Adventures of the Streets

We Didn't Steal

Jesse

I promised Jacey that I would lay off the fighting. Its just hard to stop doing something you really love. Fighting became natural to me after our parents' incident. I wanted to make sure that nothing like that could ever happen again.

For awhile, in the beginning,  Ashton had told me that it wasn't my job, that I was too young.

But I'm not very good at following the rules.

I trained everyday, starting from when I was 10. My first fight-I lost. I did win three hundred dollars though. I don't know how the financial business works in fighting, I just know the fighting.

Ashton, Sam, and Jacey eventually found out about my fighting after I came home one night with a broken wrist and two thousand dollars. They didn't question the money. They only questioned how I bent my wrist the way I did.

It was four in the morning when I woke up. I'm not much of a sleeper, especially in hospitals.

I crept out of room 19, leaving my crutches (I have a high pain tolerance), and walked towards the eastern stairwell.

Being in a hospital for a few weeks without exercising is not something I like.

Taking the steps two at a time, I finally reached the door to the roof. It was locked, but with the help of Sam's Bobby pin, it wasn't anymore. I opened the door to be greeted by a cold blast of air. Miami spread before me, it's city lights like a painting, the noise like music.

I went to sit in one of the beach chairs I had put up here a couple years ago. I laid my foot out, some pain from the stairs starting to shoot through my bones. My cast was signed by my siblings and two nurses- Sheila and Al.

Looking up at the sky I couldn't help but think about Dad and Mom. Had it really only been five years? The time feels like it has flown by, but has also slowed at the toughest parts. I don't want to believe that they are really gone-I just want to believe that they are someplace better.

I was too deep in thought I hadn't noticed Ashton sit next to me in the other chair. I jumped back a little. Half his face was covered in shadows, giving him a gravely look.

"Warnings are nice," I said.

"Too bad we don't get them," he chuckled. We both know we weren't just talking about my being scared.

I sighed. "Hey, Ash?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you ever wander about the future?"

"Only in the present."

"Ok, listen, Ghandi-" I started.

"Too easy," he said, nudging me with his elbow. "But, yes, I do think about the future. I think about how to make it better."

"But the future is unpredictable," I ventured.

"The way I see it, as long as you got it planned out and you're set straight, the future is in your hands," Ashton said, pointing at me.

...

The next morning I woke up in the hospital bed, not knowing how I got there.

I'm sure that I fell asleep on the roof last night while Ashton listened to music on his phone. We just sat there after our conversation about the future.

I sat up in the bed, only to find Sam was sitting in the bedside arm chair. As usual she was wearing her lopsided glasses and her nose was shoved in a book. The whole Ryder family are nerds, but Sam takes the prize.