Five hours went flying by, and the only reason I woke up was that I was absolutely starved. I tried to ignore it and go back to sleep, but it had been almost a day since I had anything to eat.

I got up and walked towards the styrofoam box we use it to keep our food. In it, a single bottle of mineral water, a few packs of raw jerkey, flour and salt. Nothing very appetising, though.

It had been a while since we cooked anything ourselves. Mom used to be really good at that stuff, and since she left last summer, none of us has done a thing about it. I couldn't even learn how to make a proper steak, and dad was always too busy to even consider it an issue.

Usually, we either got some leftovers from my aunt Maria or bought one of those cheap sandwiches from the town deli. I probably still had a few reais in my wallet, so I locked up the shed and went outside.

My best friend was this guy called Jonathan Alvarez. He lived inside of his folks' car, and was sort of know as a harmless wackjob. But he also had a lot going for him. He was clever, and I had no doubt on my mind he was going to make it big someday.

Also, he had the most kick-ass mutton chops I'd ever seen on a seventeen-year-old, so, even when we had nothing to talk about, I could still get a laugh.

I felt, though, he was simply misunderstood. It was uncommon around those parts to get a kick out of listening to heavy metal and getting in a little trouble with the cops from speeding.

I knocked twice on the old Volks' tinted window, and he cracked it open a bit. But only enough so I’d see his dark brown eyes.

"Oh, hey, Laura, what's up?" he asked with a raspy voice.

"Not much. Are you hungry?"

"I don't know, I suppose..."

"Could you give me a ride to the deli? There’s a meatball sub in it for you."

He thought about the offer by slightly raising his brow, and rolled the window down a little further.

“You mean, with a glass of beer and stuff?”

“You’re the boss, Johnny,” he absolutely abhorred me calling him that. That’s why the name stuck, I guess.

"That does sound good. Just hold on a sec, alright?"

“Sure.”

I took a few steps back. Moments later, I could hear some muffled screaming going on in the car. Apparently, there was a girl bunking up with him. It was weird that I didn’t know a thing about her, since Jonathan is so awful at keeping secrets. But still, it’s cool that the kid was having a good time.

He jumped out of the car in his boxers and socks, and his jeans flew at his face. He looked at me and shouted:

“Can you get Samantha a smoothie?”

“I don’t think I got the cash for that,” I said. “Will an ice cream cone do the trick?”

Jonathan looked back in the car and nodded positively.

The ride to the town was as awkward as it possibly could have been. Samantha was hunched over on the back seat, an attractive brunette, wearing a white sundress with a tiny pine tree pattern. I would say she’d been sobbing, ‘cause of the redness of her eyes.

I wasn’t so confortable exchanging words with her, since I was possibly the reason behind this whole argument they were having. Maybe she was pissed because getting a free meal was a priority to Jonathan over spending some time with her. But I doubt it.

Oh, shit...

Maybe they were breaking up when I knocked. As long as I had known him, none of his relationships lasted for more than a couple of weeks. After all, Johnny was basically a madman. They don’t make great wedding material.

We drove into town a few minutes of dead silence later, and that’s when I saw dad being held by the neck in front of City Hall, with three cops pointing guns to his face.