Runaways Box Set

Chapter 6

Chapter 6It was starting to get dark and Terry and Rudy were getting ready to head up the mall to find Josie and the guys. Terry was just putting his backpack over his shoulders when he heard someone say, “Well, look what we have here.”

Two of the punks who had attacked them last night moved in on them. Each one had his arm around a girl’s waist. A third girl was between the two couples.

“These are the sons-of-bitches who broke Ozzie’s nose, Carol,” the apparent leader of the group said. “What should we do about them?”

Carol scowled. “Return the favor?”

“He asked for…” Terry started to say. Rudy gripped his shoulder to shut him up.

“You’re welcome to try it,” Rudy stated. “I’m sure those cops would love to have a reason to come over here to see what’s going on.”

The two punks turned to look. Rudy grabbed Terry’s arm, practically dragging him toward the corner and around it onto the cross street. “In there.” They raced across the street and through the front door of a bar.

“You two don’t look old enough to be in here,” the bouncer manning the door said, holding up his hand to stop them.

“No, but when we are, we’d like to be alive to enjoy being here,” Rudy panted out.

“Trouble?”

“Yeah. Them.” Rudy pointed to the two punks who were just coming toward the bar.

“Got that right. I had to kick them out a few minutes ago. They tried to tell me their IDs were legit.” The bouncer snorted. “Hate to tell them but they sure aren’t twenty-two and twenty-four and the chicks they’re with are barely past sixteen if I had to guess.”

Terry stood frozen, waiting for the bouncer to kick them out as well.

Instead the man looked them over before saying, “I don’t think you want me calling the cops.” He flagged down one of the waiters. “Let these guys out the back way while I have a few words with their…friends.”

As they followed the waiter, earning sour looks from the customers they passed, Terry glanced back. He could see the bouncer out on the sidewalk, engaged in conversation with the punks and their girlfriends. From the young men’s body language they were not happy.

As soon as they were out in the alley behind the bar, Terry finally let out the breath he’d been holding. “We have to find the others.”

“No s**t. Come on.” Rudy led the way to the street that ran parallel to the mall. They raced down a few blocks before going back to the mall.

“There!” Terry pointed to his brother who was strolling along between Josie and Snap.

“Hey, we were looking for you,” Snap said. Then something in their expressions must have cued him in. “What’s going on?”

“We ran into two of the guys from last night. Or rather they ran into us.” Rudy quickly told him the whole story. “We need to get out of here before they come looking for us.”

“A bus, but not the one we usually take, just in case,” Josie said.

They all agreed and soon were jumping aboard one heading in the opposite direction from the squat. Twenty minutes later they got off in what looked to Terry like a well-to-do residential area from what he could see by the streetlights. When he said as much, Rudy nodded. “You keep walking up Sixth and it is. Down Colorado in either direction there’s some homes and lots of shops and restaurants, depending on which way you go.”

“Is this the area you said wasn’t so bad for spanging?” Kel asked.

“Yep. Not good but you can make out if you’re not too shabbily dressed.”

“Define shabbily,” Terry said, looking down at his worn jeans and T-shirt.

“Around here you’re good enough with what you’re wearing,” Josie said, patting his arm. “Further over that way—” she thumbed to the left, “—it’s more lower middle-class and lots of apartment buildings. It used to be the hospital zone but the big one left for a better space. Now they’re tearing down some of the buildings and trying to find buyers for the rest, according to what I read in one of the papers.”

“Restaurants mean food,” Kel said, looking hopeful.

“Yep. Some of it’s even sort of affordable. There’s a deli where we can get a couple of sandwiches without breaking our meager bank,” Snap told him. “They’re big enough we can share them and be good.”

“How much do we have?” Terry asked.

Rudy dug out the cash he and Terry had made during the day. “Not bad. Fifteen and change.”

Snap checked their haul and grinned. “Beat you. Seventeen plus. Guys, it’s dinner time.”

As they walked to the deli, Terry realized he was checking everyone he saw to be certain none of them were the punks who’d attacked them.

“Hey,” Rudy said quietly, putting one arm around Terry’s shoulders, “relax. There’s no way they could have followed us.”

“How did you know?”

“That you’re looking for them? You should see your expression. It’s like you expect someone to jump out of a bush, or from behind a wall, any second now. Take a deep breath and chill.”

“What if they live around here?”

“What are the chances of that?”

“Well, probably a hundred to one but…”

“Make it a thousand to one. We’re safe. Honest.”

Letting out a long breath, Terry nodded. “I feel like such a wimp.”

“Naw. You’re just not used to stuff like this. That’s a good thing, I think.”

“And you are?”

“After four years on the streets, plus growing up in a big city, yeah I am.”

“How did you manage to survive and stay sane?”

Rudy laughed. “Who says I’m sane?”

“He’s not you know,” Snap called back over his shoulder. “But then none of us are. Not totally. If we were we’d be regular job-holding squares working nine-to-five in some fast-food joint or if we got lucky, for a construction company.”

“Or farmers,” Josie chimed in.

“Farmers?” Kel c****d his head in question.

