Rush

It wasn’t easy to have always been on the run.

It definitely wasn’t how I wanted my younger sister to spend her life either. The dingy sheets and cardboard stiff bed beneath her resting head were only temporary—I had to keep reminding myself that.

I glanced at the digital clock, 3:48 AM it told me in big bright red letters. I’d been sitting on the edge of the bed feeling undoubtedly restless since we’d arrived to this dump. It has to be different this time.

I slowly rose from the bed, being extra careful not to wake Reagan, and made my way over to my suitcase pulling out my card scanner and two blank identification cards. I had previously programmed our pictures into them and now all that’s left to do was print our information.

‘H a z e l G r a c e’ Sex: F Height: 5’6 Weight: 120 ID No.: 1603957578

I smirked once I had finished putting the necessary information on her card. I still couldn’t believe she chose that name though. I mean, whatever I guess what’s done is done. But really? Hazel Grace sounded so…so innocent—so saintly. We were anything but that.

I always had this feeling that Reagan wanted to hold on to whatever type of innocence she still had. I don’t blame her though, it was my fault we had even gotten accustomed to this life style. The way I saw it, we had no other options.

♢

“Jamie,” Reagan barged into my room without hesitation.

“You could have knocked, you little brat.” I groaned, rolling over on my bed. She stood in the middle of my room looking at the floor. She didn’t say anything at first, she just stood there.

“Reagan what’s the matter?” I remember getting up and quickly putting the back my hand to her forehead, her neck, her cheeks checking to make sure she wasn’t sick.

“M-Mom” She croaked out, tears gliding down her cheeks.

I didn’t understand. Our mom was in her room resting because she didn’t feel too well. I didn’t think anything twice when she said that because I could see it in her eyes that she needed rest. Ever since dad died a couple months ago she had always been looking so tired.

I ran out of my room leaving Reagan in the midst of my panic. I ran until I reached her bedroom door and swung it open revealing an empty bed. Walking into her room had always been comforting, smelling of lilac and lavender air freshener. Her bed was always made up and nice, something that she had always scolded me to do as well but I never got around to it.

Walking into the room at that moment was dreary. Clothes were scattered everywhere, windows shut tight, and it seemed noticeably more dull.

“MOM?” I called out, thinking that she was just in her closet, or perhaps the bathroom.

My stomach was churning. It was kind of like that feeling you get when you go on a ridiculously steep drop on a rollercoaster only this feeling was heavy and haunting. My face started to get hot as I ran to the bathroom seeing the door creaked open.

The first thing I noticed was the variety of pills that covered the counter. Half closed bottles of Oxycodone, ibuprofen, a tipped over bottle of Xanax all clinically prescribed to my mother were scattered about. I turned to continue walking in bracing myself for the worst.

She was pale, blue lipped, completely submerged in the tub, and fully clothed.

“MOM!!” I tried screaming, but I couldn’t open my mouth. I ran to the tub lifting her body.

I remember doing anything I could to give me reassurance that she’d wake up; I gave her CPR, I tried pushing her stomach to make the pills come back up, I stuck my fingers in her mouth hoping—praying that she would wake up.

But she never did.
♢

I shook my head trying to clear it of the horrible memory. Even though it was so long ago I remember it so vividly. After our dad’s death and our mother’s suicide Reagan and I had no other options. We had no family to turn to, or close friends nearby. We had nothing.

So we ran.

And even though we were incredibly young I knew it was our only option. Fuck foster care, I wasn’t going to put my sister through that. What if we had gotten separated? We were all each other had left and there was no way in hell I was going to risk losing her.

That’s when the stealing and conning began. I had stolen a few times before—a trait I picked up from some of the rebellious kids in the neighborhood. It was easy if you knew how to pick out the right places. But the first time I had taught Reagan the ways of deceit I knew this would be something we were going to have to rely upon. The act of stealing never really seemed like a big deal to me. If it wasn’t going to be missed, then it was alright. But my sister panicked almost every time. Over the years she had gotten used to it—being even better than me at times. It became easier and easier to lie to people in order to get what we needed.

If we had no place to stay that night? We’d come up with schemes to make people pity us and take us in on a rainy night. (Grocery store moms were suckers for that one) And soon we’d started stealing from them too. Nothing too bad, because they obviously had a family to take care of and I did have a heart. Reagan was never comfortable with stealing from them, so I always ended up getting my hands dirty. Just little things like food or blankets, but then by morning we’d be nowhere in sight.

