Page 18 of Outside the Lines
Alex
When I saw Trin again, I expected it to be while we were on another date. I did not expect to see them sitting there on the street corner across from a little girl. They both had plates of tacos in front of them. I wasn't sure who the child was, and if it would be strange if I stopped by to say hi to the two of them, but I didn't want Trin to see me and think that I was avoiding them by not coming over to say hi either.
The little girl saw me first, and she frowned at me as I crossed the street toward them. Trin turned and looked over their shoulder at me. I got a wave from Trin. The little girl on the other hand was down to full out glaring in my direction. I wondered what it was about me that upset her so easily.
Trin pushed out a chair for me. "I can't stay long," I explained. I was just running an errand for Trinity House and Kim would expect me back any minute now.
Trin smiled at me. "That's okay. We were nearly done anyway. Alex, this is Sally. Alex is my friend from when I was in a homeless shelter as a teenager. Sally, however you want to introduce yourself to him is fine. I won't tell him anything more than what you say to him now."
"Hi," I said to her.
"Trin's my therapist," Sally quietly explained. "I'm working through stuff. Is he who you want me to go live with?"
Trin shook their head. "Not at all. He's just a friend. You will have plenty of time to meet foster families when you're ready."
I thought that might be the end of it, but Sally turned on me. "Do you have any extra bedrooms? Trin says that I can't live with them because they don't have an extra bedroom, but if you did, then Trin could live with you because they're approved, and then I could live there too, and then I wouldn't need a new foster family."
Sighing, Trin gave me a weak smile. "I'm sorry. She's going through a transition right now." Trin turned their attention back to Sally. "I know you want to live with me, but asking a complete stranger if we can both move in with him is a bit much, even for you. And I know how out there you can be sometimes."
Sally instantly looked disappointed, and I was sure I should be going. "Trin, can I call you later?"
They nodded to me, but they were still looking at Sally, who was now only playing with her food.
"I need to get going back to the shelter," I explained as I started to get up.
Trin turned to me and gave my hand a squeeze. "Of course. I'm glad we ran into you."
"Me too."
Sally still looked pitiful as I walked away, but I could hear her talking again when I was a few feet beyond her, so hopefully I hadn't disappointed her too badly.
*~*~*
I texted Trin that evening.Would you like to have dinner?
Yes. I'm off at seven,they replied a few minutes later.
Can I pick you up at eight?
Sure.
See you then.
With my next date with Trin set up, I went back to work, which meant working on my third pan of meatloaf to make sure I fed everyone. We were at full capacity and even had a few overflow kids who would be going to another shelter to spend the night They were all good kids; if I didn't look into their eyes, I might have been able to pretend that they were all just normal happy kids in an after-school care program waiting for their parents to get off work. But I did look at them, and I couldn't ignore their pain.
Most of them missed their families. Even if their families had been horrible to them; even if they'd thrown them out, they still missed them. There was some ingrained rule about having to love parents that most of the kids around me still followed. I didn't follow that logic. If their parents had hurt them or had kicked them out, if they'd ever made one of the kids feel scared or neglected, then no, I didn't think that the parent still deserved to be loved.
"What's got you smiling?" Kim asked me as she came up beside me with a tray full of fresh biscuits to go with the meatloaf.
"How resilient kids are. Listen to them; you'd never know that they've been through horrible things when they're laughing like that."
She smiled at me and started helping me get the meatloaf pans into the oven. "I think you're also remembering Trin. It wasn't too long ago that it was you two out there playing soccer in the middle of the night when they were too restless from their nightmares to be able to sleep."
Once the meatloaf pans were all in, I turned to her. I'd been avoiding asking her this; even after all these years I still wanted Kim's acceptance and support. "Do you think it's wrong of me to pursue Trin romantically?"
Kim took my hand and brought me over to one of the many dining room tables. Kids were coloring or playing board games nearby, and they ignored us for the most part too. We were boring old adults, after all.
"Do you think it is?"
