Chapter One
Liam
"This lager's shite, mate."
My best friend always did have such a way with words. I looked over at Thommy, sighing. "Can you just enjoy it, for once, without going on about how the ones we can't afford are better? It's beer, not fucking Penot Noir. Just enjoy it." Thommy made a sound of disbelief. "When did ye last have a glass of Penot Noir, Liam? Ye fekkin wanker." He did start sipping his beer, though, which was an improvement on the last five minutes.
I can't blame him, though. We've been living on the streets for years, now. My mother died of pneumonia when I was seven. Thommy simply decided anywhere was better than where he was living. There's not really a lot to be happy about, in our lives. Simple moments like this were the best we could ask for. We found a bar that wouldn't chase us out, and if we actually had money in our pockets, occasionally they would look the other way and pass us a beer. To a homeless seventeen year old, that was something to celebrate, any way you cut it.
"This lager's shite, mate."
My best friend always did have such a way with words. I looked over at Thommy, sighing. "Can you just enjoy it, for once, without going on about how the ones we can't afford are better? It's beer, not fucking Penot Noir. Just enjoy it." Thommy made a sound of disbelief. "When did ye last have a glass of Penot Noir, Liam? Ye fekkin wanker." He did start sipping his beer, though, which was an improvement on the last five minutes.
I can't blame him, though. We've been living on the streets for years, now. My mother died of pneumonia when I was seven. Thommy simply decided anywhere was better than where he was living. There's not really a lot to be happy about, in our lives. Simple moments like this were the best we could ask for. We found a bar that wouldn't chase us out, and if we actually had money in our pockets, occasionally they would look the other way and pass us a beer. To a homeless seventeen year old, that was something to celebrate, any way you cut it.
We tried to be as normal as possible, and do all the things that other teenagers did. Cell phones were the only luxury between us, and even then they were cheap petrol station tracphones that we didn't have to pay on unless we could afford it that day. Our clothes were washed once a week at the laundromat, and we used the bathrooms at the public park to do our dailies. It was hard enough work scraping up food every day. We lived off of packages of hot dogs and buns, bought with our daily "earnings." I say that extremely loosely. Thommy and I were two of the best pickpockets on the streets in Oasis Springs. We had a vacant lot in Parched Prospect, aptly named, that was our base of operations. Mainly...we stood in front of it on the sidewalk a lot, hoping to see pretty girls walk by.
This is our nightly routine. Grilling stolen hot dogs on the public grill and then sleeping on the bench after we finish our homework. That's right, Thommy and I are almost a semester away from graduating. He doesn't see the point, saying that we're just going to move up to the more profitable jobs once we graduate anyway. It is my opinion that a little education never hurt anyone. Even if we do simply move up the thieves' ladder, knowledge is valuable. It is the one thing that can never be stolen from us.
And to two kids with nothing....that is everything.