Chapter 2

          Light shone invasively into my retinas, searing them and making me grimace in discomfort.  I blinked rapidly to clear the sleep from my eyes and stretched, disentangling myself from Ally's all encompassing hair and swinging my legs over the edge of the cot.  She stirred in her sleep but didn't wake, so I decided to let her sleep a little longer.  Sunlight streamed through the dirty windows and reflected off of dust particles, creating linear shafts and giving the place a churchy look.  It was totally silent except for the quiet sound of Ally's breathing and the slight echo of my footsteps, the layer of dust muting all noise.

        I crept over to the staircase and eased my weight onto the first stair, stepping near the wall so that it wouldn't make a creaking noise.  When I reached the ground floor of the diner, I walked over to the bathroom and locked myself in it. 

        The faucet turned easily and I cupped my hands under the tap, letting them fill up with water and dousing my face with the cool liquid.  I shook my head and droplets of water flew out of my hair, spattering the mirror.  Five minutes later I stepped out of the restroom feeling refreshed and invigorated, not to mention ravenous.  Down the short hallway I could hear stirrings and I walked over to say hi to Lori and buy Ally and I some breakfast.  Lori looked like death, to say the least.  Her eyes had bags under them to rival my own and she was steadily nursing a bottle of vodka.  Screw the glass, I guess, I thought with a smirk.  I stood undecided in the doorway, not sure of whether or not to disturb someone so obviously hung over.  She hadn't yet seen me.  After a few moments of thought, I decided to risk it.

        I'd try coffee or water if I were you.' I said matter-of-factly.

        She jumped at the sound of my voice and then winced in discomfort.

        'You're up early.' she croaked, glaring pained daggers at me.

        'It's nine AM,' I replied briskly, 'And anyway, doesn't this place open at 8:30?'

        'Tell me something Felix, luv,' she said, her voice cracking at regular intervals, 'Have you ever downed a half a bottle of whiskey, a couple pints of beer and about six strawberry daiquiris in one sitting?'

        I felt my jaw drop.

        'Ouch.' I said emphatically.

        'Yeah,' she agreed, pinching the bridge of her nose, 'What the hell was I thinking?'

        'You weren't?' I supplied helpfully, lifting the glass cover from the donut display case and helping myself to two.  I devoured the first in ten seconds flat before tearing a chunk off the second one with my teeth and swallowing it whole.  Lory eyed me incredulously.

        'Do you even know what you just ate?'

        'A donut.' I replied cheerfully.

        'Yeah,' she said, 'but for all you know I could have put cat piss in it.  It's not like you stopped to check.'

        'I trust your loving, tender care and strong conscience as the beautiful woman that you are not to do such a thing.' I said sweetly around a mouthful of donut.

        'Nice try,' she said evenly, 'but you still gotta pay.'

        I made a face at her and she grinned.  It was at that moment that Ally walked in, or rather, stumbled in.

        She plopped herself down on a stool next to me and gestured towards the pot of fresh coffee, mumbling incoherently.

        'Coffee...tired...shit...'

        Lori poured a cup and handed it to me.

        'Uh huh.' I said to Ally, nodding at her and pretending I understood while trying unsuccessfully to shove the mug into her limp hands.  She finally grasped it and took a huge swig before slamming it down on the counter and bringing her head down next to it.

        Lori looked on with raised eyebrows.

        'She'll be alright, ' I said assuredly, 'I'll have one too, please.'  I nodded in the general direction of the coffee pot.  Lori poured me a cup and sat down across from me, ignoring my admonishment about alcohol comsumtion during a hangover, and taking regular pulls on her little bottle.

        'So...' she trailed off.

        'So...' I echoed her with a nasty smile, 'You look like crap on a stick.'

        And did she ever.  At the age of thirty she already looked like she was ready to start pushing daisies.  Her once shiny black hair now stuck out cork-screw style in all directions and her mocha coloured skin was dry and flaky.  Her nails were short and the faint scent of cigarette smoke emanated from her clothing.  The sole redeeming feature of her once beautiful face were her eyes.  They were a deep brown, almost black colour with an inextinguishable sparkle in them, as if the mischievous soul that they hid was just waiting to burst forward and cart someone away to another world.

        'Look who's talking, hot shot.' she fired back at me. 

        'Touche.' I responded dully.  Why was it that everyone felt the need to take a stab at my appearance lately?

        'You should have seen him last month.'  Ally's muffled voice drifted out from under her arms.

        'Why?' Lori quipped. 'What did he look like last month?' 

        'We got jumped by a group of drunken thieves and the moron didn't have the sense to run away.' Ally replied, finally unburrying her face and propping her head up on one hand.

        'You're leaving out the most important part.' I said testily.

        Ally rolled her eyes, picking up her coffee and taking a sip.

