Jon stood on the corner of the cold Cincinnati Street, watching as the busy people walked to their destination. There was a mix of different people on the street, walking as fast as they could. There were businessmen, homeless, crack addicts, prostitutes, and cops. Jon had learned to stay as far back as possible from them. He wasn't working the streets tonight; he was just standing there enjoying the cold air as he breathed it in. It stung his lungs and for some reason made him feel alive.

"Hey man, how much?" A regular customer of his asked.
"Oh, I'm not selling tonight. Tyson is though, he's around the block." Jon informed the addict, shoving his hands in his pocket.

Jon watched as the old crinkled man walked away. Old people like that scared Jon; he never wanted to end up an old man like that someday. Jon would kill himself before he let addiction take over his life.

"Uhm, are you Tyson?" A young girl all of maybe 15 asked him.
"No, I'm Jon." He said, watching as her body shivered.
"Oh." She looked down.
"Why do you need him?" Jon asked.
"My mom needs her fix." She said, biting on her bottom lip.
"I'll walk you to him. There are a lot of scary guys out tonight." Jon said, nodding in the direction of which they'd start walking.
"Thanks. It's definitely a little creepy down here." She nodded, her voice was small.
"How old are you?" He asked.
"I'm fourteen, you?" She asked.
"Seventeen." He said, trying to hid the pained expression.
"You're three years older." She grinned.
"What's your name?" Jon asked, pulling his coat around him tighter.
"I'm Lilith, but call me Lily." She said, "Sometimes Lily Pop."
"That's a pretty name." Jon complimented her.
"Thanks." She grinned weakly.
"You shouldn't be down here, Lily. It's a scary place." He told her, watching as a bunch of homeless guys eyed her hungrily.
"Yeah, I know. But my mom's sick. She needs her fix." She shrugged.
"My mom's sick too." Jon nodded, making her look up at him.
"I don't understand it, I never have and I don't think I ever will." She shook her head.
"You don't use it?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Never again." She shook her head, telling Jon all that he needed to know.
"I understand the addiction; I've struggled with it myself. It relieves stress for a short while, only to cause you even more down the road. My mom's been an addict ever since I was little." Jon said, shrugging his shoulders.
"It ruins them, my mom use to be a strong woman until my dad died..then she crumbled. We went from living in a two story house to the apartment complex down the street." She said, not really knowing why she was telling Jon her story.
"I live down there." He said, changing the subject.
"Oh really?" She smiled.
"Yeah, apartment B7." Jon nodded.
"I live in D4." She said, "I guess that's why we've never seen each other."
"Probably so." Jon nodded, pointing her in the direction of Tyson, "He's right there."

She took a deep breath in and started walking up to the guy Jon had known as the other lost kid trying to find a way out of Cincinnati. He looked over her body as she counted out the money; Jon knew what he was thinking. She took the baggie of meth and shoved it in her pocket, walking away from him quickly with her head down low. She walked right past Jon, but he heard her soft sniffles as she cried.
Jon's heart broke for her. He walked behind her, trying to think of something to say.

"Lily.." Jon trailed off after she had stopped walking.
"Oh, I'm sorry." She straightened up, "I thought you had walked off."
"No..I…uh…I know what you're going through." He said, leaning against the building.
"You shouldn't have to live this life." She whispered, rubbing at her eyes.
"You shouldn't either." He shook his head, "No one should."
"I…I gotta get this back to her. She um..she just…I just have to go." She said, pushing past him

That was the first and only encounter they had. They passed each other on the streets at night sometime; he thought she was just going to pick her mother's medicine up. Her trips past him got more and more frequent and he became suspicious once he watched her walk in to the local strip bar with a huge trench coat around her body. It had been weeks since he had last spoken with her as he sat in the back of the bar; tonight was his night off anyway.

"Alrighty, you've requested her and we've got her tonight! Our very own beautiful, Lily Pop!" The announcer spoke.

