Chapter 9

“Ok…..I'm more than officially lost...fuck!” Zine groaned.

He had randomly gone down streets, freaked out by that stalker guy, and hadn't thought about backtracking to get home.

Zine was much too lost for that now.

He looked around, and saw apartment complexes, a mini playground, parking lot, and a convenience store with blinking neon lights. Well, he thought, I do have some money hidden at the bottom of my leggings.

He had learned a smart trick; putting your money in the bottom of your pant leg, on the inside and rolling it up, after his first ring fight in his old town. He had earned about seventy five dollars, and because he was afraid of getting mugged, he had put it inside his boot.

Which was a mistake, you know muggers generally think a lot smarter than a twelve year old. The boots were the next thing to go, after they pulled out his pockets. The pennies scattered, he slapped one of them, grabbed the actual cash, left the coins, and then booked it.

After that, he put money in his pant leg and learned to watch the alleys better.

Zine walked over to the convenience store.

He hoped they had mocha cappuccinos from Chocolate Howzer’s.

He went inside and started walking down the aisles. He picked a small package of mint gum off a shelf and continued down the aisle towards the refrigerated section.

He looked around the cold coffee area, and found what he was looking for. Chocolate Howzer’s mocha cappuccino, the best thing in the world. It was literally chocolate milk with a splash of coffee.

When he was little, he wanted to seem more mature because he hung out with a lot of adults. The people in gangs, and those at the fighting ring he frequented, were all older.

He knew smoking was bad for you, and would murder your wallet. So he tried coffee and realized quickly that it was nasty.

But at the gas station, a few blocks from his house, they had Chocolate Howzer’s mocha cappuccino. He remembered that the fancy writing on the bottle was what attracted him at the time. It looked elegant, grown up, and the drink actually tasted good.

Plus it hadn't killed his wallet. He quickly pulled a few dollars out of his pant leg before walking up to the line in front of the check out, and waited his turn.

Zine stared down at the bottle, now that he looked at it, the writing seemed kind of prissy and rather girly. He just realized that the drink that he had hoped would make him seem older probably made him seem younger.

Did I really just have a mini epiphany in a badly decorated convenience store? He didn't have time to answer his, already-answered question because it was his turn to pay for his things. He asked the lethargic cashier where he was.

“14th Street, near I don't​ give a fuck boulevard.” The lady put her elbow on the counter.

“Are we done here, because I got a lot of nothing to do.”

Zine breathed in through his nose.

“No we're not done here, if you're going to fucking give me attitude and a half assed answer, when I just asked a simple question, then we're not done here!”

The woman looked at him and sighed.

“We are at 14th Street near the library, which is about a block away. If you continue down this road you'll see a hotdog stand with a map.

“Jerry should be open right now since his sleep schedule sucks, and the reason I gave you attitude, is that it's fucking, five in the morning and I don't wanna be here.”

He felt a bit bad about mouthing off at the tired lady, so he gave her a stick of gum and thanked her for telling him where to go.

Walking down the road he managed to find the hotdog stand.

The cashier lady was right, it was open, he thought with surprise.

He could smell the cheap hot dogs, and his stomach rumbled in reply. He walked up to the stand and was greeted by a huge smiling man.

“HEY! Young man, what are you doing walking around so early in the morning? Are you up to no good?”

Zine laughed slightly. “Oh I'm almost always up to no good, but not right now, I'm just lost. Mind helping me find out where the hell I am?”

The man he assumed to be Jerry, smiled again.

“Sure I have a map of the city right here.”

Jerry opened up one of the tiny doors on the stand, and a map of the city was taped inside.

“People get lost sometimes when they visit the city, and I get lost a lot, carting around trying to make a living, heh.” Jerry bashfully looked down.

Zine checked the map, and looked at the route he needed to take to get home. He thanked Jerry for letting him look at his map.

Then he used the last two dollars he had pulled out earlier, but hadn't needed at the time, to buy a hot dog with ketchup.