Raven jumped on her skateboard and skated down the street. She enjoyed being
six inches higher than the rest of the crowd and moving twice as fast. With
her backpack on, she knew she looked huge and people got out of her way. She
swerved toward a bunch of teenage girls clustered around the window of one
of the clothing shops that lined the street. They scattered and she laughed.
Losers, she thought to herself. Trying to be different like everyone else.

She caught one of the girls watching her as she rode by and stuck her tongue
out at her. The girl laughed and stuck her tongue out back. Raven laughed
and grinned at her, then winked as she rode away. She hurtled through a
crowd of businessmen pressing into a newsstand. She looked back long enough
to count the glares. Only half, she thought to herself! She made a note to
swing by a little closer next time and give 'em a real scatter.

She got to the corner and turned sharply. She coasted to the alley and
hopped off her board. Tucking it under her arm, she sprinted up the alley
and back to the top of the block. She tightened her backpack and the scarf
on her head and got back on the board and pushed around the corner. The
girls were at the corner shop now, and she nearly plowed into them. Two of
them gave her looks as if to say "You could die and I'd watch", complete
with eye-rolling and snubs. The girl who had grinned back at her, though,
was watching her now. Raven winked at her, and she grinned again. Raven
swerved around the group and down the sidewalk again. The news stand was
empty for a moment, and Raven hopped off her board and started walking there
again. The newsie gave her a dirty look, obviously trying not to smile and
she flipped him off. He laughed and yelled "Bitch!" after her. She made a
mocking curtsey at him and dropped her board and smoothly jumped back on.

She skated another block, this one mostly empty -- two bars and a couple of
dinner restaurants didn't make for a lively street before the afternoon was
even getting going. She careened barely in control toward the park, coasting
the whole way. She loved that stretch, all downhill, with just enough people
milling about to be fun to tease. She'd run into a woman there once who'd
whipped out a cell phone and tried to get the police there, but Raven knew
she wasn't a priority. She avoided being seen by the cops in the area for a
few days, though. There weren't exactly a lot of girls with pink dreadlocks
and torn jeans running into people while skateboarding in the area.

She skated onto the grass and came to a halt. She flopped over, panting a
little. She wasn't sure whether it was the kamikaze skateboard run from the
top of the hill through the crowd or the grinning girl that made her a
little extra out of breath. She layed there in the grass for a moment, then
sat up again and pulled a rumpled pack of cigarettes out of the backpack.
Last thing I need if a two block suicide run is making me out of breath, she
thought. Oh, well. She lit it anyway, leaned against her pack and put it
between her lips.

"Hey. That stuff will kill you if you let it." A voice came from behind her.

Raven looked upward and saw an upside-down girl. Same one she'd just gotten
a grin from. "Heyyyy," she said, doing her best imitation of a tough guy
trying to impress a girl. 

She flashed her the same grin and flipped over. A now right-side-up girl was
grinning back at her. "I'm Jennifer" she said.

Raven debated lying, saying Sarah or something, but she decided she liked
Jennifer. "Raven," she said. She smoothly rolled to her feet and thrust out
her hand. "Nice to meetcha." 

Jennifer laughed and shook her hand. The callouses surprised her. She looked
at Raven a little harder and smiled. This time she saw the dirt and
dreadlocks, the torn jeans. Raven fidgeted for a moment, and Jennifer
shifted her weight. "So... " they started at the same time. Raven smirked
and continued "... come here often?" 

Jennifer giggled. "One cliche after another, aren't you?" 

Raven shrugged. "Only on tuesdays." 

"No, I don't come here often. You just ... " she trailed off and twirled her
hair around her fingers for a moment. "... you're different and intriguing
and ..." she trailed off again.

"Don't forget cute." Raven posed with her most outlandish rakish grin.

Jennifer squirmed. "Yeah. Cute too. Okay, and daring." 

Raven grinned more, genuinely this time. "Just a girl and her skateboard."

"So, you live around here?"

"Yeah." Raven tried to sound like it was nothing special.

"Me too"

"Where?"

"Panoramic heights."

"Aaah. Wow." Rich girl. At least I can probably get a meal out of her, Raven
thought. 

