The Changelings Part 3

I could see that they were some sort of cohesive group a maybe not a family in the traditional sense of the word, but they ate together, slept together, and apparently had some sort of agreement between them that Jared was the boss and Spike kept them fed. At least, he provided the pizza and soda which are two of the four main food groups in my world. I wondered how long they'd been together and how long they'd been living here in this warehouse.

Tony searched around in his bag and pulled out a bottle of water. We shared it, trying not to be too obvious about our cootie aversion. "Trying to cut back on the sugar," I offered as explanation. I'm not sure that they fell for it, but at least they acknowledged my effort to take the sting out of our rejection.

I was starting to feel a little uncomfortable; not because of the company we were keeping but because I had to go to the bathroom pretty bad. We'd been in the warehouse a couple of hours by this time, and so far all I'd been able to see from where I was sitting was the living room, front door, and sleeping area ... no bathroom. Luckily Tony has a weaker bladder than I do.

"Um, guys, is there a bathroom we could use around here anywhere?" he asked.

"I'll take 'em," said Becky cheerfully.

She jumped up off her chair. "Follow me, guys; it's not far."

We grabbed our bags, following her out the door and down the nearby alley.

"So, did you guys just get here from West Palm?" she asked.

"Yeah," said Tony, "just before we came here to your place."

"You gonna stay a while or are you headed somewhere else?"

I elbowed Tony, signaling him not to give our secrets away, even though we really didn't have any secrets.

"Not sure. We don't really have a plan. We were going to find a place to sleep near the beach or something."

"You don't want to do that," said Becky, a warning note in her voice. "It's not safe. There are some pretty mean guys who go there looking for homeless people a several kids have been beat up pretty bad lately." She turned to look at us, walking backwards. "You can stay with us. We've been here a few weeks now. It's not much, but it's dry and safe ... none of those guys know we're here."

"Do you know the guys a the ones who beat people up?" asked Tony.

"Not know them know them, but we're pretty sure we know who they are; gangster types that deal drugs and have prost.i.tutes down there. Some of the beaches here aren't too nice at night." She shrugged her shoulders and then turned back around. "Here we are."

We were standing in front of a blue and white port-a-potty.

"It smells pretty bad and it's not the cleanest thing in the world, but it's better than going in the street." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a wadded-up napkin, handing it to me. "Here, use this. It's mostly clean."

I took the napkin, staring at it. So this is what my life's come to. I'm a teenage runaway using an abandoned port-a-potty and a gently used Burger King napkin to wipe my nether regions. Oh well a at least I'm not getting my a.s.s kicked down on the beach by a drug-dealing pimp.

"Thanks," I said, opening the door to the bathroom. "Whoof! Holy batb.a.l.l.s ... what died in this thing?" I desperately waved my hand back and forth in front of my face, trying to get the smell away, but it just stirred the smell up worse. I think it was stuck to my nostril hairs.

"Don't breathe through your nose. You'll get used to it."

I looked at her in horror. "Used to it? I think not." But I held my breath and went in anyway a I really had to go bad.

I tried not to touch anything, which was difficult because it was such a small s.p.a.ce. I peed faster than I've ever peed in my lift and jumped out before I had even zipped up my pants. Tony had already done his business around the corner. This was not the first time in my life I wished I could pee standing up.

"Well, that was an adventure," I said, praying the smell of the c.r.a.phole wasn't in my clothes or hair.

Becky smiled. "Life is never boring when you're on Jared's crew."

"Jared's crew?" I asked.

"We just call ourselves that, like a joke kind of. Jared is our unofficial leader. He found all of us, the warehouse. He's a good guy; he makes sure we stay safe and somehow get fed every day."

"How did he find all of you?" asked Tony, apparently as curious as I was about how this particular group of teens had ended up together.

"Oh, I don't know. He found me panhandling downtown. Samantha was in a fight outside a club one night when Jared found her."

"Surprise, surprise," I said. She seemed like a sc.r.a.pper.

"She's not bad once you get to know her; she's just protective of our s.p.a.ce. I think she's had some hard times ... we all have." She looked sideways at me. "Haven't you? Isn't that why you're here? Not many kids end up on the streets of Miami if they have a great life back home."

Tony started to open up his mouth to say something, but I didn't want this conversation going too far down confession lane, so I jumped in. "We just needed to get out of town for a few days, no big deal really. We'll be leaving soon."

Becky shrugged. "Whatever. Jared brought you to the warehouse so that means you're part of the crew for as long as you want to be, so long as you follow the rules anyway."

Okay, here comes the good stuff ... where they tell us we have to sacrifice a chicken or something to be a part of their club. "What rules?" I asked.

"No fighting, no drugs, no alcohol, no stealing, no bringing in strangers until Jared has checked them out ... and no littering."

I decided to test her. "What about the chicken sacrifices?" I'm not sure exactly what the pa.s.s/fail on this question was, but it came out of my mouth before I could stop it, so I went with it.

Becky laughed. "No chicken sacrifices. No animals actually; we don't want any barking or whatever telling people we're here. We have to lay low so we don't get kicked out."

"Seems reasonable," said Tony, obviously thinking out loud.

"Becky, will you excuse us a sec a I want to talk to Tony privately ... no offense."

"Oh don't worry, none taken. I'll meet you back at the warehouse; it's just up there on the right." She smiled her fool head off and then took off jogging towards the door we could see from where we were standing.

I stopped, grabbing Tony by the arm. "So, what do you think?" I asked him.

"I don't know; they seem nice. They shared their dinner with us. And they don't sacrifice animals, so that's a point in their favor." Tony smiled at me. "I can't believe you said that ... no wait ... I can believe you said that."

