Bane (The Devil's Roses #2) 1

Chapter Twelve- Yo Momma

Ari

She looked at the horrified faces both staring at her as they realized the mans life never improved. New Ari panicked, she stood from the floor and ran. Her muscles felt better running. Ari felt herself falling backwards into the black behind the curtain letting New Ari take over, she looked for a fire escape and ran down the flights of stairs fast. She was a sprinter, escape was her strength. She might not be able to do the distance but no one ever caught her.

She could hear them calling her name but she was out of the front door and running down the road and behind a business long before they even got out of the building.

She ran hard until her lungs felt like they would explode. She ducked in between two dumpsters and waited. She barely noticed the smell, she hardly saw the mold and rot around her and she didn’t even pay an ounce of attention to the other people in the alley.

Alleys were her jam. She would never have an issue in an alley, she was used to the turning of tricks, the wads of cash, the snorting of drugs and the beating of hookers and junkies. Nothing fazed her anymore, except Lucas. He seemed to bother her in ways she couldn’t explain, his brother was a hottie though. She might not like men but she could like him enough for an hour. She smirked. Old Ari was gone, New Ari took control with swagger and attitude.

She waited ten minutes to ensure the coast was clear. She hated that bitch Elsie. That had been a bad idea from the start. She should be with the orphans helping them. She shouldn’t be helping some dude who got HIV from a chick in a bar, he was an adult, he made his bed. She cringed thinking about that woman's head hitting the desk and the blood splatter.

"What we got here?" She looked up to a scummy looking man with a cheesy mustache and greasy black hair. He smelled like the dumpster beside her.

He reached down grabbing her and pulled up her sleeves. He looked for marks, "Holy shit you a virgin?"

She spat at him smiling, "Fuck you."

He pushed her to the dirty ground falling with her ripping at her shirt, "You wannna fuck, yeah we can do that I think."

She let him grope her, she let him kiss her neck. She knew to wait, she knew to let him do enough to get him to a place he wasn’t paying attention. Then she would strike. She didn’t have to wait though, regardless of just having done her pusher thing she was ready again. Her hands tingled heating up. He undid her pants groping her breast and caught the smile on her face, "You like that do ya?"

She nodded, "Yup." She reached out and grabbed both sides of his face.

He stopped as they shook. She saw it instantly. The air in between the two dumpsters froze and the sounds of the alley were lost in the small moments playing out in the air in front of her.

He was a kid, he got beat a lot by his old man. That’s what he called him, old man. One day his old man was beating his mom and he stepped in. He stabbed his own father. His mother cried, she called him names, she called nine one one. She tried to save his dad all the while shouting at him to leave her house and never come back. Suddenly he was on the streets, he was doing drugs, he was turning tricks and then he started to mule for a big dealer down town. Then the air cleared again and he was back in the house, he heard his dad beating his mom and instead of going into the kitchen he left. He ran away. He moved to another city where it was sunny. He got a job as a garbage man and married a lady with red hair and a chubby face. They kissed a lot. He was lying on a couch holding his son reading him a story when he vanished from the alley.

She sighed doing her pants back up. He was better, his life was better. She panted standing up feeling an ache in her back. She brushed the dirt off herself. She looked around the alley feeling nervous for the first time ever. She slipped along the building nearest to her trying to hurry to the street.

She hated her new life, she hated the new her. She used to be strong and cut off. She hated that she felt sorry for a man who held her down trying to hurt her because she got to see his back story, like she gave a shit.

She made it back to her old neighborhood within a few hours exhausted and feeling lost. She'd grown soft living with Lydia who had Annabelle doing everything for them all. Her heart hurt when she thought about the house and everyone in it but she knew it was for the best if she got her life back and saving the kids she'd left behind.

"Ari, wtf dude where have you been? Why do you have hair, you can't even see the tat on the back of your head anymore."

She looked behind to see her bestie Mila and smirked, "Hey, yeah I've been busy growing it out." Ari realized the other Ari never knew about the tat and smiled harder.

"Where you been?" Mila looked pissed, she was tall with long dark hair she always kept in a ponytail. Her face would have been pretty if she didn’t have such bad skin from living on the streets. Her dark blue eyes suddenly reminded Ari of her mother. She'd never seen her before the other Ari came.

"Jail."

Mila grimaced, "Oh shit you're eighteen now."

Ari nodded, "Almost nineteen."

"Wow ghey, anyway I'm heading to meet up with some peeps at Wind wanna come?"

