Five Years Ago From Present Day

Chapter One: When They Met

The city lights amplified broken people's shattered dreams, and it didn't come much more broken or hopeful than my little family. "Do you see that!?" My mom grabbed my shoulder, and I followed where her finger was pointing. Birds flew around an entire steak that an old man had just thrown onto the ground right in front of the bench he was sitting on. "That's freedom, Inez." She took a deep breath in, slinging her arm around my shoulder. 

"Freedom?" I asked, "How is a bird eating in the middle of the city freedom?" 

​​​​​​My mom clicked her tongue, "You see things too literally, sometimes there are hidden metaphors in everyday life." She put her finger in the air, in the way she usually did before giving me some life changing advice, but after a second she crushed her index finger back into her fist, "You can find what's special about it on your own, I can't force feed you everything."

I couldn't help but snort at her, "You're just saying that because you don't know what it means either." She shrugged, ending that topic of conversation there. My eyes glanced towards the many shops, and corner stores.

"We're here." My mom announced as we came to a stop right in front of the Hellebore Apartments in Tribeca, Manhattan. The building was nice, but it didn't really stand out in any way, not in comparison to all the other places we'd looked at before deciding to live here. "When me and the moving guys were here yesterday," my mom began as she opened the building's main door for me, "I ran into our new neighbor, a real nice guy- you'll like him." She sounded so sure that I didn't have it in me to voice how much I seriously doubted that, from my experience, the people who my mom liked, weren't the kind of people I liked. As we got into the elevator, I watched the screen change floor levels, up until it finally stopped on floor 7.  Upon walking out, I was greeted by the already familiar brick walling and dirty welcome mats that multiple of the neighbors had set up on the floor before their doors. Our unit was at the very end of the hall, which wasn't too far down, seeing as how there were only ten units on each floor. My mom jiggled the keys in the lock a couple of times before they actually worked. 

"Welcome home," she said, holding the door open for me. I gave my best tight lipped smile as I looked around the place. There was a door to my right that led into the kitchen, and past that was the main room, or living room. When you got to the living room, there were two more doors, one on the left wall, and then one on the right. "That room's yours." My mom said, pointing to the door on the left. 

I nodded my head, "Where's Marcus supposed to sleep when he visits?" I asked, not having really thought about my older brother till now. 

"He can sleep on the couch for all I care." Was my mom's chaste response before she walked off into her new room. I couldn't help but drop my shoulders as I went to my own room. I shook my arms around in the air the second I shut the door, hoping the gloomy feeling I knew was weighing me down would leave. I wasn't usually like this, I didn't have problems smiling, but when you're on the third move in the span of two years, it can get repetitive. It was to my brother's luck that he left for college when everything began. He didn't have to watch our mom struggle to find something that actually made her happy, nor did he have to lose contact with old friends. He wasn't running like we were, because he didn't really affiliate himself with our mom to begin with. Of course, that didn't mean he wouldn't use us for free food and housing when he needed it during breaks. 

Throwing myself onto my bed, I decided to ignore the many boxes that littered the apartment, as I let sleep take over. 

"Inez!" 

The sound of my name stirred me awake. The first thing I noticed upon opening my eyes, was that the