Surviving

Chapter 3-3

Half an hour later Terry watched Kel walking down the mall, chatting away with Snap, who had one arm protectively around Josie’s waist.

“First things first,” Rudy said when they were out of sight. “Wait there—” he pointed to one of the benches, “—while I pick up some dye. Black or brown?”

“I think…brown?” Terry chuckled. “I’m not into the whole Goth thing and I’d probably look like one with black hair.”

“True.”

Terry stopped him before Rudy headed to the drugstore on the corner. “Here, take this,” he said, handing Rudy a ten he’d stashed in his pocket. The rest was in his sock at this point. When Rudy c****d an eyebrow, Terry told him, “Mom gave us a few bucks when we left. I don’t know if it was in way of an apology or just her letting us know not to come back. Like ‘This should get you well away from town’.”

“I’m surprised you have any left,” Rudy commented, pocketing the bill.

Terry shrugged. “We didn’t eat much while we were on the road.” Even though he trusted Rudy at this point, he wasn’t about to tell him that he still had most of the money they’d left home with. Hell, if they get tired of having us around we’ll probably need it. No—definitely need it.

Rudy came back ten minutes later, carrying a plastic bag. “There’s no gas stations down here, but there’s a building on the next block with restrooms on each floor. We can use one of them.”

When they got there, they went up to the third floor, using the fire stairs. Once they were in the restroom, Rudy locked the door then told Terry to take off his shirt. “You don’t want brown stains on it.”

Terry did, then at Rudy’s order, dampened some paper towels.

“Holy s**t,” Rudy muttered.

“What?”

“Your back. Damn, Ter. He did a number on you. A lot of times from the look of it.”

“I’m aware of that,” Terry replied tightly.

“I’m sure. Sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything, but hell…”

“It’s okay. It’s not going to happen again and some of the old scars have already faded.”

“If you say so. Sure doesn’t look like it from where I stand.” Rudy shook his head as he opened the dye box. Taking out the bottles and instructions, he put on the latex gloves that came with them and after telling Terry to lean over the sink, he rubbed the dye into Terry’s hair, using a wet paper towel occasionally to wipe it off when it got on his skin. “Now we wait…umm, it says ten minutes.” He grinned. “Got any cards in you pack?”

Terry chuckled. “Nope.”

“Then we talk.” Rudy leaned against the wall by the sink. “What’s it like, living in a small town?”

“Probably like anywhere else, but slower. School, homework, get into sports if that’s your thing.”

“Did you?”

“Sports? Yeah. Baseball in high school. You?”

Rudy grimaced. “I left home when I was fifteen. Sports weren’t high on my list after that.”

“You from here?”

“Are you kidding? I’m an easterner, born and bred. Or was until I left.”

“Why did you leave?”

“Remember what I said about parents who couldn’t handle having a gay kid? That would be mine. First they tried to convince me it was just a phase I was going through. Then, when that didn’t work they kicked me out.”

“Whew.” Terry whistled through his teeth in dismay. “How did you end up out here?”

“I knew a guy who’d moved to Golden. That’s just west of Denver, in case you didn’t know. He let me stay with him for a bit before we decided we weren’t making it, even as friends. So I split and I’ve been on the streets ever since.”

“Four years.”

“Yeah.” Rudy chuckled. “That makes me a lifer, sorta.”

“Why not get a job?”

“There aren’t a lot of them out there for guys with no high school diploma and no fixed address.”

Terry smiled weakly. “Well, I’ve got half of that, and I know how to cook so maybe I’ll have a career at a fast-food place.”

“Lots of luck with that around here. Wrong ethnicity. And do not tell Josie I said that.”

“I won’t.”

“I think ten minutes are up. Let’s see what we have going. Stick your head under the water and rinse the dye out. Then you get to condition, just like in the fancy salons.”

Terry laughed, and did as he was told. He used paper towels to dry his hair when he was finished. Then he looked in the mirror. “A whole new me,” he murmured, a bit dismayed to see he really was—at least as far as his hair was concerned.

“And not bad, either,” Rudy said. “Brown works. Not as nice as the copper but better that going Goth. Get dressed and I’ll teach you the fine art of spanging.”

“You called it that before,” Terry said as he put on his T-shirt. “I presume that means begging?”

“Yep. Short for asking for spare change.”

They cleaned the sink as best they could with paper towels, tossed them in the trash, and took off.