Growing Up Street Ways by Elkah Quince (the little red hen ebook .TXT) 📖

that way,” he said slightly hurt.
“Sorry you go back to sleep,” I said quietly as he lay back down. I crawled to what looked like a door and looked down. A set of steps was set into the wall and went down 3 flights before coming into contact with the floor of the warehouse. I walked down the stairs quietly as I could but they creaked and groaned under my light weight. I got to the floor and turned to what seemed like a bathroom door and opened it. There standing naked and wet in the middle of the room was Takehito only he wasn’t a he, it was a she. She had a towel around her body and her hair hung in limp curls to her waist. Her eyes were shocked and afraid as I stood there gawking. “You’re not a boy?” I said tipping my head to the side watching her. Her hands snaked out as she dragged me into the bathroom
“Please please please don’t tell the boys,” she begged me in a voice that sounded like the first snowfall of winter.
“I won’t Takehito, I promise on my life,” I said taking her hands slowly.
“Thankyou,” she said hugging me tightly against her.
“No wonder you never speak your voice is so beautiful,” I smiled at her. She blushed and pushed me back out of the room and shut the door.
I was still a little shocked from the encounter with Takehito. I started looking around for the kitchen and noticed that even with 3 floors to rest on everyone except for Lion Tiger and I seem to sleep on the ground floor, on the couches or bean bags that were scattered around.
The kitchen was just a large room with two sinks, cupboards, a fridge, and a cook top stove. I opened the fridge to find it completely empty I slammed it shut sighing heavily. Shrugging I walked back to the stairs. Just as Tiger was starting his way down “isn’t there any food in this place?” I whispered up to him. He grinned and threw me down a bag of apples.
“Dat’s ya brekkie,” he grinned walking back up the stairs to his room.
“Thank you!” I called up to him a little too loudly.
“Shut up,” came Slime’s voice from the couch as a pillow slammed into the back of my head I picked it up and slowly stalked over to Slime. I raised the pillow above my head and slammed it down on his sleeping face. He reached up trying to take a swing at me, but I dodged and ran back up to Lion’s room.
I’ve now been staying with the gang for three days. Every night we drink and smoke weed, some of the other boys use ecstasy and ice. But they would never let me touch the harder drugs which they did. I slept in Lion’s room most nights on one side of the bed in a sleeping bag completely separate from him. Some nights I would sleep in Takehito and Ghosts room, they would sing Japanese lullabies that their mother had taught them.
I started to notice and watch how members of the group interacted and how they looked at each other. Poor Samson who was gay seemed to be in love with Takehito. That would have been hard for him because he didn’t know that Takehito was a female. Everyone thought that Takehito was gay too or bi sexual as they called it because they had seen her kissing girls. I asked Takehito what she was and she said that she was pansexual “What’s that?” i remember asking
“It’s where you don’t mind which gender you just fall in love with somebody for who they are inside it doesn’t matter what they look like it’s all about soul and personality,” I smiled kissed her cheek and went to help tiger repair his bed which had broken last night somehow. It was a relaxed life with the gang we rarely had jobs other than to repair broken things hunt down money in gutters or clean up the bottles we left anywhere.
That was until the accident.....
Chapter 3
It was just an average day foggy from the harbour with the sun shining weakly through the grey mist. Tiger and I were on the roof fixing up some tiles that had fallen off. Somebody shouted from the ground, it was Ghost saying that Takehito had gone into town. I was looking over the city holding the roofs peak carefully as if I had been born to live on a roof. “Pigs on the way” yelled Tiger spotting a cop car heading our way “hide!” he yelled down. I scuttled through the skylight on to the platform but Tiger didn’t follow there was a scream and the sound of tiles falling and shattering. “Help Janey” I climb out of the skylight again fast to see tiger hanging on the edge of the roof with his hands
“Hang on crap, Lion” I screamed out his name louder than the rest of the sentence I let myself slide down most of the roof and caught at one of the few exposed rafters I grabbed Tigers wrist and tried to pull him up but all I could do was help him stay up a bit better I wasn’t strong enough. “LION!” I screamed again struggling with Tigers weight as his body dangled 4 stories above the harsh pavement “don’t let go please Lions coming” I started crying as I held on tightly.
“I’m sorry Janey” he whispered as his fingers slipped off the edge “take care of Ghost and Takehito tell Takehito I love her.” he let go everything started going in slow motion. He fell slowly down through the air the cop car pulled up just as he hit the ground his body bounced as every bone in his body broke blood spurted from his mouth and limbs as the pavement mangled his beautiful face. The blood pooled slowly around him slowly the cops where shocked as one of them called the ambulance the other looked up at me on the roof.
Chapter 4
All the gang stood huddled in front of the police only I had watched Tiger die. Lion had only seen him after his body had settled on the bed heading for the morgue. I had found Takehito and told her Tigers last words, she cried in my arms. The police had raided the house and only found our alcohol. They couldn’t find the drugs that where hidden in the floor of Tigers room. Only Tiger and I had ever known how to get it out of his floor. Takehito was sitting near me, her hair was a tangled mess from fighting with Lion, he hadn’t fought back but he had needed to deflect her from his face. He was scratched and bleeding slightly. Everyone knew now that Takehito was a girl Samson was holding her. Even though he was gay he still loved her. He was telling her this and that he’d always love her even if she was a girl. If it hadn’t been a sad occasion I have a feeling he would have been teased for sure. The police had brought us out the front of the warehouse. We’d never stolen anything, the only thing we could get in trouble for was underage drinking but that wasn’t too bad. Takehito and Ghost where trying to persuade the police that they didn’t need to go into an orphanage. Samson was calling his family, and Lion was being interviewed. I was hiding behind Slime who was protecting me from the police. He may have hated me, but he didn’t want to see me taken back to my abusive family. He had been abused as a kid too, drugs had been tried on him and his step father and mother used to beat him. He’d been hospitalised several times because of them.
“We need to send her back to her family” said a young police officer to Slime
“NO!” he shouted “I WON’T LET HER GO BACK TO THEM.”
“Do you want to become her guardian then?” said a young woman with short red plaits and a porcelain face.
“If it stops her going back to that abuse yes I’ll take her”
“Very well” she said handing him some papers. “you’ll get child rights and money every week”
“Thanks” he muttered snatching the papers.
After all the commotion Slime and I had moved what little possessions we had into a small one bedroom apartment. We had the bedroom set up with bunk beds single on top double on the bottom. Slime usually left me to myself he brought home food and some drinks every day we only brought food to eat on that day. Usually it was chips or fish if we had enough money every now and again we would get KFC but that was very rare. One day Slime never came home, I sat on the couch for three days reading book after book. But he never came home, I was alone again.

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Publication Date: 07-03-2011

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