...and so we left "the only home that I knew". I was definitely scared, but I knew deep-down that it was the right thing to do. As River's fiance, I knew that I needed most of all, to protect her from what I went through. She loved me, and she didn't deserve any of that abuse. And I wasn't about to let my mother abuse River as she'd abused me. But despite all that, the first step was the hardest. It was leaving the only refuge I had known, whether it was abusive or not. The world was an unknown quantity and I was for the first time, setting foot outside my comfort zone. My sole comfort was that River and I had each other.
It was a hard first few days on the street. The only thing that we had was a tent and a property. River was pretty upbeat for being unceremoniously cast out on the street, but we were young adults and we needed to make our way in this world without the help of my parents, not that they would help out anyways. We dumpster dove to gain goods to sell for food and ended up sneaking showers at my dojo (my parents shoved me into Sim Fu because well, even though my mother was hell-bent on beating me down, they weren't going to let any other kid pick on me).
I had my share of fights; some I came out the loser, some I came out on top. All I can say, was I tried to give as good as I got. You know the old saw, where a guy comes out of a bar looking like he'd just been in a war, another guys says, "What the hell happened to you?",
"Oh, some guy decided to run his mouth, so I shut it for him.".
"Hell, man, you look like hell...",
"You think that's bad, you should see the other guy..."
The first night out, River and I took comfort in each other's arms. Yeah, I know, it was a risk...but we needed solace. We were in a tough spot and well, sometimes, you just need each other's comfort.
The next morning we headed out, since during the night we'd talked that instead of the both of us getting stinking, that River should do fishing so that we could make sure that we all had something to eat...and we'd sell any surplus that we had. I'd be the one going into the dumpsters trying to find stuff for us to sell, because invariably, there was always someone who had left something that could be repaired and auctioned off. At least then only one of us would have to run daily to the showers to shower off.
When we were done, we met up back at our lot and threw some fish on the fire pit to make sure that we ate. We needed to keep our strength up. Because in Vancouver, it rains...a lot and just being constantly wet and cold can sap one's energy quickly. And if you end up in a hypothermic situation, you're done.
...and well, afterwards we crawled into the only refuge from the elements that we had. And hoped that our garments would dry out by morning.
...a faint hope at best considering the torrential downpour. Considering that we only had a couple thousand simoleons from our two day effort, it didn't look as though we were going to make decent shelter before winter.
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