“Yeah. Well sorta. My dad, my real one, was an undocumented farm worker until he got deported. Because he and Mom weren’t really married, and she was born here, she and I got to stay. Soon after, she married my stepdad and we moved to the big city.” She grimaced. “If you can call Sheridan, Wyoming a big city.”

“Damn,” Kel said softly. “Do you…have you seen him since then? Your dad I mean.”

She shook her head. “When I ran away, after what my stepdad did, I was going to go down to Mexico to find him. I got as far as here and met Snap.”

Snap nodded, putting his arm around her. “She was just a kid, not that I wasn’t too, but I was a bit wiser about things, like pointing out to her she sort of needed to know more about where he lived than just ‘somewhere in Mexico City’.”

Josie shrugged. “I was a bit naïve I guess.”

“You guess? You were a total innocent. It was just dumb luck you made it from Wyoming to here without being raped, or picked up by the cops and sent back home. If you’d continued on…”

“I know. I got lucky, finding you.” She kissed his cheek. Then she grinned. “And you got damned lucky finding me. Right?”

“You better believe it.”

Rudy smiled. “True love.”

“Or as close to as possible,” Snap agreed.

“Not to change the subject, but isn’t this the deli?” Kel asked.

Snap grinned. “That’s what it says on the sign.”

“Are they going to freak if we all go in?”

“Maybe,” Rudy replied, “But the hell with them if they do. Our money is as good as anyone else’s, so they can deal.”

When they entered and went to the counter, they were greeted with dubious looks at first—from the few customers seated in booths or at tables. The two men behind the counter were more welcoming, one of them smiling when he asked what they wanted. Rudy consulted with the others and they decided to order a meatball sandwich and a Reuben, “Each one cut into five pieces, please,” Rudy said when he placed the order, “with potato salad, coleslaw, and pickles.”

“For here or to go?” the man serving them asked.

“To go.”

“Make that five sandwiches, one for each of them,” someone said from behind them. When the group turned as one to see who had spoken, a middle-aged, well-dressed man nodded to them. “It’s on me, so tell him what else you want.”

“Sir, we can’t…” Rudy started to say.

“Yes, you can, young man. I can afford it and from the look of all of you, you could use a decent meal. I know what it’s like to go hungry. Someone helped me get on my feet and now…there was a movie that said it best.”

“‘Pay It Forward’,” Josie broke in with a grin.

“Yes. Now it’s my turn to do that so, as I said, your meals are on me.”

“Thank you, sir!” Rudy said fervently. His words were echoed by the others.

“You’re quite welcome. Oh, and Tim,” he said to the man behind the counter, “add a dozen bagels to their order.”

“Yes, sir, Mr. Abernathy.” Tim looked at Rudy. “So what other sandwiches would you all like?”

“Tuna?” Josie said.

“Another meatball?” Snap added.

“And a—” Kel looked at the menu on the wall behind the counter, “—an eggplant parmesan.”

“Eww.” Josie grimaced. “That’s…”

“Good, I bet,” Kel said with a grin.

“It is,” Mr. Abernathy told them. “It’s one of my favorites. Tim, I’ll have one too, for here.”

Fifteen minutes later, carry-out bags in hand, Rudy and the others again thanked Mr. Abernathy profusely. He smiled, handing Rudy a card as he said, “If you ever need help, call me.” Then he picked up his plate and drink and headed to a booth at the back of the room.

“What does it say?” Snap asked as they left the deli. “What kind of help?”

“He’s a lawyer,” Rudy told him, sounding surprised.

Terry chuckled. “So he’s our ‘get out of jail free’ card?”

Rudy shrugged. “Stranger things have happened, so who knows.” He tucked the card in the pocket of his jeans. “There’s a park a couple of blocks from here where we can eat before these get cold.”

“A couple?” Snap grumbled a few minutes later. “I counted eight and two of them were long.”

“Quit your grousing,” Josie told him. “We’re here, let’s eat.”

They settled down at one of the picnic tables and dug in, all conversation put on hold until they’d eaten as much as they could without making themselves sick. What was left was rewrapped and put into their backpacks. Then Rudy suggested they head home.

“We’re safe enough now,” he said as they walked to the bus stop. “But, for the next week or so I think we should avoid downtown and hope those punks decide they’ve scared us away.”

“As far as I’m concerned, they have,” Terry muttered angrily. “I’d rather set up anywhere else but there, even if it means we make less cash.”

“What about the bike path?” Snap suggested. “We’ve done that before and made out okay.”

Rudy nodded. “We’ll give it a try.”

* * * *

“What’s the bike path?” Terry asked much later in the evening. He and Rudy were the only ones still awake. Kel had crashed almost as soon as they’d gotten back to the squat. A few minutes later, after the remaining food from the deli had been stored in a battered cooler Snap had found by a dumpster two days earlier, he and Josie had retired to their ‘bedroom’ for the night.

“It’s a path along Cherry Creek for bikers and pedestrians. It runs from downtown on west to the Cherry Creek shopping area, and from there to the reservoir. If we park ourselves close to the shopping center we’ll be okay.”

