“Kylaaaaaaa…”

She rolled her eyes at me, “Ashley, we have so much while they have nothing. Plus, you don’t even care about Christmas.”

”But they smelllllllll…” I hoped I could annoy her into leaving me alone.

”Then bring nose plugs. Get up off your ass, we’re going!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I stand here, just looking around as Kyla fills out our name tags.

I can’t believe she talked me into this. I, Ashley Davies, was going to… feed the homeless.

”Come on ya’ loser,” Kyla grabbed the end of my sleeve of my jacket and began to pull me along after her.

If it wasn’t bad enough that I had to be here, I had to wear real clothes. I think my face is the only skin I have showing. I’m wearing jeans underneath my sweats, well insulated boots, a long sleeved turtleneck with a sweater over that and a jacket over that, gloves, scarf, and a beanie.

Did I mention that it’s fucking freezing?

We walk past a bunch of people and then through a small doorway, into a super small room, and then into the kitchen. It was packed with people working.

”Ok, let’s go outside, they seem to have everything covered in here.”

She led me out through another door into a hallway open to the elements so it was even colder. Some guy was talking about handing stuff out. I looked around at all the people and saw that they were all paying attention as if this guy was Obama or something.

Suddenly he stopped talking and Kyla pulled me over to a stack of blankets.

”Ok, I know you weren’t listening so here’s the deal. Homeless people are going to pass by you and you are going to ask them if the want a blanket. If they say yes, you put it in their bag, if not then you don’t. If you can muster up some of your acting skills and pretend to care about these people, say hello, wish them a merry Christmas, ask them whether they enjoyed their meal, or whatever.”

Then she was gone, leaving me standing there. I had to blink a few times before I realized it though. I looked around and saw that there were a few people to my left, several people to my right, a few people behind me, and two people in front of me against the opposite wall.