Shelter Me

Buffy and William huddled together underneath the overpass they had found to shelter them from the rain. Between the two of them, they had little money. Neither was old enough to rent a motel room but even if they were, they only had enough money for a couple of nights. Instead, William had purchased a couple cheap blankets and pillows from a thrift store.

The two teens had been living on the dollar menu from McDonald’s and Wendy’s. It had been a week since they left home. William knew they would have been reported as missing, or rather, runaways so he tried to keep a low profile for him and Buffy. L.A. was a huge city and fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you looked at it, there were plenty of other homeless people, some teens like them milling about in the rougher sections of town that he figured they could blend in with the crowd.

“I’m so cold” Buffy shivered as she hugged her thin blanket around her slim form.

“I know, pet. This damn rain is making the temperature drop. Here, take my blanket too.” William offered.

“No, then you’ll be too cold.” Buffy resisted.

“Well, then come here, brat.” William teased her as she scooted into his embrace.

“We’ll keep each other warm.” William said as he rested his chin on the top of her head.

“I wish it was warmer so I could take my clothes off and have a nature shower” Buffy commented.

William felt a sudden twitch in his groin area at the notion of Buffy being au natural but quickly dismissed the thought from his mind.

“I know. I’m pretty ripe myself. We need to find a place where we can get clean.” William replied.

“William?” Buffy turned and looked at him.

“Yeah?” William responded.

“Where are we going to…ummm…live? I mean…I know we’ve been doing the whole sleep under the stars this past week but we can’t do that forever, right? And what about food? Our money will run out soon. What are we going to do, William?” Buffy asked.

William didn’t know what to tell her. He hadn’t really thought that far in advance when he decided to run off with Buffy. He was ill-prepared and uncertain.

“I’ll think of something, Buffy. Don’t worry. I’ll find us a place to stay. I promise to take care of you. It’ll be alright.” William comforted her with what he hoped would be promises he could keep.


6 months later…

“It’s mine! I found it first!” Buffy screamed at the two, much larger boys who were attempting to grab the bag of stale donuts she had retrieved from the garbage bin in the alley behind Dunkin Donuts. A lot of food joints threw out leftover food or day old food and it was like vultures trying to get it.

“Give them to me you stupid little cunt!” one of the boys yelled.

“No! They’re mine!” Buffy screamed back.

“Listen here, bitch!” the second boy grabbed her arm and made a move to strike her.

“If I were you, I’d remove your hand from the lady.” William said from behind them.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t dear old brother Billy come to save his little sis. You’re such a hero” one of the boys said, then mocked like he was swooning.

The second boy, holding Buffy, grinned and then slapped her across the face, causing her to fall to the ground.

“You shouldn’t have done that.” William said and pounced onto the bigger boy, punching and cursing.

The first boy tried to jump in so they could double team William but before he knew it, his friend was shrieking and stumbling back from William who now held some sort of metal spike he had found on the concrete, the tip covered with blood.

“Holy shit, dude! You stabbed him! Man...over some fucking donuts? You’re one sick fuck!” the boy screamed at William.

“I didn’t mean…I didn’t stab him over the donuts. He hurt my sister. Nobody touches Buffy. Nobody! Fuck! Let’s get out of here, Buffy.” William dropped the piece of metal and grabbed Buffy’s hands dragging her away as the one boy knelt over his friend to access the damage.

“Oh my God, William. You stabbed him? Is he going to be O.K.?” Buffy questioned as they ran.

“I think so. It didn’t go in that deep, I don’t think. I didn’t mean to…he was punching me and we were fighting and I was on the ground and reached out and felt this pipe thing or whatever and I just wanted to get him off of me…I didn’t mean…this never would have happened if he wouldn’t have hit you.” William justified his actions.

“What if they send the police? They’ll take you away and lock you up and then who is going to take care of me?” Buffy became hysterical.

“They aren’t going to send the police. They’re street kids, Buffy; just like us. They don’t want the cops sniffing around our spots. Besides, what are they going to say? Well, Officer I was attacking this little girl and…” before William could finish Buffy interrupted him.

“I am NOT a little girl! I’m 15, William!” Buffy huffed. “Look at me? Do I look like a little girl to you?” Buffy ran her hands down her sides and puffed out her now, developed chest. She wasn’t hugely endowed in the chest area by any means but there certainly was a huge difference now than less than a year previous.

William knew she was starting to look more like a woman than a girl everyday. Christ, he knew it all too well. Too well. He thought about it way more than a brother should. He swallowed the lump in his throat.

“I just meant your stature, Buffy, not age.” He lied hoping to end this discussion and keep his eyes from looking at her body.

“Well, O.K. So…you want a donut?” Buffy grinned.

Such was life on the streets. Survival of the fittest, or in this case, those wielding pointy objects. Buffy and William made it back to what they now called home, an abandoned warehouse which a handful of other teen runaways shared with them. The two boys, Warren and Tucker who had accosted Buffy used to stay there too but they always were starting trouble and got kicked out by majority consensus.

Buffy and William shared the stale donuts and then lay down on their makeshift bed, a dirty old twin mattress covered with their thrift store blankets. They slept side by side every night. It was safer this way. William didn’t trust anyone and Buffy was TOO trusting; too naïve.

The two siblings drifted off to sleep, wrapped around each other for warmth.

Buffy woke up sometime during the middle of the night, feeling William’s “thingy” as she called it pressing into her behind. Over the past month or so, this had been happening. She didn’t know why but his “thingy” would grow and press into her while they were sleeping. She had teased him about it once and he had turned bright red and became very angry so she didn’t say anything anymore about it. She shrugged to herself and thought well he is a sixteen year old boy. He is probably dreaming about Pamela Anderson or something. She rolled her eyes. I might not have as big of boobs but I’m just as pretty she thought to herself. Little did she know that while William’s dreams were indeed filled with a certain blonde, it wasn’t Pamela that he was fantasizing about.

She didn’t know now. But she soon would.

Continued in Chapter 2- Urges