“Meaning safe?”

“Pretty much. The cops don’t come down there too often so we won’t be hassled.”

“By them, but what about anyone else?”

“People are people, Ter. Some of them don’t think twice about making our lives more miserable than they already are. But they’re in the minority. Just like downtown, most of them will ignore us, some of them will drop a few coins or a bill in our cups, and once in a blue moon, if they think they can get away with it, we might run into punks like Ozzie and his friends.” Rudy snorted with a bit of amusement. “If I was named Ozzie I might have a chip on my shoulder too and try to take it out on someone.”

Terry chuckled. “Yeah. Not a name I’d want to be stuck with.” He leaned his head back and realized Rudy’s arm was between it and the top of the sofa. When he started to straighten up again, Rudy took advantage of the situation to pull him against his side, wrapping his arm around Terry’s shoulders.

“Relax,” he said when Terry stiffened and started to pull away. “I’m not going to do anything. I just felt like holding you for a bit. Besides—” he grinned, “—with everyone here there’s not much we could do, now is there?”

“No.” Do I wish they weren’t here? Maybe. Terry smiled. Probably.

“So my holding you is okay, from the smile on your face.”

“Umm-hmm.”

“And if I tried to kiss you?”

Terry looked squarely at him and nodded. “I could deal.”

“Good,” Rudy said softly before his lips descended to take Terry’s in a slow kiss.

Terry’s immediate response was physical, both with his lips when he kissed Rudy hungrily, and in his crotch as his c**k hardened instantly. He knew if he didn’t break away he’d regret it. And if he did—he’d regret it even more because Rudy would think he’d changed his mind.

He didn’t have to end the kiss. Rudy did it first, smiling ruefully. “If we keep this up we’re liable to say the hell with it. If they want to watch, let them.”

Biting his lip to keep from laughing out loud, Terry managed to whisper, “Too true.”

“If we were alone though?”

“Not to sound crass, but we’d be naked, having down and dirty s*x right now.” Terry had the strong feeling it would be more than that as far as he was concerned, but he wasn’t about to push boundaries if that was all Rudy wanted.

Rudy nodded. “Nothing wrong with that, if it’s all you want.”

“Since it’s probably all you want…”

Rudy cupped Terry’s face in his hands. “Honest truth? I don’t know what I want with you. We don’t know each other all that well. Yet. Maybe that’s all it would be. s*x for s*x’s sake. On the other hand…who knows what could happen over the long haul?”

“Not us,” Terry replied quietly. “Not now anyway. I did like the kissing. My body liked the idea it could lead to more.”

“No kidding,” Rudy said, his glance dropping to Terry’s crotch. “I wasn’t immune either.”

Terry looked down and grinned. “So I see. But…”

“But it was just a normal reaction between two guys who haven’t had any in a while.”

“Probably. Still…” Terry hesitated.

“Spit it out.”

Terry sighed. “I think I like you.”

“Think?”

“I mean as more than as a person I consider a friend. Because I do think of you as a friend but now…more? I think. And that was before we kissed. I mean I was hoping we were more or could be more or…well, you know.”

“Yeah, I think so. You didn’t have a clue whether I saw you as someone I might be interested in, any more than I did about you. Of course, like I said, this could turn into just friends with benefits, and damn I hate that term. But it works I guess and it might be all there is between us.”

Terry nodded. “I know, and I suppose that wouldn’t be all bad.”

Rudy chuckled. “I could handle it.”

“Me too.” I think. It would hurt, if one of us began to want more and the other didn’t. But if that happened and it was me there’s nothing tying me here. Other than Kel if he didn’t want to leave. The same with Rudy. I don’t see him wanting to walk away from Josie and Snap just because he got too emotionally involved with me and I couldn’t reciprocate.

“What are you thinking? And before you say ‘nothing’, I can see it on your face. So tell me.”

Terry took a deep breath and did.

“I suppose that could happen,” Rudy said when he’d finished. “Probably fifty-fifty that it will. Not the best odds but I think it’s worth finding out.” Rudy grinned suddenly. “If we do split up, I get the kids.”

Laughing, Terry shook his head. “Nope, they get to choose who they want to go with.” He sobered, gazing at Rudy. “I am willing to try.”

“Me too.” Rudy leaned forward at the same time Terry did, they’re lips melding in a long, slow kiss that was fraught more with anticipation of what might be in their future than any immediate physical need for each other.

“We probably should get some sleep,” Rudy said when they broke apart. “You know how kids are. Always up at the break of dawn wanting their breakfasts.”

Terry grinned. “At which point we tell them to fend for themselves. They’re old enough.”

“True that.” Rudy looked at Terry as if waiting for something. When Terry didn’t move, Rudy said, “You’re on my bed, and it’s not big enough for both of us.”

“Even if it was, we don’t want to shock the kids, so I’ll move.” Terry got up, put his hands on Rudy’s shoulders and gave him a quick kiss. “See you in the morning.”

“Night, Ter,” Rudy replied softly. “Sleep well.”

“I think I will. You too.”

Rudy smiled. “I know I will.”