It sort of became like a cycle for us: Lure in. Con. Steal. Leave. Lure in. Con. Steal. Leave.

Some people were harder than others to lure in. I shuddered at the thought of the many times I had to keep disgusting guys company in order to find a place to sleep at night. I wasn’t whoring myself or anything like that, but because I’m the older of the two I learned to use it to my advantage.

The first time I had to use my body and sex appeal to get what I wanted, I nearly threw up. But it gave Reagan and I a safe place to sleep, which was all that mattered.

She had complained about the cramped space it was in and before I could register what had happened, I had slapped her in the face.

“Do you know what I had to put myself through so we could get this bed?” I had asked harshly. After that I remember hugging her as we cried together about our situation, about our parents deaths, about everything.

Nowadays we both knew better than to complain about our living conditions, and we were thankful we were both even alive.

And now we’re here in New York.

I printed out my sister’s card and finished mine as well before returning to the bed to get at least a little bit of sleep.

➢➢➢

“Ewwwwww….” I heard a shriek awaking me from my few hours of slumber.

“We better find a place to stay, and fast, because I’ve had it! There’s a rat’s tail stuck in the sink” Reagan threw her hands up in defeat as I wiped my eyes. I took in our surroundings one again as the muddled light came in through the curtains.

“That’s nasty,” I grimaced “Listen, just get dressed and we can go find food and go exploring.”

“Oh by the way,” I got up and handed Reagan her ID “here you go, Hazel. ”

She rolled her eyes at me mumbling a “Thanks sis.” Before stalking off to get dressed.

Not long after, we were both dressed and ready to head out.

“You look nice.” She smirked fumbling to put her shoes on.

“Well—I mean you gotta think about it, Spencer Fox sounds like a confident, sexy woman. I’m just playing the part.” I winked at her as I slid my heels on. Grabbing my bag and my ID I quickly smoothed out my dress, “Alright. Where do you want to go? We’re in the heart of NEW YORK!” I exclaimed dramatically.

“Times Square? I’ve always wanted to go!” She said.

We walked out of the building and onto the ghetto street quickly hollering at a taxi that passed our way. We hopped in the back receiving an expecting glance from the man driving.

“Times Square, please. 42nd street.” Reagan chirped out to the driver.

I rolled my eyes.

“What’s your problem?” She asked seeming irritated all of the sudden

I guess maybe it was my lack of sleep that had me feeling so irritable. I shrugged turning toward the window watching traffic go by. There were big buildings, and flashing signs surrounding us. I couldn’t help but to feel small in this big city—but hey, maybe that was my insecurity talking.

Reagan, on the other hand, was absolutely loving it. Every couple blocks she would point out of the window and ‘ooh’ at every sign. It kind of warmed my heart seeing her so entranced in the city, but I’m not going to allow her to forget why we came here.

When we arrived at our stopped I quickly shoved the money at the driver and got out.

“Oh my god this is amazing!” Reagan gasped swinging to look in every direction. There were people everywhere I looked, so it couldn’t be too hard to find my next target.

We started heading off not really knowing our destination, but mainly following the big crowds. I looked at all of the men passing by; most were in a hurry to probably get to their underpaying job.

I wasn’t too interested in those types. I needed someone confident, successful. Someone who didn’t take shit from anyone and who knew how to run the ground he walked on.

I turned to look back at Reagan, “We need a map, this is ridiculous.”

“Here, I’ll just go into this shop and ask for one” She turned heading into a small china-town like convenient store. She came back out a few seconds later holding up a map.

“Okay,” I opened the map turning it trying to figure out which direction we were in “um..I think we should go—”

“Oh my god! Look Imperial Theatre isn’t too far away! We have to go there, and ooh! There’s also Best Buy Theatre an—”

“Stop it. Do you even know why we’re here?” I hissed at her.
She scowled at me, “You know, you’ve been being a real bitch lately. Do ya mind telling me what’s up?”

I nearly laughed in her face. She can’t be serious right now. “Are you serious? This isn’t some little vacation! It’s not time to play tourist, we have shit that we need to do.”

“But what if this is what I want to do, Jamie? What if I just want to relax for one day?!” She said in a frustrated tone.

“Fine. You can go off and relax and go look around while I go find us a nice man to take us in. And then once you’ve finished relaxing you can be sure to kiss up to me later in our new home. Got it?” I mocked.

She rolled her eyes before snatching the map from my hands and walking away.