"I know. My dad's got money. I hate it. I'd so give it up. It just means I
have to do better than anyone else at school, and still try and fit in. It's
hard. I kinda gave up this year. The girls I was with this morning are as
close as I have to friends. And I don't know if you noticed, but some of
them are kinda mean."

"Yeah, what's up with that!" Raven smirked. She'd enjoyed scaring the two
girls a little more than she let on.

"I dunno. Their parents suck too though. Probably got it from them."

"Probably." Raven tried to squash any conversation that led to rich-kid
politics. She figured one-word responses aught to do it.

"Anyway. Enough about them. I like you."

Raven wasn't sure what to make of it. She kept trying to figure Jennifer out
and she kept wiggling her way out of stereotypes. So much for always being
able to figure everyone out. It made her a little nervous. She was used to
finding a way to get a little something out of everyone, and she wasn't sure
what Jennifer wanted. 

Raven eyed Jennifer warily. She put on her best friendly face and smiled at
her while she looked her up and down. Brand name jacket. Probably cost a
hundred dollars. She tried not to sneer. 

"So where do you live?" Jennifer asked. Raven knew the question was coming.
It always did.  She still didn't have any good answers. She had always tried
hard to brush people off before they got the chance to ask.

"Around." She raced to find a better answer. She expected a press to be more
specific.

Jennifer looked at her a little too intensely. "You're homeless." She didn't
make any pretense of it being a question. 

"Uh... yeah. Actually." So much for expectations again.

"So where do you live?" The question took on entirely new meaning. 

"There's a burned out church around the corner. There's an old storeroom
that's usually open. There. I have a net hammock in my bag. When the
weather's good, I can hide myself in a tree in the woods in the park uptown,
you know the one that the city can never find the money to improve? There.
You know the golf course on 16th? The sand traps hold the heat, and the
range doesn't open until 9. If you're out with the sun, nobody ever sees
you. So there, sometimes. Winter just sucks, but there's a bridge that has
enough of an overhang that you can keep the rain out if you're clever.
There, when I have to." She didn't mention the endless shelters. "And just
about anywhere with woods, really." She wasn't sure whether she was trying
to impress, scare or bore Jennifer.

"Wow. I see that church every day on my way to school. Dad said it was
arson. It always gives me the creeps just a little."

"Yeah, probably was." Raven liked the church, and thought it was a lot less
creepy than churches still operating.

"What's it like inside?"

"Mostly burned out. A couple of pews still. I mostly stay in the
store-room." Any place warm and dry.  Jennifer nodded.

"Let's go there!" What? Raven wasn't ready for anything like that. She
panicked for a moment, took another drag off of her cigarette and tried to
fight back the panic inside.

"Okay," she said. What the hell was she doing? She'd only ever taken one
person back to one of her hiding spots, and that had been a complete
disaster. Of course in hindsight, she thought to herself, it had been a
disaster from the start, and the first mistake was not showing him around.
Maybe it would be different with Jennifer.

She wasn't sure why she liked Jennifer. She was so plain, in that rich-kid
sort of way. Everything was predictable, even if there were a hundred brands
of clothes to choose from, they all looked about the same. Raven shook her
head and got her pride out. She stood up in her tall, pink dreadlocked glory
and shook the bits of grass off of her ratty jeans. She hauled the backpack
up onto her back. She kicked the board up into her hands. She kicked the
drama up a notch and shook her head, her long dreads swinging around
dramatically. "Let's go!"

Jennifer laughed. "Alright!" Laughter was good. 

Raven skated most of the way, half impressed that Jennifer could keep up
without breaking a jog. The church had a steel fence around it, and Raven
got off her skateboard and walked down the alley along the fence for a
stretch. Jennifer followed, less enthusiastically than before. Raven found
the spot that had been clipped out of the fence and ducked through. "Come
on!"

"Are you sure this is okay?"

"Yeah, come on. If you look like you don't belong here, people ask
questions. Come on!" Raven remembered why she didn't make friends with rich
kids very often. No sense of adventure. Jennifer ducked under the wire and
Raven pulled her around the back of the building.

The church was a large, old building. She wasn't sure whether it was
Catholic or Baptist. The sanctuary was a burned-out shell, a couple of pews
left intact, and the arching ceiling mostly present, though a few holes left
shafts of light pouring into the room. 

"Is this safe?" Jennifer asked.

