Ashes to Ashes

VII

It was a cold, damp night and the wooden observation deck in the middle of Shelby Bottoms Park provided next to no shelter for Seth and Carter as they lay near the center, bundled up in a few blankets. Neither one of them had managed to get any sleep so far, and with the rain still steadily falling, it seemed likely that sleep wouldn't come for them.

It had been three days now since Erik had kicked her out of the apartment and they still had no idea what they were going to do. Seth had talked to his parents, and they were willing to let the couple stay in the room above their garage, but they had to wait until the tenant staying there moved at the end of the month. That was still three weeks away, leaving them out in the cold. With winter creeping up on autumn slowly, they hadn't had many options available. The shelter on Rosa L. Parks Boulevard was almost always filled to capacity, and even when it wasn't, Seth wasn't willing to put Carter at risk by taking her there.

It had been Carter who had come up with the idea to stay in the park, and if it wasn't quite as wet as it had been the last few nights, it might have been a good idea. As it was, both of them were starting to get sick and no amount of morphine or heroin could fix the fact that they needed a roof over their heads.

"Babe, you're shivering. Take my coat," Seth murmured to her, pulling the leather jacket from his arms and draping it across the blonde's body. She bit down on her lip, cracking open a cut that had been there for a few days as she offered him a small smile.

"Always taking care of me, aren't you?" She whispered back to him before kissing his shoulder. "You're going to get cold now."

"I'll be fine. It's you I'm worried about," he answered her.

The last few days had been rough on Carter. She'd never been homeless before; or at least, never had she gone without having a suitable shelter. Her parents hadn't done much to help her, but every now and again some of her high school friends and her father's sister, Donella, had sent her some money to get by. It hadn't been much, but with their help and the minimum wage jobs she'd held over the last three years since her move, she had gotten by.

The rain started to pour harder, and Seth sighed, pulling Carter closer. She was still shivering, and it wasn't just from the cold. They were out of heroin until they could scrounge up some money tomorrow. Until then, he would do the best he could to keep Carter warm.