**As usual, all characters portrayed are 18+**
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A horn blared, heaving my spinning brain from its extended stupor. Blood rushed to the front of my head. My eyes fluttered open, greeted by a blur of beige and gray under a bright light.
The Miami fall blossomed before my vision's slow focus.
A chill ran down my spine, and I rolled over, feeling a layer of cold cardboard under my head. Even in Florida, sleeping outside was no paradise.
The blood rush began to subside, and I sat upright. The plain alley stared back, its cinder block walls and asphalt floor punctuated only by scrap papers dancing in the wind. The end the alley opened to the sidewalk of Southwest Tenth Street. On a morning such as this, it was like the city was born anew. The neon nightclubs and stinking bars of this part of downtown now slumbered. An occasional broken bottle or suspicious pool was the only token of last night's wild ecstasy. The sidewalks were devoid of pedestrians, and the only disturbance came from cars that would pass every few seconds.
I adjusted the waistband of the only pants I owned: Black Adidas women's short-shorts, lined with white polyester. Below them were a scuffed and filthy pair of white sneakers. The white graphic tee that hung from my neck was stained with liquor and dirt, its front bearing the name of some bar no one knew. It was far too big, but at least it was modest. The shorts, on the other hand, left little to the imagination. They were already a size too small, and their edges gripped my upper thighs and hugged my ass. When I bent down, they would slide until the waistband threatened to slide off my bottom.
I had only been homeless for a month, but to start every day with nothing was fighting everything I knew. Pedestrians would stare at my unkempt hair and clothes fit for someone else, their glares piercing my skin. The police patrol cars would slink along dark roads at night, their blue headlights like the prying eyes of a predator that hated its prey with a malice uncalled for- homelessness in Miami could put you in jail. I would fight the judgement in the bartender's voice as he gave me stale bread and chicken, leftover in a soggy paper tray. And worst of all, I fought my own self-loathing.