"Probably not." Raven rarely did things that were safe.

They stepped over charred remainders of furniture. 

"I think I recognize this place. This was a Catholic church, wasn't it?"

Raven shrugged.

"I came here when I was little. My grandparents are catholic, and they'd
make us go to church sometimes. I tbink this is where they went, before it
burned."

Raven stepped through the doorway into the back of the church. The evidence
of wood and paneling and formality fell away, and they found themselves in a
relatively intact office. There were two parts of a pew, burned at one end
stacked up against the wall. Raven pushed one aside and revealed a small
door. She opened it and the door swung into a tiny, dark store room. There
were a pile of blankets on the floor, and it was dry. 

"Home sweet home." Raven tried to sound nonplussed. She actually liked the
space a lot. When she wasn't in and out of the woods, she really liked it
here, and so far, nobody else had discovered the store room. She'd found it
entirely empty, and had made a sort of nest over the next week as she
acquired blankets. She'd traded some glass beads she had for one of them,
and a pack of cigarettes for another. Jennifer stepped inside the little
room, and Raven ducked and twisted a little to get inside with her backpack
on.

"Wow. It's tiny." Jennifer couldn't quite stand up, and Raven was taller
than she, but was already sitting on the floor cross-legged. Jennifer took
the hint and did so too. "You really live here?"

Raven shrugged. "As much as I live anywhere." She thought of this as her
home, but she tried not to get too attached. Some day I'm going to come in
here and find heroin needles and I'll know it's no good, she thought.
Fucking Junkies.

"Yeah. That's sad," said Jennifer. I'm sure you think so. Raven thought
about how to squash that thought. She hated pity. She hated pity more than
just about anything. She kicked the door shut.

"Hey!" Jennifer sounded a little frightened. 

"Boo!" Raven tried not to sound too sarcastic. "Scare you?"

".. A little." Jennifer sounded more than a little frightened now.

Raven reached into her backpack and pulled out a matchbook. She struck one
of the matches and Jennifer startled at the noise. She sputtered a little at
the smell in the tight quarters. She held the match low so it cast long
shadows over her face. "Oooooo"

Jennifer shrieked and kicked the door open. Raven blew out the match. Shit.
Too much. I always do this. "Sorry."

"It's okay." Jennifer breathed hard for a moment, then relaxed.

"Sssh." Jennifer cocked her head to one side, listening. Raven did too.
"What's that noise?"

Raven heard a few muffled words. "The stuff." "That much?" "No way." "Fuck
you." She crawled out of the door and peered around the office door and into
the burned out sanctuary of the church. Two men were standing there,
arguing. She pulled back toward Jennifer. "Sssh. Drug deal. Shit."  They sat
and listened for a few moments.

In a hushed whisper, Raven said "This isn't the first time here. It's
usually okay here, and it's a pretty out of the way place. But sometimes
bigger deals go down here, 'cause nobody watches this building."

There were sounds of a struggle for a moment, and then a muffled whack.

Raven peered around the wall again. There was a man lying on the floor in a
heap. 

"Shit. I think the dealer just got knocked out." She inwardly thought it was
probably good. It meant more drug deals were probably not on the way here,
and it might keep her hiding place out of sight a while longer. She looked
again and saw the other man stepping out the door of the church. He looked
homeless and very thin. He had a paper bag, obviously heavy. Something
glassy sounded as he moved it, as if it were full of glass bottles. He
counted whatever it was in the bag and grinned and ran out of the church.
Raven didn't like the look of him when he grinned. She turned back around
and nearly pushed Jennifer over, she'd come up next to her to look.

Jennifer bit her lip. "Heroin."

"Whoa, how do you know that?" Raven looked at Jennifer again. Expectations.

"My uncle is a total junkie. He used to buy stuff on the street like that.
Spent everything and more. He stole money from my dad to pay for it. He used
to watch us kids, and then some guy would show up and he'd buy it. Right
there in our house in front of us."

"Wow. Okay, you are so not like what I expected." Raven was still watching
her incredulously.  Jennifer grinned.  The dealer groaned and moved a
little. Raven thought she saw a gun. The last thing she wanted was to be
shot at by an angry drug dealer who'd just been jumped. She grabbed Jennifer
and pulled her back into the store room.  Jennifer was still watching out
the door, and Raven grabbed her and shut the door as firmly as she could
without making noise. She turned and leaned against it. 

