SALLY
The dark had covered the city and the only thing that lighted up was those take-away-food-shops around. I was hungry but my pocket was empty. The only thing I had in my pocket was my phone, that was almost dead, and my smoke. As I searched for money in my pocket, over again, I got teased by the smokebox. I took it out and fired a cigaret, slowly breathing in the relaxing shit. I didn't care anymore. The only ones that actually helped me in my life, had thrown me out. They didn't want to see me anymore. They told me they were disappointed. What about me? I was disappointed as well, but now I didn't give a shit. I stared out in the rain as I breathed in the smoke one more time. The little roof I was standing under was covering me, but the rain was splashing down just centimeters away. I stood there alone, breathing in smoke every once in a while, a really short while though. I had no place to go, no place to stay. Why was I here at all? Couldn't they just killed me in the try to get me out of their house? I didn't need to live anymore. They knew that. They knew that they were my only fucking life.
As I throw my smoke away I pulled my phone out of my pocket. 23% left. I scrolled through all the numbers on my phone, even I knew I didn't have anyone at all to call. I put it back in my pocket and looked around. I needed to find a place to stay, at least for the night. I pulled my phone out of my pocket again and opened google maps. I scearched from where I was standing, to see if it was some kind of a place I could sleep tonight, that didn't cost anything.
Two lights hit the corner of my eye and before I got to put my phone in my pocket I pulled out my thumb and made a gesture. The big car with faded glass stopped in front of me and rolled down the window. Loud music and a grey haired man with big, circled glasses, and wide open eyes staring at me, was what met me. He was wearing something that seemed to be the 70's clothes, and his hair was in a ponytail. His glasses reminded me about John Lennon and his clothes told me he was the person to love him. "well.. Get in!" he said and pointed at the door behind him with his eyes. I opened the door and sat down in the car. The seats were covered in some weird colours, and on the back of the driver's seat it was some words. I tried to read it but the music in the car and the fact that he was driving fast away from the town I used to love, to some place I probably didn't know at all, made it impossible.
I'd never had the thought about actually sitting in a car with a total stranger, but when I now sat there, without knowing where we were going, I actually liked it. I was never the scared person, and I usually didn't show any feelings at all, and some people said I was the stupid-dangerous-lover, that I loved putting myself in dangerous situations. I didn't, I just didn't mind. My life was nothing to have anyway.
The loud music was turned down and the man's voice cut through the little silence. "When are you going to tell me where you're going?" he said and looked at me in the mirror. I swallowed as I got a big bubble in my throat. "I have no place to go" I said and looked out the window. "But just set me off wherever you want, I don't care" I said becoming cool again. I could see his asking face in the mirror. He was probably disgust by me already. "Well, you're walking around with no place to go, without any dry clothes, no money, and your phone is almost dead?" he asked even he knew the answer. He saw it, and my phone made this annoying 'I'm dying' noise earlier, so he knew that too. "I'm not letting you off, you know" he said and looked at me in the mirror again. Some people would be scared but I only looked back at him ready for whatever that was waiting me.
The car turned in a little road full of holes before turning again and parking in hurry. The man got out of the car and I followed. What else to do? In front of me I saw a big house, with a garden full of flowers. The tall hippie-man walked against the door and I followed him, looking at every piece of the garden. It was something that seemed to be art. It was drawings on a wall in the corner of it, art in every single fucking piece of the big garden. Even the door was decorated. The hippie-dude opened it and let me in. What met me was a lot of shoes on the floor and plenty of jackets on the wall. I kicked of my shoes and tried to follow the man as fast as I could but he was already in another room. "Attention people!" I heard he say and could figure out where he was. "Say hello to this new girl.. .." he said and looked at me that just got pushed in the room of a strange lady. "Sal" I said and looked at the people who was staring at me. A tall, skinny dude stood up and greeted me with a hand shake. "Frank" he said and smiled shyly. He didn't seem too self confident, but he tried his best, and that was adorable. His black hair covered most of his eyes and his grey hat covered the top of his hair again. I replied his smile and hand shake and the rest of the crowd started greeting me too. What was this shit? I got in a stranger's car, he drove me to a strange place with a lot of strangers and made them greet me and be nice to me. Well, pretty weird.
