Caught Between
an excerpt

Chapter 1

Couches were a lot more comfortable to sleep on than park benches, but they still weren’t the perfect solution for Jesse. He was tall, and sleeping all scrunched up to fit between the arms was the perfect recipe for cramps the next morning; not fun when his first class was gym. Not fun period.

He remained on the couch for a while after he’d woken up, curled up with his knees pressing into his chest and two kittens sitting on his legs; when he finally got up, it was only because the need to use the restroom was becoming too urgent to ignore. One of the kittens, a pure white male named Angel, clung helplessly to the leg of his jeans even after he’d gotten to his feet, mewling pitifully until Jesse picked him up and cradled him against his chest.

“Hey there, Angel,” he said softly, pressing his lips to the kitten’s head in a brief kiss. Angel purred contentedly, pushing up against Jesse and begging for more attention. Jesse was happy to oblige, petting and nuzzling Angel all the way to the bathroom – and even into the bathroom, because the kitten was determined not to be put down. Once inside, Angel leapt gracefully from Jesse’s arms, contentedly curling himself up on a corner of the bunched – up bathmat.

Jesse laughed, his morning already brightened considerably, and hummed as he relieved himself. Even the discovery that the black glitter glue from last night had rubbed off all over him didn’t dull his spirits; he merely took it as a sign that he should take advantage of the shower while he had access to one. Amanda and her wife, Cee Cee (legally known as Amanda Cardinal), wouldn’t be waking up for a while anyway.

He was rather surprised when Angel climbed into the bathtub with him, and even more so when, rather than hiding from the water, the kitten all but danced in the flow from the showerhead. “Those two are getting their weird on you, aren’t they?” he asked, only to get a wide-eyed kitty stare in response. Grinning, he pulled the elastic off the end of his hair, freeing it from its usual waist-length braid so he could wash it.

Not only did Angel not mind water, he also didn’t mind soap, and he greatly amused Jesse by running around the bathtub chasing shampoo bubbles. Jesse was too happy to care that traces of black remained where the glitter patterns had been last night, and Angel just seemed happy to be there, hanging out with someone he didn’t get to see often.

“I’m projecting, aren’t I?” Jesse asked the kitten, getting a soft “meow” in response as he turned the water off and scooped Angel into his arms again. “You’re just one weird kitty. And now you’re one clean kitty.”

Angel only purred, showing no signs of protest as Jesse toweled him off and set him down on the floor. Jesse had never met a cat who was so willing to be exposed to water, and he watched Angel as he dried off himself, rather amused. “You’re strange,” he informed the kitten, and in response he got the strange impression that Angel had actually grinned at him. He just shook his head and turned towards the mirror.

The reflection that met his gaze was the same one that faced him every day, with the addition of intricate swirls of grey all over his face. His skin was lightly tanned from all the time he spent outside, marked in a few places with acne, and his eyes were a muddy, uncertain greenish-brown. Several silver hoops marked his ears; two on the right and three on the left, to be exact, done by a trusted friend. He frowned, leaning forward to examine his left ear more closely, bothered by the soft tint of red that surrounded the uppermost piercing. It didn’t hurt, but it bothered him anyway. He’d have to track down said friend later on today and get something to clean it with.

Satisfied that his face hadn’t changed any during the night, he grabbed a towel and started drying his hair, trying to wring out as much water as possible. With hair that fell past his waist getting it completely dry was out of the question, but he could manage to render it only damp before he braided it so it didn’t drip all over his clothes. Once he had dried it as best he could he started to braid it, soon pulling it over his shoulder and deftly twisting his fingers. He never had enough money for a proper haircut and he didn’t trust most of his friends with scissors; he’d quickly learned how to braid. It was the easiest way to deal with it.

By the time he’d finished, he could hear movement in the rest of the house, and he wrapped a towel around his waist and left the bathroom. Cee Cee was feeding the nine kittens and two adult cats who claimed the place as their own, and Angel quickly joined them, fur sticking out at odd angles. She smiled at Jesse, tucking a stray strand of blond hair behind one ear and setting several cans of cat food on a nearby table.

“Amanda went a little crazy last night. She did all your laundry and she finished your math homework,” she said with a smile. Jesse laughed. Cee Cee was the crazy one – and she not only knew it, she got insulted when people didn’t acknowledge it – but she was constantly referring to her wife as being crazier. Just one of the many quirks of this couple, just one of the reasons that hanging around with them was a fun time and a half. Jesse loved them to death.

“Clean clothes are good,” he said calmly, bending down to pet a few of the kittens rubbing franticly against his ankles. “What time is it?”

