Every time that her parents weren’t home, Harley’s life ended up being pretty uneventful. It was the same thing she did every time: Sit on the couch, watch netflix, and eat the last of the potato chips that were in the house. This was the dilemma she was facing now. She knew she didn’t look put together, and she definitely shouldn’t be walking on the street this late at night, but it didn’t mean that she wasn’t going to do it.
This was an internal dialogue she had almost every time she decided to walk from her nice, gated neighborhood to the few blocks down the road, where town definitely got sketchier. Though, it was the only gas station in town that carried the odd brand potato chips that she loved. Sure, she had gotten in trouble one or two times there. Once for littering, which didn’t make any sense after she had picked up (most) of what she had dropped on the ground, and once for spray painting.
Being the rebellious teenager was hard, but when you were looking for your parents love, that was all that seemed to get them to stay home when she was still in high school. Having two travelling authors as parents had always been weird, though. Kids had always looked at her strangely because they could recall her parents names from the children’s books they wrote together. In a way, Harley had built resentment for the both of them over time. It seemed like they were better parents to the kids that they toured to rather than their own child.
In the end, it wasn’t unusual for her to be wandering around. The loneliness caught up to her fairly easy almost every time, and her parents would regularly check in when she was home. It didn’t help. It still didn’t make them present.
Walking with her hood up and her hands in her pockets, she kept her eyes trained forward, making sure she didn’t meet eyes with anyone too unfortunate. She had made that same mistake before, and she sorely regretted it when she talked to Homeless Pete for over an hour.
Hearing the sirens approaching beside her, she let out a deep sigh. There was only one officer that had it out for her - Officer Munroe had been the one to catch her red-handed in an act of seventeen-year-old rebellion - and he never seemed to want to give her a break. Hearing his voice from the window of the police car, she let out a deep sigh as she turned toward the window. “Officer (name!)” she greets a little too friendly, “what are you doing in this part of town, huh? Cruiser run out of gas?”
Ryan’s dad wasn’t a fan of Harley, and the cop was sure she knew that. He’d been there multiple times to drag her home to her parents, warning them to keep her out of trouble before she gets dropped off at the jail instead of on her doorstep. Of course, they didn’t seem to listen, and he would always run into her tagging a wall or hopping a fence or something she obviously wasn’t supposed to be doing. While she wasn’t a menace to society from her barely criminal actions, Ryan’s dad believed that it was his job to nip that in the bud before small crimes turned into larger, more dangerous ones.
He didn’t think she got the message, however, especially not when he noticed her out tonight. He knew she was from a nice neighborhood - what was she doing in a place like this? Obviously, getting chips wasn’t the answer he would have expected. Instead, Ryan’s dad believed she could have been up to more dangerous things as he approached her. “My job, Harley. What are you doing here?” he asked, not really looking for an answer. “To me, it looks like some suspicious, late night loitering... or some trespassing,” he mused, pointing to one of the signs. “Why don’t I take you home where you can’t get into trouble?” he asked, his voice not posing much of a question.
All the while, Ryan tried to peer out the windows to get a better view of the situation. His dad blocked his view until he offered to take Harley home, when he shifted and the streetlight illuminated the face of a girl - no, a beautiful girl. A girl seemingly his age, so long as the light wasn’t playing tricks on him. What was someone like her doing somewhere like this? It didn’t seem to match up, but if he got the chance, he would love to find out.