"Could some of you show her the place, and find some clothes and something this girl can sleep in?" the man that reminded me of John Lennon said. Frank and a red haired girl, called Milly, pulled me out of the crowd and up some stairs. "This is our bedroom" she said and smiled as she opened the door on the top of the stairs. She seemed a lot more confident than Frank, and she seemed to be one of those who liked to be in the spotlight, in a good way actually. Not one of those bitches that think they're pretty, but one of those who like to talk. "And in the end, over there, we have all our clothes" Frank added and pointed at a door in the end of the room. We walked in the middle of the room and it was beds on both sides of it. They were lined up to the wall with just enough space between them to get out and in of the bed. It was names on a lot of the beds, and some few beds without any name at all. "If you want, you can take the bed beside me" Milly smiled. I nodded and smiled cold. "What kind of clothes do you want?" Frank shouted from the room behind the door in the end. It was a big walk-in-closet with plenty of shelves with the same names that I saw on the beds. "I usually wear tight jeans and band shirts" I said. "And sleep in big shirts!" I added. I wasn't shy. Not at all. That was often a problem. People was disgusted with me because I just said whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. They meant I was really impolite and stupid. "I bet you have the same jeans size as me" Milly said and throw three pair of jeans to me. "And you probably want the same size as me in shirts" Frank said, before he threw three shirts and a sleeping thing to me. "You can put it in here!" he said and wrote my name on one of the shelves. "Thanks" I said and put the clothes in the shelf. "You can change in there" Milly said and pointed at a door that seemed to just suddenly appear in the corner of the room. I took some of the clothes and went in to change. It was wonderful to get off the wet clothes, and the jeans fitted me perfect. I put on the shirt and stared at my self in the mirror. I looked like I used to, apart from the boring shirt. It was nothing on it, nothing at all.
As I ran my fingers through my hair to put it a way i liked it and got out of the bathroom, the two of them stared at me. Was something wrong with me? Did I look fatter in dry clothes or something? "wow" Frank almost whispered. I looked at him with and asking face, but before he said something, Milly pulled me away. "I think we're decorating.. Take one of the shirts with you!" she smiled. Her smile was so pretty. Her teeth was perfect and her eyes were smiling like her mouth. She looked so pretty and I wondered if she knew that she was that beautiful. Probably she didn't. Girls like Milly usually didn't know how pretty they actually are.
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Every single one of the teenagers was doing something with their clothes or shoes, or maybe a coffee cup. "I think mr. Ralph wanna talk to you" Frank said and pointed at the hippie dude that picked me up just some hours earlier. I looked to the left and saw the man smiling at me. I didn't want to be impolite so I put down my shirt and the paint and stood up. "Wanted to talk to me?" I asked. I hoped he was going to shake his head and let me go back to my shirt, but of course he didn't. He leaded me into the kitchen and asked me to sit down with the table. I sat down and leaned back in the chair. "Sal, this is a teenager-help-home" he started and looked at me. "We're helping teenagers that doesn't have it good at home, and have problems that their parents don't care about at all.." he said. Oh please, don't ask me about my problems. I would rather sleep on the street in the rain then. "Here is the possibility to talk if you want to, and I bet more than one of these guys may have kind of the same problem as you.." he smiled while talking, but I wasn't sure if I would have to tell or not. "My point is, you're welcome to live here as long as you want to, and we'll all be here for you" he smiled and moved his glasses closer his eyes. I catched myself smiling. Why? I hadn't smiled in ages, even I had it okay when I lived with 'them', but I never smiled like I actually meant it. But now, I finally did.