Ari shrugged, "Sure." She didn’t have anywhere else to go.

"Guess you got no money huh?"

She laughed, "Hells no, dude I'm lucky I still have clothes on."

"Ouu lotta lesbians this time."

Mila was so crass Ari thought realizing she never had used the word crass before.

She shook her head, "Nope just a mix up with clothes, these aren’t mine obviously but whatevs, I took em anyway."

Mila laughed, "OMG Ari I was going to say something, those are scary norm. Too low key, especially for Wind. Oh well I got some in my bag. We'll have you fixed in no time."

Ari wanted to smile but she was sad, she didn’t want to go clubbing. She wanted to go home, she had a home and it had felt awesome being there. She wondered if Lucas could track her?

Ari remembered Lydia making her push the man and where he ended up and shook her head, there would be no going back, the streets might be safer than Lydia's. She didn’t know how mad Lydia would be for her running or for letting an innocent man go to jail.

Wind was packed, but Ari followed Mila to the bathroom to change into proper attire.

Ari tugged at her black tank top realizing how much she had filled out living at Lydia's.

"Damn Ari, you got boobs? Did you pay for those?"

She glared at Mila's friend Selena next to her in the crowded bathroom mirror, "Hells no, I was in prison and the food was better than what we usually eat okay."

Selena held her hands up raising her eyebrows, "Whatevs. Someone got touchy and boobies while she was away, you got a girlfriend in the pen you missing?"

Ari felt her rage filling her, she wanted to turn choking Selena against the wall but she couldn’t do it. She smiled bitterly and finished applying makeup to her eyes, "Ya, your mom."

"Oh snap Selena she got you there."

"Yeah well she musta forgot I got no mom."

Mila winked at Ari who was laughing, "Yeah well none of us got moms Selena so play the orphan card somewhere else."

Selena gave her a shitty face and stormed from the bathroom.

"Ha that was mean Ari."

Ari shrugged feeling bad but not wanting to look weak. She looked at herself and sighed, "God this hair is making me all girlie looking and shit."

"Yeah its sexy girl."

Ari examined herself, her dark healthy hair was shiny and lustrous. It was just the way her moms looked in other Ari's memories. Her dark eyes looked sexy with the shiny hair with the black eye makeup she was used to. Her lips looked plump and soft, she blushed remembering the feeling of Lucas kissing them. Her skin crawled blocking out the memories it brought back.

"You look really pretty Ari, I might try to get into prison just to get looking so healthy. What did you do anyway?"

Ari stopped and looked at herself, "B and E." She turned and smiled at her friend, "Don’t try to get into jail Mila, try to go straight. I am from now on. It was scary in there."

Mila raised an eyebrow at her, "Straight, how the hell will we eat going straight?"

"We could get jobs."

"With what address?"

"Shelter or just make one up."

"Ari I tried this before, you need a bank account, and for a bank account you need an address. People don’t pay in cash dude, its direct deposit."

Ari sighed, "God being homeless was easier in the nineties. Joe told me they used to just hang around and people brought them shit. Everyone was so scared of AIDS they didn’t want them in shelters so they helped them on the streets."

They walked out of the bathroom into the nightclub. The DJ was a favorite who had done the under ground raves when they had been too young to sneak into clubs. He mixed incredibly smoothly making every songs ending seamless. No one in the crowd ever had pause to stop dancing.

Ari felt self-conscious like everyone could see the fraud she was. She hadn’t gone to jail, she'd been in a sweet old ladies house eating pumpkin muffins and letting Aimee braid her hair and help her finish high school. She missed them all but knew she couldn’t go back, not after running off after making that man go to jail for a crime he hadn’t committed. She had no idea he would have gone there but she knew the whole scene would have played out in front of Elsie and Lydia, they would have seen it all through the window in the air she had made. Elsie would tell Lydia that Ari was too dangerous. Ron would come back and lock her up or worse put her to sleep like a violent dog.

She pushed it to the back of her mind and slid out on the dance floor with her friends, her real friends. The ones who she ran with, hid with, cried with and even some she had nearly died with. She cringed thinking about the rainy night they'd been caught. She looked at Mila thinking about how she'd acted so tough until the men who'd found them left, then she'd cried for days. Ari couldn’t make herself cry, she had no tears left. She hadn't cried since her uncle left her in the orphanage for the last time until she got to Lydia's, then she made up for lost years crying every day almost.