Day 11

       We were calmly eating our breakfast, in silence, at the hotel's restaurant. There was a light music coming from somewhere, and I realized suddenly that the carpet was brown... there was a little flower inside a vase over there... and...

       "Honey, would you please decide about your bodyguard? Now?"

       "Mom, I actually don't want a bodyguard, I mean, a normal guard or a toy... I don't want any of them following me."

       "Now."

       "But mom!"

       "Now."

       "Angelina, your mother is right."

        Wohoo! Now Sir is thinking he can invade our discussion? How can they possibly think about a security guard at that time of the morning? They didn't know I had other important things in mind, they were so, so...

       I noticed Mom looking sideways at Sr; and Sr at mom. "Okay, honey, we have decided to buy a toy for you."

       "Mrs Yon called us yesterday and she also thinks you are capable of controlling your toys."

        "What?! And you two decided like that? Does my opinion count?"

       Mom got up, Sr did the same. And I stayed there.

       "Angelina Firenze..."

       "I'm coming."

•••

       Sr parked the car in front of a Chinese restaurant which was already full of people. Confused, I checked my pulse watch (because I had left my phone home): 1 pm.

       "Okay, guys... I think there's a toy store nearby. We are in the center of Los Angeles! Are you excited?" Sr patted my back.

       "Um."

       Mom and Sir talked happily while I followed them like a puppy, my bad mood becoming more and more marked at each second. I was thinking about going away, of running and hiding myself so they could see I actually mattered; and I was a person. But that is when something very strange happened right in front of my innocent eyes.

       They gave their hands.

       I simply stopped walking, staring dumbly at the scene while they continued their path, completely unaware of anything that mighted be out of sense. People started pushing, going, coming, passing, running, jumping and even dancing around me. But I couldn't move a millimeter and soon that unbelievable image disappeared through the crowd. The reason why Sir always talked about his daughter but never about his wife; why my mother was eating waffles; their connection; the happiness in their eyes... Mom was in love with Sir and Sir was in love with mom!

       Someone announced "50% OFF!" in the distance. I woke up from whatever world I was in, and realized I was staring at nothing at all.

Where are Mom and Sr?

•••

       It was 3 in the afternoon. The Californian sun was murdering my head, and my stomach was snoring some kind of rhythmic music to accomplish to my desperation. It was impossible to get lost in my small town, under protective familiar eyes, cops who knew my name and streets that always ended at the same church in the center of the town. But I was in the center of Los Angeles, not in Little Mountain. And I could choose two ways of spending the next minutes: starving to death or screaming in some kidnapper's back seat. 

       I was melting, and lost, and alone...

       "Your butt is cute." A voice giggled from behind.

       I let out a scream and stumbled on my own feet trying to turn around in desperation, but before I could reach the ground someone grabbed my arm. It was like time stopped, and I saw the ground that was about to smash my face becoming smaller and smaller and soon I had my own balance.

       "Girl! Don't die in the middle of the street, please!"

       I blinked. The sun contrast was making his hair orange; and the piercing that smiled at me at the refectory was still there.

       "Sebastian?" I mumbled.

       He straightened me up with a jump. That's when I was sure he was way taller than me. My eye level was looking at his piercing, under his eyes, that were blue and looked like two almonds reflecting the same sun that was burning my shoulders some minutes ago. "When you are done checking me out, give a peep." He said with sarcasm.

       My face got as red as his hair. But he was also looking at me, lips pressing his piercing. "What you're doing here alone? For Arians this is dangerous you know."

       "I... got lost from my guardian?" — this have came out like a question but was supposed to be an statement.

       "How could you possibly get lost from your guardian? They are trained to take care of children." 

       "¡I'm not a—"

       "Have you lunched yet?" He raised an eyebrow.

       "No."

        "So you're a baby needing to be feed! C'mon, I know a place."

       I watched, with my mouth slightly opened, as the boy's highlighted feature bypassed people, almost swimming through bodies and bags, to somewhere I didn't know where it was. My stomach groaned again. I had no choice but to follow him; who, believing or not, was the only thing I could call familiar.

•••

       " 'The Soup House' ?"

       "Yup."

       "What does it mean?" I asked.

       "It means the Soup House." He smirked. I was a little confused, indeed, because that place was not a restaurant. It was a little establishment falling apart, the walls had almost no painting and the door he opened was made of wood which seemed to be a hundred years old.

The air changed from hot but windy to stinky and heated. People dressed in tatters were trying to cut slices of bread with plastic knifes, boys with dirty hair and dirty faces licking their spoons like animals, parents giving their empty-handed child the rest of their potato, and noisy beggars eating plates full of soup, sucking and drooling. I felt my fingers crawl up Sebastian's warm body to clutch his shirt as I curled in closer to him, and away from them. The top of my head barely met his chin, making it easier for me to curl and hide. A little chuckle reverberated through this chest, and soon his arm was around my waist.

       "Scared?"

       I didn't answer. I stayed still, avoiding any eye contact with those people. But to my horror, Sebastian started walking forward.