Chapter 2

Hanging up the phone, he wrote a note to his mother telling her why he was leaving, ending with, If you’d believed me to begin with this wouldn’t have happened.Then he left the house by the back door once he knew the coast was clear. Ten minutes later he was on a bus that would drop him off close to downtown.

And thus his new life had begun. It took him time to adjust to living on the streets. He watched other kids, learning what it took to make money to eat and where it was safe to bed down for the night. He met Grey two months later. They had struck up an instant friendship when Davie had stepped in to protect Grey from two guys who were trying to steal his backpack. Later, after Grey had spent what little cash he’d earned by spanging to buy Davie a burger at a fast food place, he’d asked why Davie was homeless. Davie told him things had been bad at home and left it at that, although he had mentioned his mom’s boyfriend’s comment about him being ‘a little fag’, which he found sadly amusing.

“I’m about as little as…as him,” Davie said, pointing to a movie poster featuring an action hero. At five-ten, with the muscular build of a swimmer, he was right. Of course from the boyfriend’s perspective, he obviously was ‘little’. The man had been six-three and a body-builder who prided himself on his ability to easily lift more weight than most other men at the gym could.

“Areyou gay?” Grey had asked in response to what Davie had said.

“Does it matter?” Davie had retorted.

“Not to me. It’s not my thing but to each their own. I only asked because you could make some money if you don’t mind giving blowjobs and are good at it.”

“Not happening,” Davie replied. “And you don’t have to be gay to do that. Half the guys I’ve run into out here are willing…Okay, not willing but they will, even if they’re straight. Like you said, it’s money.”

“Yeah. Again, not mything, I was just…Hell, never mind.”

Grey had gone on to warn Davie about the more obvious perils of living on the streets, as well as telling him about the shelters—”Most of which aren’t that safe unless you’re real careful,”—and the drop-in places where he could get hygiene products, used clothes, and sometimes meals.

In exchange for the lessons, Davie became Grey’s protector when other kids, especially punks who preyed on the homeless, thought the smaller teen was ripe to be robbed or beaten up because he couldn’t defend himself. Davie took it upon himself to teach Grey’s tormenters a lesson, thus earning a reputation as someone not to fuck with.

Things might have continued as they had for the previous six months that Davie and Grey had been hanging out together if Ricky, one of their friends, hadn’t stopped them while they were on their way to the usual spot where they panhandled for spare change.

“Hey, Davie,” Ricky said. “The word going around is that some dude is looking for you because you tried to kill him.”

Davie shook his head. “That could be any of a dozen guys.”

“Yeah, well this is an adult, a big one, and he’s what my old man used to say ‘out for bear’.”

“Your mom’s boyfriend?” Grey whispered to Davie.

“Maybe?” Davie asked what the guy looked like. When Ricky told him, he sighed. “Why now, after all this time?”

“You’re asking me?” Grey said. “Didyou try to kill him?”

Davie shrugged. “I was defending myself is all.” He looked around as if the bastard might show up any second. “He got what he deserved, but still…”

“Maybe you should leave town?” Ricky suggested.

“Uh-huh. I can’t even afford to buy a hotdog from the stand over there.” He nodded toward it. “How the hell could I buy a bus ticket?”

“It’s called hitchhiking,” Ricky replied.

“Yeah, well…I’ll think about it.”

That was the end of the discussion, but not the problem. Davie found he was looking over his shoulder for the rest of the day, no matter where he went, waiting for the bastard to appear.

Then, early that evening, Grey said he had an idea. “There’s this man I know who’s helped other guys like you. If I can find him, maybe he can help you, too.”

“How?”

“I tell you later. If he’s not around, why bother.” With that said, Grey took off, saying, “I’ll meet you at our usual place, tonight.”

That meant where he and Davie bedded down if someone else didn’t beat them to it.

It was well after two A.M. when Grey crawled under the loading dock to join Davie. “Found him,” he said.