Theirs

prologue

There were worse things than having to sleep outside in a thunderstorm. For instance, I could be running from a serial killer or having to eat slugs for dinner.

I could be stranded naked on an island or- nope, never mind. Nothing was worse than having to sleep under a bridge in the middle of a thunderstorm, I hated thunderstorms. I hated them ever since I was a kid, I don't really know why, but the flashes and loud booming of the thunder scared me.

So here I was, sitting up on the stone-cold floor, hands over my ears, eyes tightly shut closed. Just waiting for it to pass.

I guess you could say this was one of the downsides of being homeless, not that there were any good sides. I've been living on the streets ever since my sixteenth birthday, being underage when I left meant that I had to stay off the radar from the police and social services.

So with no money, ID that I could use or phone that could possibly be traced, I had no choice but to live on the streets.

I took me quite a while to get used too, there were a lot of homeless people here who were very territorial over their claimed abandoned buildings or parts of the streets that for the first few weeks I had no choice but to sleep in small alleyways or sneak into the park after closing hours.

Eventually I got some homeless 'friends', I guess you could call them that. They were mostly older people who had been living on the streets for a while and wanted to help the younger people out.

I eventually found myself on the darker side of the city, the side where drugs and gangs were very active. I one day helped a man with a drug deal and that's how I got a place under the bridge, it wasn't much but at least here I wasn't going to get soaked in the rain.

Furthermore, I don't help selling drugs anymore though, it was a one time thing. I don't like violence, and the people living under the bridge didn't want me to help.

They were all men, most of them in their fifties. I guess they kind of saw me as their daughter, they let me have the extra food and keep me safe when dangerous people came to seek fights.

But right now they were all sleeping, and I was still awake, terrified. I looked up at the clock that was made on the church, it was 12;01. Meaning, as of right now, I was officially an adult.

I softly smiled and looked up at the stars. ''Happy birthday to me'' I whispered.

Like magic, about half an hour later the thunder finally started to tone down, giving me a chance to sleep. I laid down on the thin blue blanket that I called my bed and closed my eyes, letting sleep take over me.

---

''Happy birthday Avery'' Tom smiled, sitting up against the wall.

''Thank you, tom'' I smiled, he was one of the people that had been living here for years, he felt like family to me.

''So what's your plan for being eighteen, finally getting out of this shithole and enjoying your life'' He said, lighting a cigarette.

''No plans, I'm afraid you'll be stuck with me for another year'' I smiled, standing up from the floor.

He chuckled. ''As much as we would all love that, you're eighteen meaning you're all grown up now, go enjoy it before you actually end up like us. We're not going to be here for much longer to keep you safe here.''

''I'm afraid it's already too late for that, and don't worry, I will keep up the legacy of only allowing people in here that deserve it and all-'' I nodded.

He and a few others who had just woken up laughed. ''You couldn't be mean if you tried, according to you, even serial killers would deserve a place to live happily.''