Aniva
Boy woke up to hands circling his throat. He started, and tried to sit up, but was held down. Boy opened his eyes to see a girl his age kneeling over him.
”Who are you?” She demanded in a lightly accented voice.
“I-I’m sorry, I thought I c-could just w-warm up here! I didn’t mean t-to fall asleep!” Boy stammered.
The girl harrumphed, and eyed him suspiciously. “Say I believe you. Where did you come from and how did you find this place?” She questioned.
“Huh? The hole in the wall was wide open?” Boy said.
”No it wasn’t! I always make sure I close it behind me!” She said before standing up. She looked down at him with narrowed eyes. “Well? Get up!”
Boy scrambled off the floor. He stood in front of her with wide eyes, not knowing what was happening. He looked around to see the sleeping bag rolled up by the exit.
The girl was pacing back and forth. Her steps were light, and barely made noise. Eventually she turned to him, having obviously made up her mind. “Whats your name?” She asked softly.
”Um,” he choked out, “Uh, my name is…Boy.”
“Boy?” She questioned, appalled.
”Yeah? It’s Boy.” He said, slightly more confident.
The girl snorted. “Boys not a name. It’s a title,” she said matter-of-fact. “You’re a boy, but your name can’t be boy.”
”Well,” Boy said, affronted,”Maybe it’s my title and my name.”
”Fine. You’ll be Boy for now, but we’ll find a better name.” She stated, turning to the wall with the sleeping bag and starting to gently pull down the poster.
“We! What do you mean we!?” Boy exclaimed. He watched her pull the poster down to reveal a hole with a brown box in it.
She shoved the small box into the folds of the sleeping bag, then doing the same with the poster before answering. “I mean we. What, did you think I was gonna leave you here?”
Uh, yes. Yes he did.
”Besides, it was time for me to move locations anyway. We’re going somewhere with more room.” She stated, picking up the sleeping bag and hooking it on her shoulders like the backpack Dudley got for the upcoming school year.
”Well, why are you taking me with you? I’m sure you’ve got better things to do?”
She squinted at him before replying, “You haven’t been on the streets for very long have you? Most have the sense to not sleep in someone else’s place.” She paused. The girl placed the sleeping bag on the floor and removed the box from it. She placed it on the floor and sat in front of it.
”Well?” She gestured for him to sit opposite of her. Boy scrambled to obey.
She placed her hands above the box, and it started to lift from the ground. He stared, mesmerized.
“Haven’t you done something like this?”
Boy couldn’t do anything but nod, still staring at the box which had fallen back to the ground. He looked back up to see her smiling. She noticed and quickly got up, putting the box back in the bag(?).
”How did you know?” He questions amazed. “I-I didn’t know anyone else was freaky like me!”
“I didn’t until you showed up either. You were almost completely blue when I first saw you, I thought you were dead, and I was just gonna find a new place. But, after I finished rolling my bag, I saw you were fine.” She said, almost breathlessly, but only if you listened hard enough.
”And don’t call it freaky again, ok? It’s a power and we’re gonna use it, not hide from it.”
Boy nodded hesitantly.
She picked up the bag again and walked to the vent, opening it.
“What’s your name?” Boy blurted before he could stop himself.
The girl turned to look at him for a second.
Two seconds.
Three.
”Aniva, you can call me Aniva.” The gir- Aniva said. “And don’t think I’ve forgotten about your name, Boy, it’s practically unforgivable. We’ll find a name that fits.”
Then she climbed out. Boy did the same. Once outside they looked at each other in the light for the first time. Aniva had long black hair in a loose braid to her mid back. She was pale and thin, like she didn’t eat enough. Boy knew she saw the same in him. Green eyes met bronze.
”Ready to go?” She asked, turning without waiting for an answer. She walked out into the street. He ran to catch up, having to follow her hair through the adults hustling about. This went on for about ten blocks.
Finally, Aniva stopped at an intersection. She waited until Boy was next to her before pulling him around a wall.
