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“Where did you get that?” I asked.
“I’ve got someone I know who works at the Steel Ridge Bakery,” Garrett explained, tearing off a large chunk of the bread for himself. “Whenever we go, he always gives us a loaf, but I try not to take advantage of it too much.”
Garrett passed the loaf to Archie, who tore off another chunk before passing it to me. It was far more bread than I would be able to eat at once, but I pulled off a healthy hunk of it.
After handing what was left back to Garrett, I lifted it to my mouth and sunk my teeth in. I had to stop myself from moaning. It was the heartiest thing I’d had in a long time. Crusty on the outside, warm and soft on the inside.
“This is delicious,” I told them. “Thank you for sharing it with me.”
Archie and Garrett both had mouths full of food, but they nodded at me while they chewed.
Once we’d all eaten a fair amount of our food, Archie said, “My dad’s an alcoholic. I had my face looking like yours more times than I care to admit.”
And there it was. Proof that at least one of them didn’t believe my story. I got the confirmation that he wasn’t the only one when Garrett revealed, “My parents died, and I was in foster care. The family I wound up with was awful. The parents were never around, and their biological kids were monsters. Archie and I found each other, and now we look out for one another.”
They’d shared, and they were being kind. Maybe that was the reason, or perhaps it was the fact that I knew I had nobody else, but I felt compelled to give them the truth.
“My mom married a man who could do this to me,” I started, pointing to my face. “She doesn’t care to do anything about it, and that’s probably because she spends most of her time either drunk or high.”
There was a collective silence that fell over the group. If they were telling the truth, then Archie, Garrett, and I all shared a lot in common. Painful pasts, for sure. But maybe we could find a way to brighter futures.
I didn’t know for sure where this life would lead, but I thought I had better chances of making it far if I had someone, or in this case, more than one person, by my side.
“You can stay with us,” Archie offered.
“Where do you live?” I asked.
“We used to not stay in one place for very long, but a few nights ago, Garrett and I found an abandoned home. It’s not much, but it does keep us protected at night.”
Until Archie said it, for some reason, it hadn’t clicked in my mind. But now, I couldn’t ignore the cold, hard truth of my situation.
I was homeless.
I purposely made myself homeless in hopes of saving myself from what was happening to me. Almost immediately, these two boys stumbled upon me and willingly shared their food with me.
“How old are you guys?” I asked.
“I’m fifteen,” Archie said.
When my eyes slid to Garrett’s, he answered, “Just turned sixteen.”
“What about you?” Archie asked.
It was becoming more and more clear to me that Archie was the more talkative one of the two. Garrett spoke when he needed to, but he was certainly a bit more reserved.
“I’m fourteen.”
Archie smiled at me. It was a genuinely friendly smile, and seeing it warmed something in my heart. “We’ll look out for you, Hanna. We can be like your big brothers.”
I was an only child, and after having nobody for so long, I really liked the idea of having two big brothers who wanted to look out for me. Time would tell if I was making a mistake, but I didn’t think so.
Archie was definitely a good guy. I didn’t think Garrett was a bad guy, but he was certainly moodier in comparison. Maybe it was just the teenage boy hormones. I didn’t know, and quite frankly, I didn’t care.
If they were willing to offer me a safe haven, I was going to take it.
So, despite the lingering pain in my face, I did my best to smile back at Archie and said, “I promise I’ll do my best not to be the annoying little sister.”
And just like that, I’d found my own little family.
