Young Squatters (7 page)

As Bradford sat there listening to Nick go on, he knew they didn’t have anything to worry about.  Although Nick was trying to play it cool, beneath the surface lurked a bad temper.  Bradford knew if he remained calm, not admitting anything, and kept explaining they had done nothing wrong, it would only infuriate him further, eventually making him storm off or, even better, move out.

It wasn’t that he had anything against this man personally; he was just the father of the stupidest boy he had ever met, who had led them to this situation.  He had almost laughed at the expression on Colin’s face when the boy had found him in his home; had he seriously thought they were friends?  Bradford only had one, true friend, and that was Harper.  He didn’t trust anyone else; he only trusted Harper because she looked up to him in such an ignorant, innocent way. 

Harper was letting Bradford do all the talking, but she squeezed his hand under the table to show her support.  Not that he needed it.  Bradford was one of the bravest people she knew.  Harper wanted to show him her support though.  She knew, after all, it was for her he was doing all of this, and even he must have been feeling a little bit nervous deep inside, but chose not to show it.

“Look, Mr. Donnelly, I’m sorry if there was some kind of misunderstanding, but we were told the house was going to be vacant and that we could move right in,” Bradford said, putting his arm around Harper’s shoulder.  Nick’s face twitched a little.  That was the only sign that he was in the least bit agitated.  He leaned back in his chair a little, hearing Bradford out, clearly still trying to keep calm.  “My fiancée and I put down a deposit and a first month’s rent.  The guy who claimed to be the landlord on Craigslist even gave us a key.  See?  We’ve got a written agreement in email, right?  How were we supposed to know?”

Nick didn’t look at the key or the emails.  He looked straight into Bradford’s eyes, piercing straight through them.

“Son, I know for a fact that Harper is not of a legal age to be married.”

“She’s eighteen,” Bradford said, waving Harper’s fake I.D. in the man’s face.  “See?  We’re going to be married.”

“I used to have a fake I.D. in college, young man.  I’m not as stupid as you think.  I don’t really care about any of that, anyway.  You know now, you should get out.  This is
our
home.  The shit is going to hit the fan in the morning, and then you two are going to be busted for fraud and probably other crimes.”

Bradford didn’t look fazed by the statement.  He tightened his grip around Harper, his eyes not leaving Nick.  Nick didn’t back down, either.

“But we haven’t got anyplace else to go, sir,” Bradford shrugged.  “We were living with our parents, but they don’t approve of us getting married.”

Nick snorted at the statement.  Harper didn’t know if what he had said was true; she could get married to Bradford at any age, couldn’t she?  She wasn’t legally eighteen yet, but surely anyone could get married if they wanted to.  They did on the television; once her mom had even watched a show about a twelve-year-old getting married.  She looked at Bradford for reassurance again, but he wasn’t paying attention.  She looked down into her lap, fidgeting a little, trying to keep her worry down.  Bradford knew everything; he would have told her if they couldn’t get married.

“Our parents threw us out,” Bradford said.  He looked a little embarrassed, and lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper.  “Truth is, Harper’s pregnant, and both our families are real conservative, see?  You wouldn’t want us to be homeless, would you?”

Harper knew that Bradford had studied the Donnellys carefully.  Mrs. Donnelly was the admissions director at the local university.  Mr. Donnelly ran a successful self-publishing company.  They were both advocates for the homeless, donating money to charities and soup kitchens to get people off the street.  Whether they did that stuff to save face or because they actually cared remained to be seen, from the way they had treated Harper and Bradford, she assumed it was the former.

Their kids, Colin and Clara, posted all kinds of stuff about the family on the Internet.

Harper had never thought of how social networks could work against you like they had against this family.  Still, Bradford had said to her, if Colin was stupid enough to post so much detail about their family online, he didn’t deserve any sympathy.  Bradford himself didn’t believe in using social media at all; he made it a point to keep his name offline and had made sure hers was too.

“No, of course I don’t want you to be homeless,” Nick said, even though his tone suggested otherwise.  “But
this
isn’t your home.  It’s
my
home, and you can’t stay here.  I told you I’d set you up in a hotel.  Or, perhaps you’ve got friends you could stay with.  That would work, too,” Nick was beginning to lose his patience with this arrogant son of a bitch.  Why was it his responsibility where these kids spent the night?  He generally felt sympathy toward homeless people, but these kids knew exactly what they were doing and clearly thought they had a right to anything they chose.

Bradford shook his head.  “Most of our friends are our age, sir.  They live at home with their parents, too.  They won’t take us in.  And a hotel—well, what would you expect us to do after the reservation was up? We can’t afford staying somewhere, else.  We already put in our deposit for this place.”

Nick could not believe the words that left Bradford’s mouth, but he should have known better.  He was only a kid and it was probably true that their friends were all living with their parents.  He was intent though, and still didn’t think any of that was his problem.  He had been more than kind to them already, by letting them stay here this long.  He wasn’t a damn saint.

“That’s bullshit,” he blurted, his temper getting the best of him.  His head felt like it was being split open with a rock.  “That’s bullshit and you know it, kid!”

Harper knew that Nick was right, that none of this was true, but she nodded, agreeing with everything Bradford said.  In truth, Bradford’s father hadn’t thrown them out.  He spent most of his time drinking, smoking joints, and watching television.  Years ago, he’d lost his job, taking a disability leave-of-absence.  Ever since, he’d been getting disability checks from his former employer and from the state.  When Bradford’s mother, a successful singer, had left them soon after, Bradford’s dad had made out well in the divorce.  He got custody of Bradford, and Bradford’s mom got stuck with alimony and child support payments to them.  They lived better after his dad lost his job than before.