”They think that they’ve boarded up this old train station enough to keep homeless people out. Normally they’d be right, but not for us.” She said before thrusting her hands out. At first he thought nothing happened, until she pulled the bottom three boards off with ease. She put them down, crawled in, then dragged the boards in behind her.
Boy looked around, seeing how the wall made it hard for others to look in, but not for him to see out. This is a good spot.
He crawled in through the space at the bottom, and stood up, dusting himself off before noticing the gigantic space in front of him. He looked over to Aniva, seeing her smug look.
”Isn’t it great?” She said, “It has all the space we need for two people and a more permanent stay.”
”This is permanent?” Boy asked.
“Not really, just till someone starts figuring out where we go home to. Don’t want anyone to know where we sleep.” She shrugged.
Aniva took out the box and pulled a flashlight from it. She then handed him the box and told him to “Hide it so good even the cops won’t find it.” What does that even mean? But Boy said nothing.
While he was finding a hiding spot in the station, Aniva had grabbed a chair to hang the flashlight.
Boy watched her from the corner of his eye. “While the sun is up, more than enough light comes in. It won’t be the same at night. I’ve been stealing solar powered lights over the years so I can spend less time on batteries, but those will have to wait until we find a nearby roof to charge them on during the day. When we have them we’ll do our nightly business further down the hall so no one sees any light spilling out.” She explained while carefully hanging the end on a rusted and bent nail.
Boy nodded, even though he knew she couldn’t see him and shoved the box into the hole he found behind the plastic bit on the bottom on the wall.
After he was done he went back over to Aniva who was getting off the chair she had dragged over. “That should be about it. Let’s go get those flashlights.”
The two of them headed to the doorway, got out, and shut it behind them. Then Boy followed Aniva much the same way he followed her the first time. She led them to a smaller building than the rest.
It was two stories, and had tables in the front. On the front was “Huns Buns”. Aniva took him by the hand and led him around the corner. “Wait here, I’ll toss them to you.” She climbed onto the dumpster then onto a ladder that hung on the wall next to it. She climbed up and disappeared onto the roof.
Boy looked to the mouth of the alley then back up. Eventually she popped back over the edge with a small black bag in her hands. Boy opened his arms for her to toss it down. He caught it with a slight stumble.
Aniva hopped down and startled when the back door to “Huns Buns” began to open. She grabbed Boys arm and hid them behind the dumpster as a teen threw a small trash bag into the bin.
Aniva opened the bag she had thrown down and ran to the bin to pull out the trash bag. “The employees here are required to throw out anything that’s twelve hours old. How many of these buns do you think we can fit in that bag?”
Boy held the bag open while she piled in as many meat buns as she could. Boy looked at the sky.
”Aniva, the sun’s almost set.” Boy pointed out.
Aniva pulled her long sleeve up to reveal a plastic watch like the ones Dudley gets in his meals when they went out.
”Damn” she whispered,”It’s nearly 19:00.”
She closed the bag and put the other back in the bin.
“Let’s get going, before it gets too dark.” She whispered.
They walked next to each other this time, nearly shoulder to shoulder, with their arm’s brushing the whole way. They each ate one bun on the way back, saving the rest for later.
When they got back Aniva unrolled the bag so it was a sleeping bag again, then laid down in it.
Boy did the same on the floor. And as the sun set for good and the night got colder, he shivered harder. It continued until-
“Come here” Sounded from behind him.
”Huh?” Boy turned to look at Aniva, who was staring at him.
“We’re both cold, so come here.” She said.
So Boy crawled over to her. He sat at the edge of the sleeping bag, hesitant. After a few seconds Aniva sighed and pulled up the top. “Get in.” she whispered. He did.
He moved until his back was to her chest. She put her arm around him, and they curled up together. All that was on Boys mind was that he was no longer so cold.
He fell asleep quickly, so he never heard the muttered “I’ve always wanted a brother” from behind.