        'They stole five bucks.' I said lightly.  Lori snorted with laughter.

        'And what exactly happened to you?' she asked, sounding amused, not at all concerned for our safety.

        'He got the shit beat out of himself.' Ally said irritably, glancing my way.  She was starting to perk up now. 'Slashed to ribbons too.  Looked like he'd been teasing a cougar.'  She helped herself to a donut and began to delicately pull it apart with her fingers.

        'You got pulped for a fiver?' asked Lori incredulously.

        'Yes,' I replied lightly, 'I did.  And I got it back, with no help from you.' I rounded on Ally and narrowed my eyes playfully.

        'They had knives!' she whined defensively.  I held my hand up in the universal “Don't even talk to me” gesture and turned back to Lori.

        'She hid in the woods.'

        Lori chuckled. 'Typical Ally moment.'

        'Great,' Ally intoned acidly, 'I own a moment.' She stuffed the last bit of her donut into her mouth and stared moodily at the far wall, chewing angrily.

        'Aww...Isn't she just adorable when she's angry?' I teased.

        'Just for that,' Ally shot back triumphantly, 'I'm not stitching you back together the next time you get yourself into trouble.'

        'Uh oh,' I said with mock gravity, pretending to seriously consider her threat, 'I'll just have to stay out of trouble now.' Just then there was a soft tinkling at the door and I looked over my shoulder to see an elderly man toting a can step into the tiny diner.  Lori smiled welcomingly at him and gave us a meaningful look that clearly said, 'Get out of my diner before you chase away my rent.'

        Ally jumped up and stretched while I dug around my jeans pocket for money.  I found a few ones and set them on the counter.  Lori deposited them in her cash register and waved us out of the room.

        Back out on the street and mildly annoyed, we veered over to the nearest bench, brushed it off haphazardly, and sat down.  It buckled slightly under our weight and I raised my eyebrows at Ally.

        'If I'm as stick-skinny and “malnourished” as you say I am, then maybe you shouldn't have eaten that last donut, because I'm sure not making it sag.

        She punched me lightly on the arm, but her heart wasn't in it and I thought I knew why.

        'Look, Ally...' I began, taking a deep breath and letting it out in a sigh.  I would rather have spoon fed myself caviar that say what I was about to say.  She was studying the sidewalk and her hair half covered her face. 'I don't know what could possibly be possessing me to say this, but-' Her hand shot up and she fixed me with an intense stare.

        'If you really want to go and try living with Jason, I'll go-' I hadn't even finished my sentence before Ally threw her arms round my neck, knocking the wind out of me and half strangling me.  I spluttered a little and she let go.  There was a smile on her face that could have lit up half of Manhattan.

        She opened her mouth to say something, thought better of it, closed it, and hugged me again.

        'I'm sorry.' she whispered in my ear.

        'Me too.' I replied softly, hugging her back to let her know that all was forgiven.  Just then, a city bus drove past, ending our little Kodak moment and bringing us sharply back to reality.

        'Come on.' said Ally, snatching my hand up into her patented death-vice and dragging me to my feet.  She had that adventurous twinkle in her eye and the mischievous smile to match it.

        'Why is it,' I asked jokingly, 'that even when I know where we're going and you don't, you always end up leading me around by the hand like a toddler?'

        'Because if I didn't lead you around like a toddler, we'd never get anywhere.'

        'All right then, little Miss Know-It-All,' I said haughtily, 'Where to next?'

        'The bus stop.' she replied briskly, walking towards the nearest one.

        I followed her, grumbling, and stepped inside the tiny, make-shift bus shelter. About five minutes later, a bus pulled up to it, dirty and salted from the grubby city pollution.

        'Do you go to the other end of West Side?' Ally asked the grumpy looking bus driver.  He grunted and nodded his affirmation, gesturing towards a glass-plated map that was magneted to the bus wall next to the door.  Highlighted on it was the entire West division of lower Manhattan.

        'Oh.' said Ally, and stepped onto the bus, passing the driver $2.50. I stepped on behind her, paid for myself, and walked to the seat she had chosen.  Approximately twenty five minutes later, we stepped off at the corner of 33rd.

        'Just a question;' I said curiously, 'How did you know that Jason lived in West Side? Come to think of it, you even knew the exact street...'

        She just smiled and started walking in the direction of Jason's apartment complex.

        'Seriously, how are you doing this?'

        She ignored me and kept walking.

        'Ally!' I sighed, 'You won't like the answer.'

        'Huh?'
       
        Without looking at me, she said, 'You talk in your sleep.'

        'Oh? You got an exact address out of my sleep-rambling?'

        'You talk...a lot in your sleep.' she was carefully avoiding my eyes.

