the years and had grown remarkably close, even going as far as working the streets as a unit for further protection.

And so, after all the years they'd known each other, Kitty became sort of like the older sister that Murphy never had. She looked down at the blonde girl then with that familiar look in her eyes- it could've been pity, but it also could've been sympathy.

"Angel, my dear," Kitty sighed, placing a hand on her cheek and running her thumb gently across the bruise under her eye, "of course I've thought about ditching this life. But you have to understand, you need a back up plan. If you don't have someone out there waiting for you, you may not make it. It's cold here in London and if you go on your own you could get sick- or even freeze to death. You've seen the people that roam these streets- granted, a lot of them are good, but there's so much bad out there. You would have to be very careful," Kitty warned, looking into her eyes. Murphy's shoulders slumped as she considered telling Kitty about her new friend.