"Dude Looks Like a Lady"

Chapter 7 Red (Ray POV)

(Writers Note:

Hi! Just wanted to say thanks to Laoiselou, Purpletree, Jinxis Rocks and NoMe12 for your comments on the previous chapters and for reading my story :) I uploaded this one fast for you guys ;) hope you all enjoy it! :D

Chapter 7

Red

~Ray (2004)

I placed my trilby in front of Strings who lit up at the sight of the cash in it. He poured it out on the table and smiled broadly, counting down to the last penny. 'Fifty seven quid ninety three in two hours and a half- boy you're a born rock star!' He added most of it to the jar labelled "savings" which was to go to me getting my own bed instead of sleeping head to toe with Strings. He gave me the remainder of the money, a ten pound note and grinned, 'I'll go to the bed shop today and buy it, if you wanna spend that on whatever.'

Finally, I was going to have my own bed and my own room. When I first began to live with strings two months ago, the house was pretty awful. There was no carpet and no heating so we made a campfire at night in the living room to keep us warm, we also had no cooker so we just had to use the fire for that too. There were no chairs, just the one mattress in his room which was the most done up bit. There were five rooms, not counting the living room, kitchen and toilet. Most of them were moulding with moss acting as carpet because the roof had caved in over them. Strings managed to rebuild the roof over the living room, kitchen, toilet and his room. Said he carved planks out of fallen trees and spent some of the money he brought with him on nails and a hammer. He boasted about getting top marks on CDT when he went to school, can't say I didn't believe him. He had carpeted his bedroom and fixed the window in there too and while I was there he did the exact same to the less damaged room. Because I was more successful at busking, I went out and earned while he scraped the moss off the floor, fixed the ceiling, fixed the window and wallpapered and carpeted the room. It was good as new and all we were missing was a bed. We had a cooker now, a cheap one bought from some druggy but it did what it had to do and we also found chairs and a portable heater at an illegal fly tipping area (seriously, the things people throw out).

I knew exactly what I was gonna buy- the twenty first of one hundred and one picks. I had pretty much given up on the idea once the Kents stole Momentum, but then some guy was selling one called Rapture and how could I resist? Next thing I know, going from town to town busking, I come across nine more over two months. I was getting lucky at this, so I was to go to the nearest second hand shop to see if my luck was growing.

I hummed Smells like Teen Spirit by Nirvana as I walked across the viaduct. Nirvana, Manic Street Preachers and The Offspring were all me and Strings listened to. Mostly because its all the albums he had to play on his stereo. He promised that after I get my own bed he would start busking again as well so we can buy loads of albums and still be able to eat and fix up the other three rooms. I was just thinking of what we could use the other three rooms for when a sob broke right through my thoughts. I turned and saw a boy my age. Brown hair like mines. Blue eyes like mines. Didn't looks much like me though- smaller, different nose, different lips and eyebrows. He was looking down over the fence of the viaduct, his tears falling down into the river. The river was always rapid around this time, it was so loud it nearly drowned out his crying.

'Why you crying?' I asked and he quickly jumped up and wiped away his tears.

'Not crying!' He bawled. 'High-schoolers don't cry!'

'What does it matter what kind of school you go to?' I asked but he didn't seem to hear me. I walked over and began rubbing his back which seemed to turn down the waterworks slightly, 'You can tell me what's wrong.' He smiled as he looked up so he could see I did care about him, even though he was a stranger.

'Mom's dead.' He managed to say before wailing, 'I asked to go to KFC and she died!'

I arched an eyebrow, 'What do you mean?'

'We were in a car accident and its all my fault!' He screamed because of the pain. I knew it too well. 'Damn that KFC! Damn me!' I pulled him into a hug so he could cry into my shoulder. Half an hour passed as indifferent people walked by glaring at us for making a scene to interrupt their precious lives. Didn't interrupt them much though, they didn't care enough to come over and help.

Finally he said in a calm but quivering voice, 'Why are you so nice to me? You don't know me.'

'Why shouldn't I be nice to you?' I grinned and he gave a broken, wavering smile back. Still, it was better than no smile at all. 'I know how you feel, y'know...'

'You do?'

I nodded, 'My mom died when I was four and my dad died two years ago.'

'Then who you got left?'

'Strings.' I said without thinking.

'Strings?' He screwed his brows together, 'Just a couple of strings?'

'No!' I laughed, 'It's his nickname. I ran away from my foster home and he found me. Only three years older than me and he's a run away too, we live in the abandoned old farm house.'

'Really?' He gaped, 'I got told that place was haunted, that you can hear music from it at night.'

'That would be us.' I giggled, 'We play guitar and busk for money. Do you play?'

'A little of bass...'

'Really? Maybe you should join our band then!'

'Really?'

'Yeah, Strings told me if I met someone who would be good for the band I should just ask 'em.'

'You really think I'd be good enough? You haven't even heard me play.'

'Don't matter. I can tell just by your personality that you're a great bassist!' He grinned at that, he seemed to have forgotten the pain he was in. We talked about things, our favourite bands, our favourite movies, how our mothers used to tuck us in at night, my plectrum collection and his badge collection. We were so alike and so different it confrazled both our minds. We could've been brothers.

'Meet me same place tomorrow after my shift?' I asked him as the streetlights came on. He nodded still with a happy grin on his face.

'Oh- I never asked, what's your name?'

'Ray. Yours?'

'...Robin...' He said reluctantly and I called him on it and asked why. 'Don't like my name, its a bird.'

'Why not use a nickname?'

'Don't have any.'

'How 'bout Red?'

'Red? Why red?' He took a strand of his hair, 'My hair don't look red does it?'

'No. It's my favourite colour.' I left at that. Somehow that was enough reason for him to start introducing himself as Red from then on.