The room was very dark with the door shut, and they were both breathing
hard. They listened, and heard nothing for a moment. Then a string of loud
curses, and the half-present door on the front of the church slammed. Raven
realized she was holding her breath while she listened. She let it out
explosively. She reached for her pack, groping along the floor. She couldn't
remember which corner she'd left it in. jjj

"Let me find a light." She moved her hand along the wall and put her hand
directly on Jennifer's thigh.

Jennifer jumped. "Sorry!" Raven tried to reach over her for her pack.

Jennifer touched her hand. "Don't be." Raven froze, trying to interpret what
she meant.  "I liked it." Raven seized up completely. "And I like you."

Raven withdrew and sat against the wall, pulled the light out of her pack
and turned it on.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"No." I like her, Raven thought. "I just..."

Jennifer watched her carefully.

"I'm scared, okay?"

Jennifer nodded.

"I've never really been close to someone before. You scare me. I can't push
you away. I want to run screaming at you, terrify you, and I don't want you
to leave." A tear ran down her cheek. "Damnit, and now I'm crying."

Jennifer bit her lip and pulled a tissue out of her pocket and reached for
Raven's face. Raven jumped, covering her face and hit Jennifer's arm aside.
Whoa, shit. What did I just do? 

Jennifer pulled her arm away. Raven fought down panic. "I'm sorry! I'm so
sorry!" The tears started flowing faster.

"Whoa. It's okay. You scared me." Jennifer's voice was trembling almost as
much as Raven's.

"I.. I'm" Raven stifled a sob. "I'm sorry. I thought you were going to hit
me. Fucking reflex."

"Who was it?"

Blackness. Concentrate on the blackness. Take a breath. Raven tried not to
feel the fist hitting her face again and again. She pulled her arms around
her knees and rocked. Not again. Not again. She took a breath, slowly. One.
Two. Three. The panic started to subside.

"My dad. My mom." The tears started again. "I ... There's a reason I can't
go home. I couldn't take it anymore. After my brother moved out, it was only
a few months. I really couldn't take it anymore." Raven kept rocking. 

"I was ten. I said something and dad just hit me. I had a black eye for two
weeks.  I'd ask mom for something -- food, a snack, if I could watch TV. She
usually said whatever, but sometimes she'd pinch my arm so hard it'd bleed
and tell me to fuck off and take care of myself.

"My brother moved out when I was fifteen. I left a few months later. I
stayed with him sometimes. When he had a place to stay that let him have
visitors."

Jennifer sat up and scooted closer to Raven, gently putting an arm around
her.

"I guess that's it. I couldn't take it. I got smacked around, so I left.
Yeah."

Jennifer squeezed Raven. "Oh, honey. Geez."

Raven shrugged. "Whatever."

"No, really. Geez. I... I think I would have done the same thing."

"Hey, can I have that tissue?" 

"Oh, sure. Here." Jennifer thrust it toward her.

Raven patted her eyes. "I don't cry much. I swear, it's been years. You just
shut it off, you know?"

Jennifer nodded and sighed. "I wish I didn't." She paused for a long while.

"You want a hug?" Jennifer asked. 

Raven nodded slowly.

Jennifer smiled a little and pulled her close.

"You've never let anyone even nearly this close before, have you?"

Raven shook her head. No, and I hate it a little. You make me feel so weak,
she thought. But I can't stop.

"Um, Raven?"

"Yeah?"

Jennifer grabbed Raven's shoulders and pulled her closer.  she whispered,
"You didn't skate past us earlier just to give those two girls an extra
scare. You were totally checking me out."

Nailed. Called out.  "Yeah, so?"

"I like it."

Raven didn't know what to do. She was used to being able to call the shots,
and lie her way out of things if not. Fuck her. She struggled and Jennifer
took her hands off of her shoulders. "It's okay. You can say no."

Raven's mind raced. She let Jennifer into her private space. She wasn't sure
what to do. She'd always managed to end up on some guy's couch or bed, or
some girl she met. She'd work her way into their life for a little while,
long enough to have a place to stay for a week or a day, and then be gone.
Nobody had ever sought her out. She didn't know how to make the second move.

