Taru

It was night. The street lamps were on as a shadow strolled to the river bridge. It pulled a suitcase behind it and when it stepped into the light, it was seen to be a girl. A teenage girl around 16. She had a long tan coat on since it was cold at night and had a backpack on her back. She walked to the middle of the bridge and dropped her rolling suitcase and sat on the edge. She had medium long dirty blond hair a greyish green-blue eyes that glowed in the street lamp's light. She seemed short, less than 5 feet. This is...Taru. Taru Kitsune.

Taru sighed. Ah. It's already night and I haven't a place to stay yet. she spoke in a soft voice. She looked at her luggage. And I don't feel like carrying those anymore. God. Why does moving away from home so hard. Taru had left her parents house, which lived in a different city close to here. They had wanted her to stay close and in the same city but she didn't want to so she came here. So far, it seemed ok but she still didn't have anywhere to stay for the night. She sighed again.

Marlia

Marlia hated crying.

She found herself doing it more and as of late but with the predicament she seemed to be in, she couldn't help it. The young girl's black hair masked her faced and her eyes as she walked along her favorite path leading out of her town. It was usually pulled back and Marlia hated hair in her face but for now she could care less, even as it stuck to her wet cheeks.

Carrying nothing with her, she felt like she could walk forever with nothing holding her back, no weight but the weight of her own thoughts. Her hands shook gently and her throat kept tightening no matter how hard she tried top steady her breathing. Frustrated, she pushed back dark strands of hair behind her ears and stomped a foot.

Marlia peered into the darkness ahead of her, growing more and more irritable, then saw the outline of Carver's Bridge. A quick flutter in her chest and the runaway girl was relieved. Her steps quickened and before she knew it she had reached the rickety bridge.

Coming from the opposite direction of Taru, she didn't notice her at first. Instead of checking if she was alone, Marlia slumped down against the precarious railing of the bridge and immediately brought her knees up to her chest. Her emotions were catching up to her and finally she felt the first weights of exhaustion.

She had walked seven miles to get away from her house, her town, her parents.

A twang of shame slid into her chest and she let out another gentle sob. They only had wanted what was best of her, but how could they not care how she felt?

Her breathing deepened as she cried to herself, alone she thought, and rocked against the bridge in her favorite mauve and ruby dress underneath her only winter sweater.

Taru

Taru looked around when she heard something. Someone was...crying? Who was it? She dropped her backpack and all her stuff on the bridge and walked over to the sound. She soon saw a girl in a ruby dress with a winter sweater over it curled up in the fetal position. Thinking it was best to see why she was crying, she walked over to her. Though she did slip her hand into her inside her coat, clutching her old faucet pipe. Never bad to be cautious, right?

The 4 foot 6, 15 year old looked at the girl as she got closer. She looked around her age and she tapped the girl with her foot. Hey. Why you crying? she asked. She still clutched her pipe inside her coat.

Marlia

A migraine thudded sharply at the temples of her head and she tried to cover her face from any light around her, even though there wasn't any.

To match the pains in on the outside, snippets of the recent heartbreak whipped by in her mind's eye. She could still see his face so clearly.

Still just a boy, in the same way she was still just a girl, he was very handsome. His olive skin seemed to bring out the little pinches of amber in his hazel eyes that she couldn't reist looking into. His hair was disheveled as a young boy's hair will be but it made him friendly and approachable. Likeable. His face overall was very serious, no laugh lines visible yet but the corners of his mouth did twitch, she noticed. In a smile, she had hoped?

Marlia watched the boy get into the new, bright and blindingly shiny car (of what make, she had no idea) as her mother spoke to her excitedly behind her. Marlia wasn't hearing a word of it. It was her same old mother buzzing on and on about their wealthy, friendly, generous new guests, she figured.

Marlia knew them. Mr. and Mrs. something-from-back-home. They came around to meet with mother and father more and more as of late but Marlia had never seen their son. She was very taken.

Before she could ask his name, unaware her mother had already said it a few times, Marlia did hear something terrifying.

Arranged marriage.

Marlia's shy smile turned slowly, unbelievingly, into a frown as she watched the corners of the boy's mouth twist into a sneer... and not into a gesture of truce.

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Marlia's crying hiccuped into silence as she heard crunching footsteps coming towards her. Looking out from between her fingers, she quickly sat up and wiped drenched hair from her face to see clearly. She hadn't known this place to be very popular in the poast few years. Her mother would bring her here and a little ways down the river to have picnics and pick wildflowers. Totgether, they wove them into crowns and would play Damsel in Distress into her father called them on the cellphone to come home and make dinner. Even at 15, Marlia still seem very young mentally. Pigheaded and ambitious, but still very naive and gullible.

Sitting up and closing her coat tighter around her petite frame, she looked up at the stranger and saw that it was a young girl like herself. She was confused and a little wary. Marlia chided herself for her sloppiness. In her roaring defiance to her parents she had grabbed nothing but her coat and small bag. Nothing to protect herself, nothing to eat. She tried to hide the fact that she carried nothing to protect herself with a distractive smile and a hearty laugh. "Yeah, sorry, wasn't really crying more than I was, er, frustratingly...tantrum...throwing. Heh, yeah. I just decided to take a walk while stuff back at my house cooled down." That wasn't technically a lie. She hated lying, even to people she didn't know or care about, but for now she wanted to play it cool, as cool as her awkward self could, and not giveaway that she was here alone.

