His Reckless Heart

Chapter 1

Rebecca's POV

"Sir, please, do you have any coin to spare?" I managed to ask a passerby in a shaky voice.

The man didn't even spare me a glance. I could tell from his countenance that he was disgusted by my presence as he spits out disgustingly a few feet from where I stood.

It was late at night and the streets had been deserted as it was very cold in the height of winter.

The street was glittering from the beautiful Christmas decorations and lighting, that adorn every house and shop.

It must feel nice to belong to one of those happy families behind closed doors, sharing laughter and the holiday spirit with people who love and genuinely care for you.

But here I am roaming the street with the hope of getting something to eat. Even a piece of dry bread at this moment would taste like chicken fries.

My name is Rebecca Sally, and I am sixteen years old. I have been homeless for the past nine months.

My story is quite a depressing one.

It's not your regular story of beautiful girls and boys falling in love or peeps that were born with magical powers.

I am just a girl that nobody wanted. Well, the only person that ever loved me was my mum. She died when I was only six years old.

She discovered late that she had a tumor in her brain, and that eventually led to her death.

She left me with my father and stepmother, who both treated me like trash. I was abused physically and emotionally. I was stopped from going to school to help out with the house chores.

No matter what I did, it was never good enough.

My dad would call me all sorts of derogatory names, swear at me, throw things at me, and beat me up whenever he felt like it.

the mere sight of me irritated him so much and I never understood why.

A good neighbor noticed my bad condition of living and called child support to come to my rescue.

my dad didn't even fight to keep me, if anything he was happy that he will be finally getting rid of me.

My condition went from bad to worse as soon as I got to the orphanage, I was shuffled between homes till the day I turned sixteen.

I had decided to run away from my new home after hearing how my foster parents were talking about divorce, and that only meant only one thing, and that was being taken back to the orphanage.

I didn't want to go back to the child care center, so I ran away to start living in the streets.

As a minor, I have to constantly be on the lookout for the police, and as a girl, well, there is little or nothing I can do to protect myself, but I have been very lucky.

I can't go to the homeless shelter because I am still a minor and they would not accept me.

I am alone, hungry, and homeless.

Despite all I have been through and am still going through, I am grateful and try so hard to find comfort in the saying that when there is life, there is hope.

I don't know what the future holds for me, but I'm sure I might not be able to find out if I don't get someone to give me some food tonight. I can't work because most people would never hire a homeless person, and the chances get even thinner once they know you are minor, so all I do is beg to survive.

I have not eaten in three days. I have been surviving on just water. I am hoping that I can find someone with a generous heart to give me something to get food, no matter how little.

Here in the streets, nobody cares about you. To some, you are just a nuisance, a misfit for society. People would spit at you, they would throw all sorts of profanities at you without getting to know your s********e even use you as a bad example when trying to teach their kids a life lesson.

Nobody cares for you.

Although there are days when we get lots of goodies from kind-hearted people, there are also bad days that might send you to prison should someone report you to the police for harassment.

I pulled the length of my jacket I got as a gift on my thirteen years birthday down to protect myself from the ferocious storm, and the skin exposed to my shredded jeans is as white as the snow, with numerous frostbites.

I was f*****g cold despite the jacket I had on.

I rub my palms together to warm them up, then place them across my face; I don't have a mirror, but I'm sure I'll look as white as snow.

In the streets of Washington, DC, a homeless snow-white princess

my stomach groaned loudly again, and I subconsciously rub my stomach with my hand as a way of comforting it

I saw a car headlight coming in from a distance. I panicked a bit, but not enough to make me cower in fear as a new wave of hope rose in me.

I needed someone to give me something to eat, just anything to keep this hunger away.

I guess the fear of starving to death is more dreadful.

As soon as the car gets closer to where I was standing, it zooms past me in the twinkle of an eye while my heart breaks a little. I looked on both sides of the street to see that it was completely quiet, just a handful of homeless people like me sleeping in different locations across the street. I decided to call it a night. If I don't die of hunger tonight, then maybe tomorrow will come with a little bit of sunshine.

I moved towards my temporal corner. It's located on the side of a restaurant where they normally keep their chairs after closing for their daily business.

The shop closes by 9:00 pm and resumes the next day by 8:00 am. The front of the shop becomes mine during closed hours.

I dropped my bag pack and began to arrange the chairs to create a shield. I normally just make the chairs fall on each other after spreading a few of my old clothes. Well, all my clothes are old, so I use rag-like ones.

I was about to lie down when I heard footsteps from across the street, heading my way.

"Hey, do you mind?" A voice said behind me.

I turned to see a boy, probably the same age as me or maybe a little older, giving me a pack of cooked noodles.

I must have gulped down my invincible Adam's apple because as soon as the aroma of noodles hit my nostrils, it made my stomach grumble.

As much as I wanted to grab the pack of food from him, I also wanted to make sure he was referring to me.

"Sorry, my name is Jake. I saw you earlier when I was going to work, so I decided to get you something on my way back," he said, still stretching his hand, which had the pack of noodles.

That was all the confirmation I needed. "Thank you," I said, collecting the pack from him, and quickly, I sat down on the floor and started eating, gulping down as much food as I could in a hurry.

I choked at some point, but luckily, I still had a bit of water, so I drank, and I became filled with a bit of energy.

All this while, I had completely forgotten about the stranger, who I suppose would be staring at me most weirdly by now.

My body released a loud burp, after which I turned to look at the stranger, who had a boyish grin on his face.

He was tall and a bit skinny, with black hair, and very bright brown eyes. He wore an old white shirt with black faded jeans. From one glance, one could tell he was not rich. But at least he is far from being homeless like me.

I could see through the street light that he has a cute dimple when he smiles. And strangely, I felt safe around him and was glad he thought of me.

No one has ever bought me anything without wanting anything in return.

I mean, I had to do the house chores to be able to live under my own father's roof.

"Thank you," I said, smiling sheepishly and a little bit embarrassed about how I ate the food.

Whether he knows it or not, he just saved me from starving to death. And for that, I will forever be grateful.

There was something about the way he looked at me, I couldn't fathom it just yet but I must admit it was a nice feeling.

Is he going to go back home or is he going to continually stare at me? I wondered as I shyly looked at him.

"What's your name?" he asked after a few moments of awkwardness had passed.

"Rebecca," I said, suddenly feeling shy as my eyes found their way to the floor.

"You sleep here?" he asked as I felt his eyes roaming my indecent space.

I tried to check and see through his expression if he was in any way disappointed with the way I lived, but his expression gave nothing away that would suggest that.

"Yeah, for now," I said, feeling a little embarrassed.

"So I will see you tomorrow then?" he asked as his eyes sparkled with a gleam of hope.

"Yeah, sure," I said, letting the smile that I had deliberately kept on the side of my lips spread across my entire face.

"I will check on you in the morning before heading out," he said.

"Cool," I said, pulling a few strands of my hair behind my ears.

"Good night, Rebecca," he said, his voice making me realize how beautiful my name sounded to the ear. When properly pronounced by a cute-looking prince charming, of course.

"Good night Jake," I said as I watched him walk into the night.

It was an early Christmas miracle because I never expected anyone to want to be friends with me or even care enough about me to spare me some of their thoughts for the day.

I arranged my corner and happily coiled myself to blend in so that I wouldn't be noticed by anyone else as I drifted off to sleep with a happy smile on my face.