“That’s not my problem, kid. Should have thought about that before you ran away from mom and dad. Maybe their rules aren’t so bad now that you’re sleeping outside on a bench, are they?”
Harper began to open her mouth but I just shook my head. “Come on.”
We walked away from the park, towards the city and leaned against the nearest building. We both yawned loudly and laughed at the other.
“Bless my soul! I am so tired,” Harper said.
I yawned again when she did. “Careful, or we’ll be trading these all night,” I said.
“Where should we go?” She asked.
I shrugged my shoulders. I walked to a nearby store and although it was closed, pressed my face against the glass and read the time on the register. “Cherry will be home at five a.m. She’d probably let us crash on her floor.”
“What time is it?”
“Four.”
“Should we start walking toward her place?” Harper asked.
“Why not.”
We arrived at Cherry’s apartment, at four fifteen and sat outside her door. We must have fallen asleep because I woke to Cherry kicking my toe. Harper stayed asleep on my shoulder.
“Dude, what’s up?” She asked, her eyes full of concern.
“We got kicked out of Central Park,” I whispered, careful not to wake Harper.
“When?”
“Around four,” I said, unsure.
Cherry leaned her face towards mine. “Were you both sleeping there? What happened to your apartment?”
I shook my head. “We had five g’s stolen on the subway. Lost all our money.”
Cherry placed her hand on the top of her head and exhales loudly, like she can’t believe our luck and it accidentally wakes Harper. “Crap,” she said, but I’m not sure if she meant that about waking Harper or about the money, probably a little of both. “You two just can’t catch a break, can you?”
Harper funnily agreed, completely unaware of our topic but immediately laid her head back onto my shoulder and fell back to sleep.
“Come on,” Cherry said, opening the door. “You can take the carpet underneath my coffee table. I don’t have anything softer, I’m sorry.”
Cherry lived in a little studio and her fold out sofa is her bed. She had a small kitchen that doubled as her laundry and a small bathroom with a stand-up shower. It was cheap but she somehow made it look like the Taj Mahal because she was crafty like that. I balanced Harper’s head against the wall and stood before picking her up and carrying her into Cherry’s.
“Lay your girl down here,” she said, removing the coffee table and sliding the rug nearer to the kitchen. I started to lay her down but Cherry stopped me. “Wait, let me get an old sleeping bag in my closet.” She left and returned with a maroon sleeping bag, unzipping the sides as she walked. She laid it flat over the carpet and I laid Harper on top. I immediately crashed on top. “Tired?” Cherry asked the room but got no answer.
She snorted and I could hear her toss two of her sofa pillows at us. A light quilt cascaded on top of us.
“I love you, Cherry bomb.”
“I love you too, Callum. Good night, baby.”
Cherry turned out the lights and I was asleep before the light bulb cooled.
Later that morning, while Cherry still slept, Harper and I folded her blanket and rolled up her sleeping bag. We both took showers and because I had taken a hundred out of our stash to keep in my wallet, Thank God, I went to get breakfast for all of us while Harper dried her hair.
As I stood in line, trying to figure out if they had real cream for Harper’s tea or not, I heard a tiny voice creep into my ear.
“What are you doing here?”