I'm With You

Chapter 20

Eira looked to the door as it opened, expecting Mackenzie but she bit her lip when she saw it was Miguel."You're early." She said and Miguel chuckled, shutting the door after himself.

"I have the day off from work, so I thought I'd come to keep you guys company and check up on you... where's your sister?" Miguel asked, looking around the small room as if he may have missed her. He didn't say anything about the pile of duvets and the blanket on the floor between the two beds. They used one duvet to lie on together, then used the other duvet and the blanket to keep them warm as they slept.

"She went out to help pick up the food donations at the food banks or something... she wants to learn how to cook, so the lady who makes the food here said she'd let Mac help if she helped her run errands - don't worry, I made them both promise to give Mac a break all the time. I'm not happy about her going without me, but it's only a two-seater truck." Eira said, dropping down onto the empty bed. Miguel could tell that she'd just been in the shower, her hair was still slightly damp.

"It's good, though, that she wants to learn some life skills," Miguel said, sitting on the bed next to her and Eira sighed.

"It's just too bad she'll not get the chance to use them after we leave here... we don't exactly have a stove." Eira said and Miguel gave her a sad smile.

"You never know, things might change for you soon." He assured her, and it was silent between them for a little while.

"You know when you asked a couple of days ago why Mackenzie and I are homeless?" Eira asked.

"Yeah, but you don't have to tell me anything..." Miguel trailed off, but Eira shook her head.

"My Mom got cancer... same as Cody, she... she was diagnosed on July 13th, when I was fifteen, and Mackenzie was ten and she was dead by the end of the month... my Dad totally lost it, he couldn't cope. He turned to drinking a lot, he was violent with us when he was drunk and Child Protection Services came to take us away, but they were going to split us up because there wasn't room for both of us... they were going to keep Mackenzie in LA, but drive me over three hours away from her, we'd never see each other... we knew they were coming for us the next day because they were giving us time to pack the essentials and to say goodbye to our Dad whilst a social worker stayed the night, since as my Dad wasn't exactly sober for more than five minutes after he woke up in the morning... instead of packing, we just... ran away. They searched for us for a while, but they must have given up because the search didn't last very long in the newspapers, and in the beginning, we'd take papers from the trash to read them but we found out that our Dad died after a couple of weeks... drunk driving, he hit a tree, nobody else was hurt... we stopped reading the newspapers after that, just focused on trying to survive. We couldn't go back, they'd separate us and we're all each other have... I lost it after the news that Dad died, let others give me drugs and alcohol until Mackenzie had enough of that and I've been clean and sober ever since... she said something to me that will always stick with me, that she didn't want me to end up like Dad... acting the same as him, end up the same way as him..."

"You've been homeless since you were fifteen?" Miguel breathed and Eira nodded her head slowly, looking over at him.

"Seven years... it's just sad that Mackenzie's been homeless most of her life, she can barely remember our life before." Eira said, wiping her eyes but she wasn't overly emotional about it. She'd had to learn to accept that it was her life, that they made decisions and there were times when she wasn't sure she made the right one, but she couldn't imagine what it would have been like to grow up hours away from her sister and not being able to see her. Whenever she talked to Mackenzie about it, all she did was agree that they made the right decision when they were younger - to just run.

"I'll help you, Demi... I'll think of something to help you both. I want you to finish school and have a home and have a job... be able to drive!" Miguel listed and Eira cracked a smile.

"It's okay... some people are just luckier in life than others." Eira said and Miguel rolled his eyes, nudging her.

"Will you just learn to accept help?" He accused and Eira bit her lip.

"It's hard, when you're so used to fending for yourself and people letting you down..." Demi trailed off and it was silent between them again, but it was a comfortable silence. It felt good to talk about her past to Miguel. She trusted him, believed that he wouldn't judge her.