Jennifer touched her hand gently. Raven started a little. "Just let go. It's
okay." Raven tried to relax, and found it harder work than ever. She thought
about skating a bit, and the habit, the smooth flow of wheels on sidewalk
calmed her a little. The tension under Jennifer's hand melted away. I don't
know what to do, she thought. Jennifer picked her hand up and put he over
her heart. The warm skin pulsed gently. She thought she could hear Jennifer
smile, and imagining what it looked like, she relaxed a little more.
Jennifer pulled her back and down on top of her.

Raven heard the sound of her breath filling the tiny room. She fumbled in
the blackness and felt Jennifer's arm underneath her. Her breath wasn't the
only one getting heavier.

Jennifer pulled her closer. She's going to kiss me. Raven tried to figure
out what to do when she wasn't leading. Panic. Excitement. She felt a hand
on her back, under her shirt. She jumped a little in surprise. She reached
back and put her own hand on Jennifer's, sandwiching the shirt between.

Raven pushed herself against Jennifer, and hovered her lips over
Jennifer. "Not so fast!" Jennifer grinned at her and pushed her over, then
straddled her. "You think you can just take over. I bet you always take
over"

Damn it, Raven thought. Does it show that much? She struggled a little under
Jennifer's weight and laughed as she realized that she'd have to be forceful
to push her away. Is everyone this heavy? Jennifer was above her, grinning.
Am I in over my head, she asked herself.

Hands on her back again, sliding upward. Smooth skin. Raven shivered. She
wanted this, she thought. So much of her though was rebelling, wanting to
run, run far away and get in control of things again. She tickled Jennifer's
side with her long fingers, and grinned as Jennifer writhed. Our bodies are
so similar. She relaxed a little as she realized she wasn't powerless. She
tickled again and Jennifer deftly caught her arm and pulled it over her
head. Raven felt strong fingers probing around the tough muscles in her
back, seeking over the two long, thick cords of muscle.  She arched her back
to let Jennifer explore and press harder. Hands slid up further, bunching
her shirt up. She felt fingers tracing the solid line of her bra. She liked
the line of it, the secure band wrapping around her chest. She arched a
little more and felt the clasp give.  The elastic security pulled away, and
she felt exposed again. 

She slowly reached up and imitated the same motion. She slid her fingers
along Jennifer's back, and was surprised at how delicate the muscles in her
back were. I guess she's not sleeping on the ground all the time and skating
around town, she thought. She envied the gentleness a little. She gently put
her hands on Jennifer's back, feeling self-conscious of the rough skin. She
slowly massaged upward, finding the same familiar line of bra. Same freakin'
brand. She paused at the strange similarity for a moment, then unclasped the
bra. She pushed it upward, and Jennifer arched. It slipped free of the space
between them with a muffled sound. Jennifer's shirt lifted as she did. She
felt the bare bellies touch, and she shivered, and Jennifer shook with her.
Her skin was warm, dry and smooth. If she closed her eyes, she thought she
could feel Jennifer's pulse matching her own, feeling the separation between
them disappear just a little.

Raven pushed herself upward and shrugged herself out of her shirt. She felt
herself relinquishing any pretense of control. The last piece of protection.
Jennifer surprised her at how fluidly she managed to get the shirt over her
two arms. She shivered a little and crossed her arms over her chest,
self-conscious. Jennifer smiled at her softly.

Jennifer sat up straighter, sitting just so her thighs pressed into Raven's
hips. She pulled her shirt over her head in a fluid motion. Her head nearly
touched the low ceiling of the store room. She shivered, too. Raven smiled,
seeing the effort it took to so confidently take control. Her breasts hung
free above her. Raven was struck by how beautifully proportioned her body
was. She reached up and traced a finger along her collarbones, delicately
sitting behind soft skin. Jennifer grinned and shifted her weight slightly,
pressing the sensitive nerves at Raven's hips, drawing a gasp.

She leaned forward again, her lips hovering above Raven's, hand just to one
side of her head. She let her lips brush Raven's and her breasts just graze
against her.

Raven clasped her hips and pulled her down on top of her, hip bone to hip
bone, thighs pressed close. Bellies touching, the same warmth shared between
them. She wrapped her thighs around her, holding her close and ran her
fingers up Jennifer's bare back.