It amazed her to think of all of the people who did go out to work to earn a living were worse off than those living off benefits.  Living with Bradford had definitely been an eye-opener for her and they wouldn’t have been where they were today if their past experiences hadn’t occurred.  She felt lucky to have him.

But now that Bradford was getting older, his dad had told him that the child-support checks were coming to an end.  Bradford was going to be considered “emancipated” soon, and his mother wouldn’t have to send any more money for him.  Bradford’s dad had told him plainly, “There goes your allowance, son.”

Harper thought that was pretty unfair.  Bradford’s dad didn’t have to work, and he still got paid.  Why should Bradford have to get a job?

Nick rubbed his face with the palms of his hands.  It was already eleven o’clock, and Harper knew he was the early-to-bed-early-to-rise type.  She and Bradford had been watching the house for a few weeks already.  Colin and Clara might stay up pretty late, but Mr. and Mrs.  Donnelly were always lights out by eleven.  Colin had even tweeted as much more than once, complaining about his parents’ boring life.

***

As Colin and Clara rode with Uncle Ben to the other side of town where he and Belinda shared a home, Colin couldn’t stop his racing thoughts.  Clara, cuddled up beside her huge teddy bear, drifted in and out of sleep in the backseat, while Uncle Ben drove and Colin rode in the front.  Mom had insisted on staying at home, waiting to see what Dad could do to sway the intruders, but she hadn’t wanted them to lose any more sleep over the stupid situation, since they had school the next day.

Colin felt like he had become homeless.

He’d been racking his brain over the conversations he and Bradford had, and then it hit him instantly, soon after he had told the police everything he knew.  He didn’t think his dad or mom knew the extent to which Colin had been responsible for this huge fiasco.  Bradford had been so interested in everything he had to say, and Colin had not once thought twice about showing him how to navigate through all the social media sites, using his own profiles and pictures as examples.

“That little shit.  How clever I bet he thought he was, acting all dumb to get me to show him all of my social network stuff,” he said to himself.

He should have known something was wrong when Bradford had appeared to want to be instant friends when he first joined his class, and started chatting and asking him questions.  Everyone else had thought Bradford was just a weird kid, but Colin--
Idiot!
he scolded himself--had taken pity on him being the odd man out, and had found him fascinating, from a world different from his own sheltered existence.  And indeed, Bradford was from something outside of Colin’s world, as a liar and cheat.  It felt weird at the time, but he had just felt a bit sorry for him and thought maybe he didn’t make friends very easily, and was therefore trying a bit too hard and just went along with it.

“I can’t tell Dad what I’ve told him, he’ll be livid with me,” Colin said to himself.  He vowed to log in online on his laptop and change his password, which had previously been his birthday, when he got to Aunt Belinda’s place.

“You okay?” Ben asked him, fiddling with the volume dial on the radio.  He wasn’t used to having his niece and nephew with him without Belinda’s pushy attitude to make conversation, so he probably felt a little awkward.

Colin looked at him, shrugging.  If Ben only knew...

After beating himself up over the situation for another five minutes, Colin turned his thoughts to anger.  It wasn’t his fault; this kid was obviously a con artist and had probably led a lot of people into similar scams over the years.  How dare he come into someone else’s home and wreck their lives?  Colin had never seen his mother so angry, so fearful, so hysterical.  He had only caught a brief glimpse of his father before he had left, and things didn’t look good in that department, either.  He couldn’t think about it anymore.  If Dad couldn’t figure out how to get Bradford out of the house, he’d have to come up with something on his own.

Without any more feelings of guilt on the subject, he closed his eyes, letting the rhythm of the car lull him into sleep.

***

“Look, it’s getting late and I’ve got a meeting in the morning.  I don’t know what those damn police are thinking, not locking you two con artists up on the spot, but I promise you, I’m calling my lawyer first thing in the morning, so I suggest you two find someplace else to live and quick.”

Nick had enough of all of this for the evening and wanted to get these two out of his home right now.  He was feeling tired; it had been a long night and he had a long day tomorrow, so he wanted to lay his head down pretty soon.  How the hell he would be able to sleep when these two liars could break down his bedroom door and come kill Nora and him in the night was beyond him.

“I’m sorry, sir, but we really like it here, and we have a written agreement.”

Bradford wasn’t going to let go of the emails, it was their ace in the hole, he’d told Harper.  As long as they had a written agreement that seemed legitimate, they weren’t trespassing, and the Donnellys would have to go to court to have them evicted.  That could take months.  If she and Bradford could just hold their ground long enough, the Donnellys might give up or settle with them.

“Look babe, it’s the perfect solution, and it is foolproof, I promise.  Trust me, there is nothing which will lead back to us.”

Bradford had been so sure when he had explained the plan to her; she had trusted him completely and agreed to go ahead with the plan.

Bradford had used the son Colin’s Gmail name and password to set up the Craigslist ad for the house.  She and Bradford had even set up a PayPal account in his name and then paid their “deposit” on the house into that account.  Colin had been stupid enough to post most of that information online in one place or another, or at least to hint at it, and Bradford was really smart with computers.  He found all of it, and even made friends with Colin at the university where they both went to school.  Bradford was on a full scholarship, on account of his dad being “disabled” and unemployed, and he had some classes in common with Colin.  When Colin had tweeted something about his password being his birthday, Bradford had just asked him what his birthday was. 
Some people are so stupid about what they shared online,
Harper thought.

Harper was so lucky Bradford had warned her of the dangers of using social networks when they first started dating.  At first she had thought he was a bit over the top and super paranoid.  But she had agreed to not put any of her personal information on sites apart from jokes or trivial things, but never anything of any importance.

“Can you promise me you will not tell anyone of our whereabouts and never will?” Bradford had been so adamant that he had scared her at one point.  Harper had, however, seen how right he was, especially with Colin’s stupidity.