“I don’t know. The clock in here is way off. Ask Amanda, she has a watch. I think she’s in the kitchen…”

Laughing again, James navigated around the kittens into the kitchen. Amanda was indeed in there, sitting on the counter with their oldest cat (a bossy, overweight black creature named Sam) and staring intently at the microwave. The room smelled strongly of bacon, and of something else, rather overpowered by the bacon, but comforting nonetheless.

“You’re eating breakfast with us,” Amanda said as soon as she noticed Jesse, sliding off the counter. “There’s still an hour and a half before you have to catch the bus to school. I charged your DS for you and did your laundry, so you have no excuse for leaving us early. Do you understand me, Jesse?”

Raising his hands in mock – surrender, Jesse nodded. “You’re awesome, Amanda,” he said with a grin, dropping his hands as he noticed the towel around his waist slipping. He really meant it, too. He had a few friends who let him borrow couch space, showers, and laundry facilities, but Amanda and Cee Cee had all but unofficially adopted him. While it was sometimes embarrassing to be babied by a couple only two years older than him, it was nice most of the time, especially in the colder months when sleeping outside was far from a good idea. Today, especially, he was grateful, and he gave Amanda a hug before he left the kitchen in search of his clean clothes.

They were folded neatly on top of the washer (Amanda really was a neat freak sometimes) with his backpack sitting next to them. Making sure the towel was secure around his waist he shifted through the pile, pulling out a worn pair of pale blue jeans and a large, dark blue sweater as well as a pair of black boxers and a white tee-shirt. He didn’t have many clothes, and what he did have all followed the same pattern; jeans and loose, warm sweaters, along with a few tee-shirts. He didn’t need anything more than that.

He wasn’t at all shy around Amanda and Cee Cee (and not just because they were lesbians) so he dressed in the laundry room, tossing the damp towel into the basket and heading back into the kitchen. The bacon was done and a tray of blueberry muffins was sitting on the counter, steaming, and everything looked amazingly good. Jesse smiled, sitting on one of the stools pulled up to the kitchen island

Amanda was boiling water for tea. Cee Cee was pulling various things out of the fridge; milk, butter, oddly-flavored creamers, half a bowl of leftover hash browns that she stuck in the microwave. Jesse happily accepted a mug of chai tea from Amanda and a plate of bacon from Cee Cee, taking a muffin from the trey. A good breakfast. That was something he wasn’t used to.

He wished he could get used to it.

Nothing in this house was ever quiet, and breakfast was no exception. Amanda had her laptop in front of her, and she was typing furiously between bites, still managing to carry on a conversation with Cee Cee. Jesse didn’t really hear the words, too involved with his food to care about what they were saying – too busy savoring each bite to do more than catch a fragment every now and then. Something about a contest – it didn’t matter. Just being here with them was enough.

It couldn’t last forever, of course, but these times were some of the best in his life. Better than breakfast had ever been with his family; an overly – religious mother and a sister slowly taking after her, both quiet, Zoey because she hated them both and their mother because she thought meals should be quiet because hers were at a child. Nothing like this.

The peaceful feeling lasted even after he left the table, even after he packed his backpack and headed out to catch the bus. A cool breeze pulled golden-red leaves off the old oak trees in the front yard and played with them while more crunched under his feet on the sidewalk, while the sun slowly started to peek out from behind the morning’s clouds and fog.

The bus stop was at the corner. Once he reached it, he turned around and glanced back at the house. There was a tiny white kitten in the front window staring back, paws against the glass; one moved a little side-to-side, as though Angel was waving at him. As that registered in his mind, the kitten leapt down from the windowsill, vanishing off into the house and leaving him wondering if all the sugar from last night was making him see things.

The bus came before he could think about it too much more, and he shook it off with a shake of his head as he did most things. The bus was crowded but it didn’t take much effort to find an empty seat beside another teenaged boy, one with black hair and headphones blaring something unpleasant. Jesse winced as he sunk into the seat, pulling his backpack into his lap. There went the wonderful warmth of this morning, washed away in a wave of heavy metal music.

“Could you please turn that down?” he asked, raising his voice in an attempt to be heard over it. To his great surprise, the boy did turn it down – off, in fact, pushing the large headphones down around his neck.

“I’m sorry,” the boy said, flashing a smile that showed teeth just a little too white. “I didn’t realize it was bothering people.” Jesse’s first impression faded somewhat, and he smiled back. It was hard to stay mad at this boy for some reason that he couldn’t really name...