Walk with me part 2

Alright, someone asked for another crazy story. Here's the one from the time I probably should have woken up and run faster and further, but instead I stood there looking like a fucking moron.

I had traveled to the other coast to get away. I was underage, but old enough to work in my previous state. I got to where I was going on the west coast and found out the working age was higher there unless you were enrolled in school and had permission - neither of which I had. So, I suddenly went from having sort of enough to survive to having to live off a little more than 100 a month. It happens.

So, I'm sitting outside a convenience store with this gutter punk runaway kid I was spending some time around in that city and she's bumming a camel cigarette off me. I'm there drinking Snapple and having a snack I had bought inside. She asks me how can I afford the Snapple, brand name cigs, etc. I tell her I have a solid 100 and change coming in every month. She looks at me like I've lost it and starts rattling off the cost of everything I bought, and what I was spending each month.

I had a cheap room (700 a month), food (600 a month), buses (70 a month), and my 3 pack a day Camel cigarette habit (200 or so).

I just looked at her like - I don't know, the 100 stretches.

She got worried. She might have been one of the few people in my life genuinely concerned for my well being, and she was just a runaway kid on the streets.

She started hanging around more and following me. One day my psycho (exploitative "family" member) shows up...this is 3000+ miles away from where I ditched them. But they show up and try to lead me away, and this gutter punk kid tries to stop me from going with the psycho. She asked "who is this?" "Are you okay" I mumbled some absolute bullshit like I was pretty much trained to at that point and followed my psycho anyway.

The psycho brought me to some pretty fucked up shit. Maybe some day I'll get into it all. At the end, they stuffed my pockets full of cash and sent me back out onto the street. That's how I was getting the money. But I was so dazed and drugged out of my shit after being around them that I couldn't fucking remember it right or didn't want to because it was so shady - one of the two.

The psycho had always sent me on errands, and that location was no different. A time would hit, I'd look at my watch and I'd realize I had to be where I'd promised - even though I'd been fully involved in my life just a moment before with zero recollection of any appointment. It was genuinely fucked.

One of those times I was with the gutter punk and she wouldn't let me ditch her. I had to ditch her. It was kind of part of going to an appointment - you don't tell people what it is and you definitely don't bring them with you. But she and a friend wouldn't fucking leave and followed me the whole way, asking where we were going, which I couldn't genuinely easily answer. I just knew the way there.

I finally ditched her at the entrance and she went away pissed off as hell. I think she gave up on me in that moment. That or she couldn't get past the security at the front door. The building required membership to access. Another thing 100 a month probably couldn't pay for but I had.