No, we’ll stick together, even if it’s just for a little while.
I don’t move other than to pull the foil blanket I lifted from the back of an ambulance from my backpack and wrap it around us. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than nothing.
I keep guard as she sleeps fitfully beside me. She cries out in her sleep so often that by the time the sun washes the sky with streaks of pink and purple, I have a pretty good idea what happened to her.
Nudging her awake, she jumps, looking around disorientated for a moment before she focuses on me.
“Hi,” she offers shyly. She has dirt smeared across one cheek and the beginnings of a black eye, which likely came courtesy of the asshole from last night, but lord, this girl is beautiful.
“Hey,” I reply, rolling my eyes when I remember she can’t hear me.
“No, it’s okay,” she grabs my arms in response, “if you speak slowly and clearly, I can read your lips, but God, what I wouldn’t do for pen and paper.” She sighs.
“I’m Viddy,” I tell her, making sure I say the words clearly.
She frowns. “Fiddy? Like 50 Cent says his name? Yo, I’m Fiddy,” she imitates with some weird hand gesture, making me snort.
“Viddy,” I repeat, fighting a grin.
“Viddy?” she says back. I nod, which makes her smile. “Hey, Viddy, I’m Megan.” I grab the plastic bag from my backpack before rolling up the blanket and tucking it inside.
I reach inside the little bag and pull out a muffin and offer it to Megan, whose eyes light up.
“Oh my God.” She snatches it from me, taking a huge bite before pausing and flushing with embarrassment.
“I’m so sorry,” she says around a mouthful of food before splitting the rest of the muffin in half and offering me some. I shake my head and point to her to eat it.
She narrows her eyes and practically shoves the damn thing in my mouth before I can protest—stubborn girl.
The smell of blueberries is too much for me to resist, so with a shrug, I snag it from her hands and eat it in three bites.
Once finished, I lead Megan down to the little stream that runs behind the park. The water is freezing, but it will do to wash our hands and faces, making sure any traces of blood from last night’s events are gone.
We clean up as best we can before starting the trek back down to the market district. Megan gets more and more tense the closer we get to the alley from last night. I could have taken us another way, but I need to see if anyone is talking down there. I’d rather know right off the bat what I’m dealing with than have it coming back and biting us in the ass later.
Megan tugs on my arm, making me turn to look at her. Her face is pale. One of her hands balls up into a fist and presses against her mouth.
“My bag,” she says a little too loud, making the two women standing on the corner chatting turn to look at us. Megan flushes with embarrassment before she lowers her voice and repeats herself.
“My bag. I forgot all about it last night with everything that happened. I must have left it in the alley.”
“Fuck!” I run my hands over my face. “Is there anything in your bag that could identify you?”
She nods reluctantly.
“Shit,” I curse. This is bad. Very fucking bad.
“Okay, here’s what we’ll do. The alleyway spills out onto Acorn Drive. It will take us down to the market district, but it will add about fifteen minutes onto our journey, and it passes through a not so nice neighborhood. At this time of the morning, it shouldn’t be an issue, but you never know. We’ll go see if we can find your bag, but if anything happens, we split. You keep going this way, and I’ll take Acorn. I’ll meet you down at the market. Find a woman called Poppy; her van has a huge red poppy on the side of it. Tell her I sent you to help her set up. If I don’t make it there, for whatever reason, head back to the park we stayed at last night.”
It isn’t until I finish that I remember she can’t hear me, and I was speaking way too fast for her to catch more than a few words. I go over it again, slowly this time adding in some