The street kid

Axel puffed out a final donut shaped ring into the air and rose to toss the butt out of the open window. Sad to see it go, but he had one. Better to have smoked and finished than to have craved and not have.

"Seven, huh?" he said, turning and leaning against the wall beside the window with his arms folded. "Almost sounds like a mini gang."
 
Red was glad to be able to close the window again. The night was starting to get chilly. She walked over to the stub of a candle and switched it with one of the ones she found in the kitchen. Red laughed at the thought of a little misfit gang of street kids. She would probably be the least valuable member.
 
"How long have you been wandering around, Red?" Axel asked, a bit curious. Sure both guys and girls ended up on the streets but some reasons and causes were worth finding out.
 
"About a year and half now as of today actually. You?" she asked just as curious as he was. It's not every day you met a character such as him.
 
He wasn't sure whether or not to joke and tell her happy street day or something of the sort, and so he kept that particular snark to himself. "If I still got my basic math right," he settled for instead, "I'd been out and about for seven years..." Axel made a vague gesture above his head, squinting as if deep in thought. "But the exact date seems to elude me..."
 
Red waited to see if he was going to joke about her remembering the exact of her leaving. She only did because this day was burned in her memory forever. Shaking her head from the onslaught of thoughts she said, "Wow seven years? I don't know if i could make it that long....Wait how old are you?"
 
"I am seventeen," he answered smoothly, absently running his fingers through his hair. It was still damp, but not dripping wet anymore. That was a good sign at least. "It's not that long when you're constantly on the run from cops and orphanages, actually. Though the growth spurt after puberty kind of bookmarked time for me. But you're fairly new to the game, then. How come a sweet kid like you ended up in this kind of situation? I don't think you're any more than sixteen."
 
"I am sixteen. And things were...rough at home so I left. Why stay in a place with no love around you?" she said. Red wasn't in the mood to relive her past. She wanted her parents and everything about to be erased from her memory. So far she was doing a pretty good job except for when the lights go out.
 
"I get ya," Axel nodded slowly, ending the topic there. At least on her part. He knew touchy subjects when he saw them. "But least your parents were yours by blood."

Axel stretched, working out the kinks in his back. He did that whenever he had the chance. There was no way he was going to get into anyone's pants as a hunchback, really. So he kept himself up. Posture and all that.

"You from this town, right?" he had to ask. There were people like them who skipped towns just as often as he did.
 
Red let out a sigh of relief when Mikey dropped the subject. She was glad to not have to talk about them. Sure they were her parents by blood but she'd take a lovely foster family over them anyway. As far as she was concerned they were no parents of hers. Red didn't hesitate to answer his next question. "Actually no. I'm from one town over. Easier not to run into my parents that way." she said.
 
Hiita jumped in surprise when she heard sirens stop right beside her, looking to the police officer who came out of the car. She gulped as he walked up to her, looking her over. "Yup. You're definitely the Charmer kid..." She squeaked and took off running, pulling her dark brown hair out of its high ponytail. The officer yelled for her to stop but she kept running, wide eyed. She then heard the sound of sirens chasing after her and darted into an alleyway, quickly hiding behind a trashcan. She was panting lightly, adrenaline running through her veins.
 
"Smart girl," he commented. "It's still a bit too close to home, in my opinion. Then again, being about six to nine states away in my case is a bit...different than your situation. But I have to say, at least you get to travel domestically. If you do decide to go roaming, stay far from the immediate two towns after this one headed north. Those people are not friendly."
 
"Well that's good to know. But i'm not sure i'm going to be doing much more traveling though... Mind if I ask why so many states away?" she asked. That's a long ways from home even if it's not a good place..I don't think I could ever travel that much she thought to herself.
 
"That's quite a story," Axel said, blowing out a breath. He looked up, trying to recall the story in a way that it would be easiest to tell. "My mother was a housewife. Dad was just a word passed around between me and the other kids -- to me, in any case. Mom had this guy that lived with us. After he moved in, we never went out. She was a 'kept' woman and I was the kid who was always hidden in the closet and fed through the slots in front. He didn't like kids, see?" Axel shifted and frowned slightly, never once taking kindly to the thought of the man that did this.

"And Ma needed money to take care of the two of us. The guy was a real nutcase. He'd shower with some kind of affection and she was smitten. Even after he beat the living hell out of her. Ma was a pretty little lady too, under all those bruises. But yeah, I lived in the guest room closet when it was just those two. If he brought friends over, I was in the shed or hiding out in the neighbor's doghouse. I've never seen another dog as lazy... Anyway," he cleared his throat. "One day she'd finally come to her senses and tried a few times to escape. He'd caught her on the fourth attempt."
 
"So is your mom with now?" Red asked. His story was like nothing she had heard before. Although she was still confused as to how he was a street kid and why he was so many states away.
 
Kicker sat by the window silently fiddling with his old, mismatched, beat up guitar. He plucked strings, wound and unwound knobs, ran his fingers along the frets, silently playing in his own head. Various tunes from every genre from classical to electronic. His mind filled with magnificent crescendos, subtle runs along a scale, and exited tempo changes. Kick was completely immersed in a world all his own.

At the mention of family and travel, the music faded to agonizing silence. Kick sighed and left his guitar to smoke and watch the rain on the front porch.
 
"Nope," Axel answered. "Usually she'd call me out while he's at work and we'd play or something. She didn't show up for two days and I took a chance to go in the house. Of course I was a stupid ten year old at the time." The seventeen year old scratched his head, at least to have something to do with one hand -- he'd already finished his last smoke. "She was out with him apparently. I went into the house looking, since she didn't come out to look for me for almost three days. At first I thought she'd escaped and was going to come back for me within a week of the fact like she said. They came home arguing and then he saw me. I wasn't thinking at the time, too excited to see my own mother. He asked questions she tried to lie about, trying to convince him he's drunk -- the man reeked of beer -- and he just lost it. He manhandled her into the bedroom. You know kids -- what's theirs can't be tampered with. So I'm there trying to fend the guy off. Failed, of course. All I could do was watch the bastard hang her from the ceiling fan. She didn't have long, either, already wasted half her breath with fighting and she was gone in less than a minute."

Axel's brows furrowed, expression dark. "I was next. Running from a beat up F-150 should be cake, but Christ, that thing was fast. I think that was the first time I really hated kids' toys. Tripped over a mountain of them on a sidewalk three blocks over. Buck got me, knocked me out. Next thing I knew I was on the side of a dusty road miles away from any kind of civilization. I didn't know what direction I was going in, but I'd been traveling ever since. I didn't know any aunts or uncles so that was me. Seven years later, here I am."
 
Red stared at him in shock for a few minutes. At least i'm not alone she thought. "Wow that sounds rough. I'm sorry to hear about your mom." she said. Red was at a loss for words. She knew most street kids had rough pasts but she hadn't heard of anything that rough in her life.
 
Axel waved it off. "Thanks, but no. What's done is done and all I can do is move on and see where the road takes me." Axel sank to sit lotus style beneath the window, a large yawn escaping him.
 
"I understand." Red said letting out a large yawn of her own. She got up and handed the blanket back to Mikey. "I think im gonna head o bed now." she said yawning and walking through the house until she found a room. Red placed the candle on the floor and climbed in closing her eyes.
 
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