He gives me a baleful glare. "You don't know me."
"How well do you know the kids you're trying to help?" I challenge him.
"I…don't," Princess admits on a tired exhale. "Not really. But they're new, just started living rough a month ago. They need all the help they can get." He looks viciously determined, fingers clenching so hard his knuckles turn white.
"Brilliant!" I flash my teeth at him, pushing enthusiasm into my voice. "Then let's give them some help."
"I don't trust you," Princess tells me, bold and unapologetic.
"You don't need to," I reassure him. It would be far too much to ask for from either of us. "You just need to let me trust you. Besides, you're never gonna be able to get all four wheels off by yourself, not with just a ratchet and one hell of an attitude." I glance over at mine and my friends' safe house. "We have some equipment we use to boost tyres, with five of us it should be quick."
"'We'? Who's we?" His expression tightens as he darts a wary frown up at the safe house like he expects a horde of monsters to come pouring out of it at any moment.
Standing up, I make some hand signals at Paige, silently asking for her to gather the others and come down, knowing she'll understand.
When I look back down at Princess, he's got a small frown on his pretty face, a miasma of confusion mixed in with the bite of fear from before.
"My friend, Amira, doesn't speak," I explain to him. "But she's been teaching us sign language."
Amira isn't deaf, but when she was six her dad took exception to her crying one night and slit her throat, slicing right through her vocal cords. He took her voice away, but thankfully not her ability to speak. The world would be a darker place without Amira's snarky asides and angry rants about us smoking and passionate speeches about the lyrics of her favourite songs, where her hands fly at a rate of noughts, sometimes too fast for my fumbling mind to follow.
Bo is the best at signing since they hooked up with Amira when the two of them were still in care, long before the four of us met. But Paige and I are trying to catch up as fast as we can, mostly so Bo won't need to translate for Amira when her hands get extra speedy.
Princess appears mildly satisfied by my explanation and doesn't bolt the minute my friends come out of the building and cross the street to join us.
Paige takes up a position beside me, hands shoved in her jacket pockets. Amira and Bo stand just a little bit further away from all of us, their fingers tangled like yarn. They're pressed together, as they often are, seeking safety or reassurance from one another's presence. They don't talk about their time in care very often, but I'm guessing it was an especially tough go for both of them, with Amira's voice and Bo's pronouns.
People, as we all know, can be right dickheads without any real provocation or solid reasoning.
Princess looks up at my friends with suspicion but not outright hostility, which I take as a good sign.
Having anticipated where this is going, Paige and the others have brought down the equipment we'll need to boost the tyres.
"This is Paige, Amira and Bo," I tell Princess, gesturing to each of my friends in turn.
There's a slightly uncomfortable pause where Princess stares at them expectantly like he's hoping for a musical number where they'll explain more about themselves via song.
"And has this one got a name too?" Paige nods at Princess, watching him with hawk-like attentiveness. She rarely misses anything, our Paige, her ability to read people second to none.
Princess gets to his feet, ratchet gripped tightly in both hands like he's preparing, at any moment, to make effective use of it again in a very different way from how he was previously.
"Someone who needs our help," I answer before Princess can get defensive about his name again.
"Help with stealing some tyres from a giant prick, is it?" Paige asks sardonically.
I tell my friends about the sick kids who Princess is trying to buy meds for, explaining the plan to sell the tyres.
"Alright, sounds good." Paige nods decisively. "Better get a shift on, though, the giant prick could come back for his shitty car anytime."
Bo makes a sound of agreement. "Yeah. Rather not get strung up like a bloody Christmas ornament this week, thanks."
"Are you all really up for this?" Princess asks, and it sounds like a genuine question rather than one of disbelief that anybody would be.
Amira takes her hand out of Bo's and signs,If we don't watch other's backs out here, no one else will.
I'm about to translate for Princess, but he nods in understanding and says, "Ok, then." When he notices all of us looking at him in confusion, he tells us, "I had a brother who was deaf."
He had a brother.Had. That could mean a lot of things, most of them ranging from unpleasant to tragic.
