Homeless

Chapter 18

Derek's POV

When we get home, I place all my clothes in the washing machine. I go back to the kitchen and start unpacking groceries. I'm making garlic shrimp and broccoli with a side of brown rice.

"Can I help with anything?" Danielle asks. She stands in the kitchen, watching me work.

"I think I got it," I say.

"Sounds good." Danielle takes a seat at the kitchen island. "Today was nice. Aside from me trying to be your mom. I'm sorry about that again."

"And I'm sorry for snapping at you. Again," I say, giving her a weak smile. "I like that we communicate like this," I add. "I've never really communicated with anyone like this. You make it easy."

"I could say the same about you," Danielle says.

I put a pot of brown rice on the stove. Next I wash the broccoli and garlic then start peeling the shrimp.

"Remember how I told you about the time I lived in Queens?"

"You told me that you got introduced to a bad crowd and some bad things. But not much more than that."

I don't know where it's coming from but I want to tell Danielle more about my past. I focus on deveining my shrimp as I start to share a bit of my story.

"I was about 20 when I finally ended up in Queens. I had been in my neighborhood for about 4 years until the cops kicked me out. When I got to Queens, I found a little alley behind a Chinese restaurant. It was quiet and out of the way. I thought I would be safe there."

All the shrimp is clean so I put it into a glass bowl and start to marinate it.

"Well the first night I was there, I get woken up with a kick to the stomach and this girl asking me what the hell I was doing in her spot." I shake my head as I remember that night clear as day. "I looked up to see this white chick with flaming red hair holding a baseball bat, ready to crack my skull open. Roxanne. She went by Roxy. I told her I wasn't there to cause any trouble and that I would be leaving."

I pour garlic powder on the shrimp, along with onion powder, paprika, soy sauce, honey and red pepper flakes. I pop the bowl in the fridge then wash my hands and start mincing the garlic.

"As I'm packing up my stuff, she starts asking me where I'm from, how I got there, how old I am. Just a bunch of questions. And I answered all of them. I was so scared she was gonna bash my head in."

Once I have a small pile of garlic, I chop the broccoli up and toss the two together. I season the broccoli with some salt and pepper then set it to the side.

"Long story short, she ended up telling me I could stay. And given I wasn't familiar with Queens, I stayed. She was 10 years older than me but that didn't stop her from eventually making her move. And given the immature and horny kid that I was, I responded in kind. We would hook up regularly but it honestly never felt right. I always felt like she was taking advantage of me."

"I... sorry to interrupt," Danielle says. "And sorry if this is a stupid question, but where would you hook up?"

I can't help but laugh a little. "Honestly, anywhere. Sometimes at the shelter, sometimes right there in the alley."

"On the ground?" Danielle looks horrified.

This time I laugh loudly. "When you're horny, you're horny Dani. We would throw a sleeping bag on the floor and just go for it some nights."

"Yikes," Danielle says.

"I know." I turn the stove on and get started on cooking the shrimp. "But yeah, that was how we lived for a month. Just her and I, in the back alley, literally just eating whatever leftovers we could get from the Chinese store and having sex in between. It wasn't much of a life.