Stop Him (+18)

Him

3 Years Earlier...

I waited on the corner of our neighborhood for the city bus to come and take me to work. Ever since my mom quit her pill addiction I was able to leave my usual factory and cleaning jobs that paid a lot giving me the ability to pay the rent along with take care of my little brother Kive, my mom, and I. Now I was able to take on jobs that most people my age worked, like the country club and serving. I mean yeah I obviously still needed the money but I wasn't in so much of a financial strain anymore and though it wasn't a huge step up, it felt good to not feel the weight of the world on your shoulders.

"Kimberly!" I looked behind me to see my neighbor Laurie running towards the bus stop, her shift was probably starting soon too. People like us had no choice but to work the afternoon or night shifts on the weekend where we'd get the most money and the possibility of overtime, unlike everyone else we didn't get to enjoy our weekends partying. Rather it was spent doing the closing shift at your job, it wasn't the best but it was our way of life and eventually, we'd made peace with it, if we hadn't already.

"Hey Laurie," I said happy to see her. Laurie was everything you imagined a natural redhead to be, she had long luscious red hair that could almost never be tamed unless she wrapped her hair tie 3 times. The pretty freckles on her face looked as if a paintbrush was flicked a couple of times making up the nude brown dots underneath her eyes. Of course, she was also pretty skinny, maybe if life didn't deal her a bad set of cards she could have gone into modeling of some sort because she was pretty and had the body for it. The style could use a little improvement but when you lived off of wages like ours you didn't have much left for the cute shirt you saw in the window of Forever21 or the newest Lululemon flare leggings.

After paying for all of the necessities like rent, groceries, household items, student loans, and in my case making sure Kive had presentable clothes for school the little money I had left I put 2/3rds of it in my savings and the rest I saved until my next paycheck or for any necessary things that popped up.  In this life, savings were crucial because you never know when your mom might take advantage of your linked bank accounts again and run off with her boyfriend to blow off your money or when the landlord would raise the rent on you...again, it was just always best to be prepared.

My life may sound depressing and at times....a lot of times it was. But I made the best out of it and found happiness in the little things like with family and friends.

"You closing tonight?" Laurie asked me as she dug around in the mini backpack that she took everywhere. "Actually who am I kidding, you're Kimberly Andraes you close every Sunday." She answered her own question. As we laughed.

"Yeah let's just skip the formalities," I add jokingly.

"Well you know we always have to have that awkward moment when we see each other at the bus stop every weekend." She scoffed as a joke. "Hm, and I wonder whose fault that is." I utter under my breath.

"Um yours!" She declares pretends to be insulted.

"Oh oh so you're not the one picking up a shift every weekend all of a sudden and never has time for me?" I remark.

"Oh so we don't work the same days now?" We both burst into laughter over the fake beef we created out of nowhere.

"Touche." Finally, the bus begins to pull up in front of us as its doors open. "Age before beauty." I gesture my arms letting her go ahead. "Say less." She says as she gets on. "Oh wow, you were supposed to offer it back!" I call her out walking on behind her. "Not after you basically called me a senior citizen when I'm only 3 months older." She snaps back as we sit in the middle. "Valid." I agree laughing.