Blue Fur

Chapter 1

I sighed as I stood in the middle of my small apartment, having just unpacked what little I had hadn't taken long. My parents hadn't allowed me the time to take much either as they had "packed" my things for me. Telling me it was time for me to move out was one thing but practically evicting me without prior notice, just short of 2 months of working full time, was cruel.

I had eventually convinced my younger brother, Patrick, to pack a few more things for me as he was just shy of a year away from being in my position and he would probably have to stay with me at some point. We needed to be united on that front at least, even if we weren't that close we knew our parents were not the best of people.

He managed to get most of my clothing into a few garbage bags before he snuck a few more personal items out of the window. It took a few trips to and from my car, a street away, but I had most of my stuff and Patrick hadn't gotten caught sneaking my things out as my parents were either out for the evening or too high or drunk to notice what Patrick was doing.

I drove off, not looking back as I had, fortunately, found an apartment after 5 days of sleeping in my car. It wasn't much but the landlord, Mr. Hoffmann, hadn't raised the rent since the early 2000s and I was lucky enough to no longer be sleeping in my car when he had offered me the small apartment above his store. The kitchen was in the bedroom, there wasn't much of a living room and the only room separated by a wall was the bathroom.

I sat down on the pull-out sofa bed Mr. Hoffmann had been nice enough to let me use it until I got a proper bed. I assured him it wouldn't be for a few months as I had a few things to figure out.

The quirks of living in a small town was that everyone knew everyone and everything. It hadn't taken Mr. Hoffmann long to figure out my parents had kicked me out as I had been sleeping in my car across the street from his hardware store, in front of the bookstore and Café where I worked, for a few days.

The pity he had in his eyes when he had knocked on my car window at 7am ran through me as my pride had taken a hit that morning as I hadn't taken a shower since the morning I had been kicked out.

Not showering for nearly a week wasn't a good look on anyone.

I stood up from my bed for the time being and made my way into the bathroom, my small set of towels already hanging on the small hooks just outside of the shower. I opened the tap, letting the water heat up as I stripped out of my crusty, 5-day-old clothing before I stepped into the shower, ignoring the old spider webs that decorated the walls as the warm water washed over me. I was too exasperated to care, the warm water and soap felt too good.

Patrick, unfortunately, missed the opportunity to grab my hair dryer from the bathroom but had thrown all of my toiletries into a bag and had given it to me a few blocks away from the house and I gave him a lift to school. I lathered myself up well as I scrubbed every inch of my body twice, washing my hair 3 times just for good measure before I stepped out of the shower.

I went through my usual routine of smearing lotion all over me before I slipped on a sports bra, oversized hoodie, fuzzy socks, comfy undies, and leggings. I wanted to be as comfortable as possible for the rest of the day as I didn't know when the stress of the last couple of days would hit me but I needed to be ready for it when it did.

I made my bed, heated up leftover pizza, and settled down for the evening, rearranging my finances and trying to minimize my spending for the next few months so that I could fill my tank a few times getting out of this town.

Homer, Alaska wasn't that big of a town. Having gone to the local public schools I knew everyone my age in town practically from kindergarten. Some of them had packed up their cars and taken off over the Canadian border to Ontario and settled down with locals or had given up the nomadic lifestyle and had settled in some town along the Canadian-American border.