"Yeah, well, you would have been pretty upset if they were animal sacrificers and they just sprung it on us later."

Tony laughed. "You're nuts. So are we staying with them or what?"

I thought about it for about two seconds, but I couldn't come up with any better options. "At least for tonight, since you don't have a friggin' clue what we're doing or where we're going or even how we're going to afford to feed ourselves."

"Yeah, well, we had to get outta there. And we still haven't really talked about why, Jayne."

I had to shut him up because I didn't want to talk about this issue we'd been dancing around. "Yeah, you and your Rambo moves with a-hole Flowers ... "

It was too dark now for me to see Tony's face, but I know he was giving me one of his parent looks, "That's not what I was talking about and you know it."

I pulled my phone out of my bag. "I have to text my mom. I'm telling her I'm staying at your place."

"You've never stayed the night at my place before. Think she'll buy it?"

"She doesn't care, Tony, trust me."

I sent off the text and a few second later I got 'OK' in return from her number. That's it. I shoved the hurt feelings down deep because I was not ready to deal with them right now.

I showed him my screen. "See?"

Tony shrugged. "I can't do that with my parents. I'm going to tell them I'm at Robert's house a he'll cover for me." Tony sent off the texts to his parents and his chess club buddy and then put his phone back in his bag. "We're all set."

I turned, walking towards the warehouse. Tony followed.

"We have to talk about this other issue, Jayne."

"I'm not talking to you right now. What I want to know is, first of all, what is with the no littering rule, and second of all, do I have to sleep on one of those gnarly looking sleeping mats they had? Because I'm already feeling itchy just thinking about it."

Tony jogged to catch up to me. "I think Jared is a tree-hugger or something so that's why he doesn't litter, and so you know, I brought two ultra-thin sleeping bags from my dad's camping stuff a if you want, we can just grab a cardboard thing for insulation and sleep in the bags on top."

I threw my arm across Tony's shoulders. "That is why you are my best friend."

"Because I bring sleeping bags when we run away?"

"Yes. Because even when you have your head totally up your b.u.t.t and drag me to Miami with only twenty bucks in your pocket, you still make sure that I have a nice, clean place to sleep."

"Did I mention that I also brought a blow up mini pillow for your head?"

"Did I mention that I love you?"

We reached the door and stood there in the near dark, facing each other.

"So we're doing this? We're going to sleep with Jared's crew tonight?" I asked.

"Yep, for tonight. Then we decide what to do in the morning."

I banged on the door for admittance. "It's us a Tony and Jayne."

The lock clicked open and the door swung in a few inches. Samantha stood in the opening. "Oh. You're back."

"Disappointed?" I asked, ready to call her bluff. I knew how this crew operated. Jared called the shots, not her.

She snorted, stepping aside, opening the door the rest of the way. I think as I walked by I saw her smile, but I can't be sure. Her face was quickly hidden in shadows as she moved to close and lock the door behind us.

CHAPTER FIVE.

"Holy c.r.a.p, Tones, my back is killing me." I tried to move out of my sleeping bag, but my body didn't want to cooperate. The floor was concrete and the cardboard box I used as my mattress was useless. My teeth felt like they had sweaters on them and my tongue was covered in some kind of heinous goo. How did homeless people do this every day? I decided then and there that I needed to not be homeless a or at least be homeless for as short a period of time as possible.

"Mine too," he groaned out. "I think this is what arthritis feels like."

Everyone around us was waking up. Jared had gone to the door, propping it open with a rock, letting the sunshine in.

"Another beautiful day in paradise," he said, pulling a cigarette pack out of his pocket.

I walked up to look out the door. "Those things'll kill ya, you know."

"We're all going to die sooner or later," he said, lighting the end of it.

"Better later than sooner," was Tony's reply as he walked by both of us and out into the sun. "Where's a good place to get some food for breakfast?"

The others joined us outside, rubbing faces and heads, trying to wake up the rest of the way. Finn was the first one to respond.

"There's a 7-11 four blocks thatta way." He gestured off towards the train station.

"Chase likes to go to the IHOP which is about a quarter mile that way a but it costs more money," said Becky, smiling already even though it was only eight in the morning.

Why is she so happy all the time? Sometimes happy people annoy me when it's this early in the morning.

Chase just stood there saying nothing, swinging his torso left and right to crack his back. Samantha stood apart from the rest of the group, playing with the tip of a blade sticking out of her Swiss army pocketknife. She and Chase made a good couple a a silent, angry couple.

I looked around and realized someone was missing. "Where's Spike?"

"He'll be here soon. He's a night owl; he usually sleeps during the day," explained Becky.

Sure enough, no sooner were the words out of her mouth, when Mr. Dark and s.e.xy came around the corner, walking towards us.

"Hey guys, what's up?"

"Nothin'," answered Becky, "anything interesting happen last night?"

"Only this!" he said, pulling out a piece of folded up paper from one of his pockets. He handed it to Jared, who put his cigarette in his mouth and took the paper from Spike. He went quiet for a few seconds, reading it.

"What is it?" asked Finn.

"A job we can all do and it pays good too," said Spike excitedly.

"Where'd you find this?" asked Jared.

"It was hanging in the laundry place, the Wash-n-Fold over on fifty-second."

Jared took the cigarette out of his mouth and started rolling it between his fingers, causing the entire end of hot ash to fall off. He put the b.u.t.t in his pocket.

Why in the heck does he keep doing that? I was going to have to ask him one of these days.

Samantha walked over to stand by Jared's side, looking over his shoulder. "What is it?"

Jared began reading aloud from the paper.