I fled school and walked my way to the mid downtown area of the city. As I looked around I felt a bunch of eyes on me and I had almost forgotten... More than half the population knew who I was. "Isn't that..." "...Helena Peters?" "Really? That's her?" "She looks so different off screen." I bit my lip and turned right and ran into the store right off the street. It was a small shop. Like a gift shop but it looked like it had a lot of nice things at first glance. I walked around and looked at the things around the shop. There were all sorts of little gifts such as homemade jewelry, postcards, Christmas ornaments and other little ornaments. "Shouldn't you be in school?" Startled I turned to the man who stood behind the cash register. He was a younger man, perhaps in his early thirties. Although he looked young, grey hair was already forming though it only made him look mature rather than old. "Ah... sorry. I just needed to go somewhere where there wasn't a large crowd of people. I mean I am... do you know who I am?" "I know who you are." I frowned. "Are you going to judge me?" "What do you mean?" He asked and he took today's paper from the desk behind him and placed it in front. "Have you seen the news?" "Just now." "Eh?" "You and that guy made front page news," he said and he smirked. "Is this one way of getting the press's attention?" He asked. "If so, you are doing a mighty fine job of making yourself famous in this country." I sighed. "It's not like I want to be." "What?" "I'm not trying to be famous," I said. I frowned and I looked out the front window at the busy street. "I would rather not be in this situation." "Well you're not showing it very well." I looked down. "Care to explain?" "I've got to go to school," I said and I smiled. "You said so yourself." "Well I doubt that once you left my shop you'd return to your school so take a seat. I've got time," he said and he lit a cigarette. "You're going to smoke?" "It's my shop. I can do what I like." "Some confidence you have," I joked. "Yeah that's what a lot of people say," he said and he smiled. "Anyways sit down. I'm interested in this story you have," he said and he handed me a stool over the counter. I sat down on the stool an began my story. I told him about my mother and her condition and how I had spent the last few months trying to get the money to pay for the hospital bills. I told him of when I met Dante and the deal we made. I told him of Daniel and the truth about every little thing. one by one the words came from my mouth never-ending. I spent nearly an hour just telling him about the last week. "Well that was even better than what I expected," he said after I was finished. "You're sixteen right? Wow. You're pretty young to be dealing with this by yourself." "Well I have friend support," I said. "You have two friends," he laughed. "Well it's better than having none!" I said. "Besides they're really great friends," I continued. "I can see that," he said and he held up the newspaper in front of me. I blushed when I saw Daniel and I together in the picture. In my mind we made the perfect couple. "Th-that is-" I began. "I know," he said. "I'm only teasing." I frowned. "I can see. Well anyways. I better get going. I don't know where I should go but I'm not sure I can go home either." "Why not?" "My sister... she's... well I don't know. Anyways it was nice meeting you Mr-" "Anderson," he said. "Mr.Anderson...?" I shook my head. "You have the same name as my ex-boyfriend " He smiled. "I am aware of that," he said. "Well I'm going. Is it okay if I come back?" "Haha I don't mind. It's not like I can stop you from coming here." I grinned. "Great! It was nice talking to you," I told him before I left the shop. Once I left I sighed in relief. I felt better talking to someone else about this issue. But then I paused. What if he told someone? Then I realized I should have made him swear he wouldn't tell anyone. But I merely shrugged this off as I had some confidence that he wouldn't tell. Or at least I was hoping he wouldn't. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I'm sorry readers! Aha I had midterms last week and since I got a poor mark in physics my iPod was taken away by my father. Lol life of a teenager :/ so I'm back. Yay.