Bitch

Scarlet had never been a people pleaser. In fact, she didn't care much about people at all. She hardly cared for herself so how could she be expected to help others? People hadn't exactly treated her right so why was she expected to help them? Nobody ever seemed to care about Scarlet. It was like she was a reject, a shadow of society. Nobody ever paid much attention to her and no one had ever cared for her. She was Scarlet remember? She was nothing so why should they care?

Even before she was homeless no one ever cared. Her parents used to neglect her, all they ever cared about were themselves and themselves alone. They'd decided to have Scarlet so they could make a proper family together but that was all she was for. To make their relationship stronger. She was like stitches holding the couple together, they didn't actually need Scarlet but they knew that if they didn't have her then they would eventually come apart.

She remembered how her parents used to always complain and rant about how bad her grades were, so one time, over the course of two weeks Scarlet had studied harder than ever. She had skipped parties and barely came out of her room just so she could claw for a scratch of praise from her parents. And when she'd finally received them august A's she had been the happiest person on earth, reassured that all her hard work was worth it and they would finally be satisfied with their only daughter.

But they weren't. Her mother had simply looked at the report and nodded, not saying a word and not congratulating Scarlet at all. She had just simply handed it to Scarlet's father who had grunted and had said.
"You could have done better."
Them words never left Scarlet. She would remember them to her dying day. They would haunt her for the rest of her life because now Scarlet knew that no matter what she did, they would always be disappointed in her. If Scarlet couldn't please her own parents then who could she please? What was worse was that these inadequate words were the last ones her vexed father had ever spoken to her. Because the next day her friend had invited Scarlet over to the Big Apple. It all got messy after that. See, this friend of Scarlet's had turned out to be anything but. The girl had dumped Scarlet in New York before driving off laughing hysterically.

Scarlet had been lost, hungry, cold and with no way of getting out of New York because her cellphone had run dry of charge. She had no choice but to book a crummy motel room with the money she'd originally planned to shopping with. It was a few days later when she'd eventually ran out of money and had been kicked out back onto the cold streets again with nothing but the clothes she wore to keep her warm.

But it was after that when she started to realize that even if she did get back home, she still was going to have to face her afflicted and bewailing parents. Which she couldn't abide to do because she was panic-stricken of having to face her father and his words of disappointment once more. They were obviously going to be much more happier without Scarlet hanging around the house and it meant that they could finally focus more on each other without their blemish of a daughter.

And so Scarlet had actually decided that she was better off on the streets. Lets face it, she didn't have to look at their accusing glares every day and she was finally free to do what she wanted. And it was a fresh start to a whole new world. The day Scarlet was thrown out onto the streets was probably the best thing that ever happened to her.

At first it scared Scarlet because she hadn't known her way around the labyrinth known as The Big Apple. It was all busy streets and compressed herds of persevering people. There were homeless everywhere but Scarlet knew that none of them were willing to help her and she also didn't have the guts to talk to them. She was lost and without the money. So with nothing to eat and no place to stay, she had no choice put to sleep on the doorstep of a hairdresser's salon.

Scarlet had eventually learned how to survive. Through the pure urgency of getting her next meal to conclude herself from starving to death she had soon started to developed new ways of getting money. It was funny how many people kept their wallets in a back pocket or in a handbag so you could just so easily slip it out. In Scarlet's eyes it was almost as if they were actually handing their wallet out too her and begging Scarlet to take the money.

Scarlet looked over across the street, examining the new phone she had just pick pocketed off a teen age girl. An iphone 4, excellent. She could get quite a lot for this phone. Enough money to last her weeks. It was a cloudy day and not many people had decided to arise from the safety of their contented homes today due to the bleak weather. Which meant less pickings for Scarlet. But that didn't matter because this iphone was defiantly her topnotch win of the day, it was certainly worth all her troubles.

And so, this was the life of Scarlet. Always alone and always scavenging for food like a rat. In fact, they were nothing more than rats really. They were dirty, probably carrying diseases and they slept in the dirt. The only difference was that one of them had a tail while the other was a little larger in size. But it was still better than what she had before. Because despite the famishing hunger, the hyperborean cold and with so much morbid death and illness around her; she would never go back to what she was before. Because before she was just the shadow. Even her friends turned their backs on her. But now she was her own person. Scarlet had to sleep with a knife clutched in her grimy hands at night just in case there was a chance she would wake up to the hungry eyes of a murderer but it was better than waking up to see her miserable parent's faces in the morning back at home and having to face the fact that she was just a third wheel.

She headed over to the nearest kebab shop, her stomach growling for the flavoring taste of another kebab. The money was in her pocket and her mouth watered as she walked into the beloved shop, already being able to taste the darling flavor on her savoring mouth. It was then that she saw a familiar figure sat by the window, his head in his tanned calloused hands as he ran them through his cropped sandy brown hair. Scarlet frowned, it would be rude not to sit next to him considering they were meant to be 'friends'. But it was a shame because she was really looking forward to eat this gratifying meal alone.

Scarlet sighed, buying her kebab before strolling over to the table, sliding onto the bench opposite Edwin and tucking into the meal. Edwin looked up as she arrived, running a hand over his face before straightening up.
"No luck with Kyle then?" Scarlet asked, raising an eyebrow as she chewed on a piece of meat.
Edwin shook his head, yawning. "I've been looking for him all day," he muttered tiredly.
That was the thing about Edwin, he always looked tired. His drooping eyes practically screamed exhaustion.
Scarlet shrugged. "I'm sure he'll turn up," she lied.
Everyone knew that Kyle was probably dead. Either floating in some disremembered river or lying face down in a pool of his own dried up blood in some murky dark alley with the rats and roaches. Someone must have wanted his rucksack or something, it was strange how desperation can change you to do something unthinkable. But it was only a certain amount of time before Edwin figured out that Kyle just wasn't coming back.

"It's funny though," Edwin began, digging around in his pockets, "because I woke up and found this beside me."
Edwin brought out a crumpled piece of paper, it had been through quite a lot of weather and was torn by the side but Scarlet could just make out the scrawled untidy handwriting as Edwin handed it to her.
"Meet me by the bridge?" Scarlet read out loud, looking up. "Wasn't that supposed to be where Kyle was heading to meet up with his friends?" Scarlet asked and Edwin nodded.
"Yeah."
"Do you think it's him?" She asked, handing the note back to Edwin.
Edwin shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine, probably though. I wonder what he wants. Why doesn't he just come back to the underpass?" Edwin asked.
Scarlet shrugged. "Maybe he's found a better place but doesn't want too many people finding out about it. You know what it's like at the underpass at night. Everyone knows it's a good place to camp so it's usually crammed full at night," she explained.
Ediwn nodded. "Maybe you're right but what if it's not Kyle? This could be anyone," he pointed out and Scarlet shrugged.
"Who else would it be? If anyone wanted to kill you, they would have done it already," She replied bluntly.
"Maybe they don't want to kill me," Edwin muttered. "Maybe there's something else going on here."