“Look, the way I see it, we could join forces, use each other’s street smarts and money to get the fuck away from this hellhole,” Jayden explains. I could use the money; I only have two thousand from baby-sitting and I know it won’t get me far. But Jayden is underage and that alone is a big risk. She’ll make us a target for law enforcement everywhere.
“I have money, so I don’t need you. Besides, you’re underage. I’ll have the cops all over me,” I defend.
“I have money, too, and haven’t you heard traveling in pairs is better than alone? What if you run across a creeper or something?” She shrugs, her gray eyes pleading for me to bring her along.
“What? You think you’re going to save me?” I laugh, looking away from her puppy dog eyes.
“I’ve been known to kick some ass,” she replies seriously. “My record alone can prove that.” I stop laughing instantly. If foster care has taught me anything, it’s you have to learn to fight if you want to live. There have been many occasions when fighting has kept me in one piece, but it also added to my criminal record. I’ve come across many bad seeds being tossed from home to home over the years. Not to mention no matter how small you mess up in care, a foster parent can make a mountain out of a mole hill, because again, the more trouble a kid, the more money they’re worth. I have a bunch of infractions against me because of a lying foster parent who needed a bigger paycheck.
“Jayden, I know it sucks in here, but out there could be worse.” I try to reason with her, placing my hand on her shoulder. Her brows furrow, and she pushes my hand off.
“Nothin’ out there can be as bad as this place,” she growls, her nose scrunched in anger. I lick my lips and nod. Aneta’s place is definitely one of the worst houses, that’s for sure.
“The police are on the way, ladies, along with your DFS workers,” Aneta interrupts, smiling like the bitch she is. If we’re caught running away, Jayden will be bumped to a run case in the system, which means more money for Aneta, and a harder life for Jayden.
“Fine!” I yell, giving into Jayden’s pleading. I don’t have time to argue with her, and by the looks of her packed suitcase, she ain’t taking no for an answer. I grab my own suitcase and all but run out of the house. There’s no way I’m going to let this be a big pay-out for the half-dressed bitch now standing in the doorway, laughing at me and Jayden’s frenzied state. The air outside is hot, almost to the point of suffocating, from the sun bearing down on my skin with vengeance.
I fish the keys out of my pocket and unlock the door to my purple Geo, careful to watch where I step from all the toys and trash littering the driveway. Jayden cusses at the rusty lawn chair that snags her suitcase as she passes. This place is a dump.
“I hope wherever we’re going, it’s not far.” Jayden laughs, tossing her crap into the backseat of the car. The seats are ripped up with stuffing spilling out, and the headliner is pinned up with tacks to keep it from falling on your head. She’s rough, but she was dirt-cheap.
“My car has never let me down before. We’ll make it,” I encourage, lying to her face. This piece of shit is always letting me down, but I’d like to think that this one time, fate would lean a little on my side of things.
***
As soon as we make it into town, my car stalls and smoke bellows from the hood.
“Shit!” I scream, slamming my fists against the steering wheel. Sweat trickles down my back in my fit of anger against the dash.
“We’ll have to make it on foot,” Jayden prompts, hopping out of the car and collecting her luggage from the back.
I laugh mockingly. “And just where do you think we’ll go?” I question, my voice laced with anger as I grab my suitcase, too. “We live in Reno, and it’s the middle of the summer. This heat alone will kill us!” I throw my hands out wildly, my eyes darting up the black street with a hazy steam of heat rising from the surface.
“Umm.” Jayden hesitates, looking around us. “The bus station!” she squeals, pointing behind us. I turn and look the place over. The old, brick building has several big, black buses parked beside it.
“You really think they’re going to let your ass on the bus? You’re wanted, Jayden,” I remind her, rolling my eyes. “Hell, I’m probably wanted now, too,” I huff.
If I’m caught, who knows what shit I’ll be in for taking Jayden with me. But I couldn’t leave her behind. Sure, her eyes might hold this brightness, and that huge smile may fool others, but I can tell the difference between a real smile and a fake one. She’s lonely and scared, like me. She needed me, and I couldn’t turn my back on her. That’s a weakness of mine. I can’t turn away, even if I know it’s good for me.
“The bus station is not like boarding a plane. All they want here is cash and for you to get out of their face. It’s worth a shot, Charlie.” Jayden doesn’t even wait for me to respond before she walks across the street toward the bus station, leaving me gawking behind her. She can’t venture off alone; who knows what could happen to her. It’s one thing for me to sleep on a park bench, but my conscience wouldn’t sit well with me if I let Jayden do the same.
“Fine! Wait up!” I yell, running after her and abandoning my car on the side of the road. It’s such a pile of junk. I’m betting that, based on that loud knocking and smoke bellowing out of the hood, it would cost more to fix the car than I paid for the piece of shit.
Entering the bus station, my body rises with goose bumps from all the eyes on us. The smell of exhaust fumes and sweaty bodies fills the space, and nothing but dirt and grime coats every surface it can find.
“Everyone is staring at us,” I whisper to Jayden, my body vibrating with paranoia that everyone knows we’re running away.
“No, they’re not. Chill,” she hisses, standing in line. “Where should we go?” She stands on her tiptoes trying to see the billboard that lists the locations of the loading buses. “The further we go, the more it’ll cost,” she states.
I search the billboard for future departures, and Vegas is what catches my eye out of all of them. That’s where I was born, although I don’t know a lot about myself before I was placed into care. I know my mother’s name, Maria Evans, and that I was born in Las Vegas, but not much more. I sometimes have small memories of my mother from time to time, but nothing significant. Getting ice cream with her, her smile. Simple things.
“I’m from Las Vegas,” I whisper, my eyes never leaving the sign as a feeling of despair rushes up my spine.
“Oh, yeah?” Jayden laughs. “What? You wanna go find your parents or something?” She giggles, but I don’t. Truth is, I don’t even know where my mother is, or if she’s even alive. I was placed in care at the age of nine, and I’ve been told many things about my mother growing up. I was told she left me in an abandoned home, that she killed herself, that she overdosed. The list goes on. I was never told anything about a father, though, and I don’t remember one.
Jayden looks over her shoulder at me, her bright smile fading quickly as she notices I’m not finding any humor in her questioning.
“Shit. I’m sorry, Charlie.” She tilts her head to the side, and a look of sympathy wrinkles her beautiful face.
“Nah, it’s okay,” I respond, mustering a smile and stepping up next in line.
Waiting to get tickets, I can feel Jayden looking at me, wanting to ask me what happened to my parents and why I was placed in care. My story. It’s like going to prison, the whole ‘what are you in for’. It applies to jail as well as foster care sadly. I hate it and avoid it.
“Next!” the man yells, grabbing Jayden’s attention and causing me to jump.
I quickly step up and walk in front of Jayden. With her being underage and possibly on every cops’ radar in the city, she needs to lay low. Not that I being a fucking kidnapper is any better, but I can’t help the side of me that wants to protect Jayden from coming forth.
“Two tickets to Vegas, please,” I request, digging in my suitcase for money. The guy eyes Jayden and me, a toothpick swirling in the corner of his mouth. He looks like he’s in his fifties, but I can’t really tell. His face is severely sunburnt, and his head is covered with a black ball cap.