Jon's mouth dropped. He couldn't believe she was on stage, she was only fourteen. Jon looked away as she done her routine, stripping for all the perverts to see. He only looked back up once the music had stopped to find her staring dead at him. She didn't look anything like the beautiful scared child he had encountered on the street. This looked like a woman, a full grown woman, but still had Lily's face and body. She rushed off the stage.

Jon waited for her outside the club, smoking a cigarette as she came out.

"Why are you here?" She whispered, her voice was full or regret.
"No, no. It doesn't work that way, Lily Pop." Jon shook his head, "Why are YOU here?"
"I have to make money. Nine to five doesn't pay the bills, Jon." She shook her tiny head.
"Well there's a nine to two just up the street at Wendy's. Maybe you should go apply there. This isn't a life for you, Lilith." Jon tapped his foot against the cold concrete, "You're only fourteen."
"You're seventeen and you're out here selling dope," Lilly spat, "YOU'RE THE REASON MY MOM KEEPS GETTING HER PILLS."
"AIIIIIIIN'T. WRONG YET ONCE AGAIN, LILY." Jon shouted back at her, "I don't sell on your corner."
"Why are you here?" She asked again, her voice more stern.
"Because I refuse to see you waste your life away on these streets like our parents have done." Jon said, letting the smoke blow in her face, "I'm not going to sit here and let you dance in front of sixty, seventy year old addicted perverts. You're fourteen, you will not step another foot in that fucking bar, you will keep your clothes on, you will go to school tomorrow if I have to drag you, YOU WILL NOT COME BACK HERE, RIGHT LILY?"
"You don't know me, Jon." She whispered, pushing past him quickly.
"I know that you're a scared little girl trying to fill women's shoes." He walked after her, "I know that you're only fourteen. I know that these streets aren't safe for little girls to walk on dressed like you are."
"SHUT THE FUCK UP, JON." She screamed, turning around quickly and shoving him, "You are not my parent. You cannot tell me what to do."
"I'm not telling you, I'm making you." Jon seethed as he peered down into her sunken hazel eyes, "You are not to come back to this building under these circumstances dressed like you are. You are better than this. You are a straight-A student, you always have been. You don't like I haven't kept tabs on you these past few weeks at school?"
"Why are you doing this?" Lily wiped at her tears.
"Because I know you're better than this shithole town." Jon butted his cigarette down on the concrete, "I know that you and a whole other bunch of those children at the school building deserve a whole lot better lives than what you are leading. I refuse to sit here and watch you whore yourself out for a couple dollars every night. You're just a baby. Have you even hit puberty yet? Probably not. DO NOT COME BACK DOWN HERE. Do you hear me? I'll be watching even when you don't think I am."

Lily sobbed for a few minutes, knowing that everything Jon had said was true. She was better than this; she deserved a better life than this.

"I hear you." She whispered.
"Now, I'm going to walk you home and you're going to go straight to your bedroom, understand?" He questioned, he didn't really know why he was lecturing her, she was nothing but a stranger with a name to him.
"I..I don't have a home anymore, Jon." She shook her head, "We got kicked out."
"Where have you been staying at then?" He asked, making her break down in hysterical sobs yet once again.

He pulled her shaking body to his, knowing she was cold. He held the back of her head as she cried.

"Sssssh," He whispered, soothing her hair down, "It's alright, Lily. You don't have to tell me."
"I've been in and out of homes for two weeks now." She sniffled, "I don't know where my mom is. She uh..she took off with a man and left me here."

Jon's heart lurched to his stomach as she told him what happened, her mom had left her with no money, no food, and nowhere to go. Jon knew exactly what she was going through.

"Well, I have an apartment down the street. It isn't the nicest place but it's warm and it has a extra bedroom that you could take up." Jon nodded, pulling her chin up to look at him.
"No, Jon. I can't do that, I don't have any money to pay you." She shook her head.
"Did I ask you for any money?" He questioned her.
"No." She whispered.
"Alright then, let's go get your clothes and then we'll get it all situated at the complex." He said.

They walked to the abandoned building where she had taken shelter last night as they gathered her garbage bags of clothes and blankets and he carried them back to his apartment.