        There was something about her that struck me as odd and I peered at her intently for a few moments.  When she didn't offer any further explanation, I gave up and felt her relax next to me, falling back into her natural rhythm of walking.

        We passed dozens of red brick, crumbling buildings.  The sinking sun glittered off of the hundreds of jagged edges on the broken windows and dazzled my eyes.  I could now hear car horns honking in the distance, punctuated by the occasional cry of a seagull.  Loose gravel crunched under my feet, making every step I took loud and obnoxious in the eerie quiet.  As we were walking, we came upon a sketchy looking group of mix-raced people eying us warily as we walked by them.  Ally gave a half-hearted little wave and one of them, a black woman with barb wire hair, attempted to glare her into the pavement.  Ally wiped the smile off her face and quickly lowered her hand, hurrying onward.

        'Nice going.' I muttered with a smirk.

        'All I did was say hello.' she hissed, keeping her eyes glued to the sidewalk. My eyes were fixed on the ground as well and I thought silently that people must think we were looking for something.  And then I heard it. His voice.

        'Felix?' a deep, male voice said my name tentatively and my head shot up.  Jason.  I was stunned.  Our eyes met and locked.  A rush of mixed emotions engulfed me all at once; hatred, confusion, loss and anger.  Ally was frozen like a statue next to me.  I could tell that she knew that something critical was about to happen.  He stood there, his mouth open in the expression fo shock that I felt, his hands dangling limply at his sides.  His brown hair fell around his face in loose waves and his eyes, electric blue, like my own, watched me intently.  The air between us was thick with years of pain and we stood there for what seemed like forever, studying each other an waiting, waiting for someone to make the first move.  Like a spell, our eyes were locked, and neither was willing to break the enchantment.  It was as if we were holding each other up with the intensity of our gazes.

        Ally suddenly shifted her weight, displacing a few rocks on the ground as she did so and breaking the eerie silence.  Jason cleared his throat.

        'Can I, er, help you?' he choked, keeping his eyes riveted on me.  He sounded just like Dad.  I didn't answer him.  It was clearly a rhetorical question, asked to fill the silence.  Ally rocked back and forth nervously and bit her lip while I tried to think of something to say.  It was as if my brain had come unhinged.  All that I could think was: ...Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit...

        The awkwardness had become painful before Ally declared with exasperation, 'This is ridiculous!' and took a tentative step toward Jason, sticking out her hand.

        'Jason, I'm Ally, Felix's best mate.  Felix, this is Jason, your brother,' she said emphatically to me, rolling her eyes slightly.  'You two may have met before.' Her sarcasm seemed to amuse him. She turned back to Jason, 'We have a favor to ask you.'

        'Shoot.' he said, seemingly unfazed by Ally's abruptness.

        'We'd like to stay with you, if that's okay.  Just long enough for us to figure out our next plan of action.  We wouldn't be here long, but right now we're sort of swamped.  Please let us stay.'

        Jason opened his mouth to say something, but Ally hastily cut him off, desperate to get her last say in before he said no.

        'We'll work for you if you'd like.  And we're not in trouble with the law, so you don't need to worry about anyone knocking at your door at 3 am.  And-'

        'Ally.'

        She paused in her monologue and looked at him with pleading eyes.

        'You don't need to beg.  I would love to have you stay with me, and you can stay as long as you need to.  No problem.  Friend of my little brother, friend of me.' He nodded towards the building behind him.  'Number forty three, on the fourth floor.'
       
        'Thank you so much!' she squeaked, practically vibrating with happiness.

        'No problem.' he said, flashing her an easy grin.

        She turned on her heel and practically bounced up to the front door of the building.  Through the glass doors I could see her taking the first flight of stairs two at a time before she disappeared from my view completely.  I had an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.  I didn't like to see her entering a strange building all by herself, but I knew that I was being stupid, so I shook my head and put my worries aside to face a more imminent problem: talking to my brother.

        'Is she your girlfriend?' asked Jason stiffly.  All his charm of three minutes ago had entirely disappeared.

        'No.' I replied curtly.

        'So you won't get her pregnant, then?'

        'No!' I said, horrified.

        'Good.' he said affirmatively, and left me standing there as he walked to the door of his building.  Apparently the conversation was over.  Why was I surprised?

        I quickly ran up behind him and grabbed the shoulder of his jacket, whirling him around to face me.

        'Look,' I said shortly, 'I don't want to be here any more than you want me to be here.  I'm doing this for her,' I jerked me head in the direction of his building, that Ally had just disappeared into, 'and as long as I'm here, I'm willing to behave myself.  So could you at least make an effort?'
       
        He regarded me thoughtfully for a moment before saying, 'Fine.'

        Knowing that this was probably the best I was going to get out of him, I nodded, turned my back on him and walked up to the front door of building #18 on 33rd Street, and climbed three flights of stairs to my new home.