I huffed, I honestly don’t care if she’s feeling butt hurt over this. We—well I guess I know my priorities, and once we’ve found the next place to live, then we could worry about getting accustomed with our surroundings. I hope she understood that.

I saw a guy selling maps on the street ahead of me and quickly made my way over to him.

“Could I please see one of those for a second?” I asked smiling my charming smile and batting my lashes.

“Six dollars” He grinned pushing his glasses up on his nose a bit. He was cute, I had to admit, a little dorky looking but still cute.

“But I only need it for a second.” I pouted looking at him.

“I’ll tell you what, since you’re so damn beautiful I’ll let you keep it,” he smirked stepping a bit closer to me “and I’ll even show you where you need to go.”

I stepped closer to him too, biting my lip a bit before snatching the map out of his grasp, “Thanks, but no thanks.” I whispered, turning a heel and strutting off.

I looked back to see him staring at the way my hips swayed, and I winked feeling a little feisty.

I opened the map up to see if there were any business centers that I could stake out at. Ugh, I hate maps, they’re so confusing. Ask me how to pick a lock and I’m your girl, but ask me how to read a map and we’re both screwed.

I kept walking forward while trying to read the map when I bumped into someone speed walking right towards me.

“Fuck,” He grumbled picking up his things that were scattered to the floor.

I quickly looked at him checking out his appearance. He was dressed in a nice fitted dark suit, and a light blue button up. His suit jacket was slung over his shoulder and his tie was loosened the slightest bit. An assortment of papers lie scattered about the ground and he seemed to be rushing to get them all so that he could get on his way. I grabbed my purse from the ground and snatched up a small paper that was under it. A business card, hm.

The man snatched his phone from his front pocket, “Sinclair.” He snapped listening intently to the person speaking through the device.

“Well I don’t give a shit,” He spluttered “I’m the fucking CEO and they’re lucky I even have the time to meet with them. Tell them to wait.” He quickly put his phone back in his pocket and jetted off without even looking in my direction.

A slow smirk spread across my face. I think I found my guy.

I quickly brushed off my skirt and followed in the direction of the man, which just so happened to be the direction I was originally walking from. The guy selling maps was still standing at the same spot. He whistled when I walked by with a nice smirk covering his face.

“You know this might be love at first sight.” He called out.

I laughed and shook my head, “I don’t believe in that.”

I watched the man in the suit soon round the corner and head into a tall office building. ‘Sinclair Enterprises’ was labeled above the door along with a logo. I straightened my posture and walked inside making sure to not lose track of the man I was pursuing.

He made a sharp left down a hallway looking left and right before coming to an elevator. I quickly slid into a doorway before he could see me. Once the doors opened he was met with a skinny little blonde and as the doors I could see his arms snake around her and his mouth swiftly met hers in a heated kiss.

“Sinclair, you dog.” I muttered before making my way to the elevator.

This business seemed legitimate, something that exuberated wealth; I needed to find a way to get in on it, but how?

The elevator doors dinged down again and a couple people slipped out, and using this to my advantage I managed to squeeze in.

There were several men standing stiff in their business suits tapping their feet impatiently as if they were all late for something. There was a young woman standing in the corner trying to juggle coffees and paperwork, she was probably an intern or something.

“Excuse me, um, could you tell me where I could find Mr. Sinclair’s office?” I turned to ask her, my voice oozing with sweetness.
“S-Sixteenth floor. Third door on the right.”

“Thanks so much,” I grinned

When the elevator reached my destination I stepped and took a look around. The entire hallway was white and boring with windows looking in on conference rooms. I reached the third door seeing a platinum plate with “Charles Sinclair” engraved in it. Hm, fancy.

I knocked on the door slightly before stepping and meeting the eyes of several men all suited and seated at a circular table. I scanned each one of them until I met his eyes.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, Mr. Sinclair I’m your 2 o’clock interview.” I smiled with ease at every lie escaping my lips.

“My 2 o’clock? My secretary hadn’t told me about an interview.” He rose from his chair leading me through another door. Once we were inside he paused briefly letting the door click shut.

I walked over to the door stepping forward until his back was pressed against it. My big blue eyes met his as I put my hand innocently to his chest. He breathed in sharply and I almost smirked at how weak he was under my touch.

“Maybe you need a new secretary.” I pursed my lips seductively sending a wink his way.

His eyes darkened, “What did you say your name was?”

I removed my hand from his chest and stuck it out toward him.
“Spencer. Spencer Fox.”