This girl's very small, she concluded. I could probably take her on for a bit if I had to. This wasn't a normal thought for Marlia but she found herself in a desperate situation.

"Anyway," she chuckled. "This is one of my favorite spots so I decided to make a pit stop here." She kept her smile up which was easy enough for her since she was hardly ever doing anything else. Sitting criss-crossed now despite her attire she looked behind the girl and gestured towards the shadowed luggage. "Going camping? she asked as pleasantly as she could.

Taru

Taru looked at the girl as she spoke, listening contently. She still had her hand inside her inside coat pocket, still clutching the pipe. A curious expression crossed her face as she explained. Cool down? Family fights I'm guessing. she said. When the other said this was one of her favorite spots to go she tilted her head a bit. This place? It's just a old bridge though. She tapped the bridge with her shoe.

Then she asked if she was going camping and she shook her head. Actually no. But good guess. I'm moving. I'm gonna try to live on my own without my parents' help. I think I'll be able to do this. So far I walked through the East side of this city. I haven't found a place to stay for the night yet and I was tired of walking so I stopped on this bridge for a break. she explained. Oh. And I'm Taru.

Marlia

Marlia wasn't really one to dwell on things. Her parents took very good care of her despite their somewhat newfound poverty, but she was grateful nonethless. The feud played over and over in her head and the looks on her parents' faces just pained her heart.

She nodded smally. "Yeah, kind of. It was my fault, though." It all still felt like a dream and the young Indian girl found herself growing more and more at ease as she sat on the bridge with this stranger. It was just an old bridge but it held a lot of memories. "It's old and rickety, I know, but you could do so much with it. I have, er, a big imagination."

That was an understatement.

She wrung her hands as the other girl began to speak of her own predicament. Her confident words susrprised Marlia. She couldn't think of anything scarier than leaving her parents and living out alone. I guess I've made the same deicion without meaning to, she thought to herself. When Taru spoke her name, Marlia stood and dusted her bottom and legs off and extended her hand with a big smile. "Nice to meet you Taru! I'm Marlia and I think you're very brave! How will you find a place to stay?"

Taru

Taru decided this girl wasn't a threat and she released her hand from her pipe and pulled her hand out of her long tan coat. She shook the girl's hand with a smile. You really think so? Haha Thanks. Nice to meet you, Marlia. Pretty name. And I haven't found a place to stay. It sucks, moving like this. Especially without a job. I don't know where anything is in this city. It's such a new experience. But...That's what makes it fun. Taru released her hand and looked at her. Aren't you cold? I mean you only have a sweater on.

Marlia

The young girl listened intently, so very curious, to the other, also young, girl. The way she spoke about leaving her family's home seemed so casual and not the biggest deal in the slightest. Marlia couldn't wrap her head around it. Why leave? Why leave family and security?

She still didn't know this girl named Taru so she decided to play it safe and keep things light. "Thanks, Taru. Your name is pretty, too! I had a pet hamster named Ruru once... Reminds me of her." A breif remembrance of her furry little hamster was enough to put a bright and geuinine smile on the girl's face.

When she nudged that memory back into place she thought about the predicament they both seemed to be in. If this seemingly street0smart girl didn't know what to do about shelter, what use was Marlia? Sure she could cook, clean, tell stories and the like, but she wasn't raised to be a take-scharger, no matter how much of her mother she had in her. So Marlia thought and thought and wrapped her sweater tighter around her body. She watched tiny tufts of her hot breath waft up into the night sky and rolled her heel in the gravel they stood on.

"I'll be okay, no worries. I'm just trying to think of where you could stay. I live sort of far from here and I would have gladly taken you home but my parents and all... We're not exactly talking right now..." Oh there'd be plenty of talking later, she knew, if only they found her.

"What now?! Haha," Light and pleasant. They were both for lack of a better word lost but Marlia didn't really want to force her companionship onto this other girl, no matter how lonely and scared she was.

Taru

Taru sighed and rocked back and forth on the bridge. Well. I don't know. God it sucks moving. she sighed. But she quickly smiled again. She had to be upbeat about this. What do you think we should do now? Oh...How about we get something to eat? I'm hungry but I don't know where any cafes or diners are. Want to help me? she asked. She was genuilly hungry and she liked this girl. This would be her first friend in this new city and new life.

Marlia

Marlia nodded at her newfound ally's perception on moving out and away. She'd never say it, but she felt a bit of disapproval on Taru's part. Moving out so young... it was unheard of in her family. Close-knit families wre her family's culture, not just tradition. It's just the way things were.

The fact that she was out here, alone, unchaperoned was just... despicable. She'd cry quietly in her sleep tonight, something she did every time she was upset, but when she looked at Taru's face and saw that sheer smile, the glisten of courage, she knew that for now she'd be okay. She was tough, although her dad teased her she had the skin of a lamb, and she felt that she'd been in sticker situations.

Bad memories circled those waters as well, like great whites.

It was pretty common for her to drift off like that into tangents of thought so she shook her head gently and matched Taru's smile with her own. She shuffled her boots and shoved her hand into her pockets. It seemed the winds had picked up and this part of Atroe City got quite cold, even in the somewhat dense forest that surrounded the bridge. She thought for a moment and then lifted a finger. "Aha! There's a cute little cafe a few miles into the city and I believe the owner's son runs it at night for his friends and whatnot. He's kinda cute actually, hehe. We can go there!"

Not a bad idea, maybe there's a payphone... she hoped. Despite her positive attitude, she had been found crying. She couldn't pretend forever that things at home weren't that bad.