After I finish relaying what happened in the restaurant and just now, he pulls me back into a hug, then asks, “Do you want to tell Mom and Dad?”

I think for a moment, then reply, “No, I want to solve this myself. We can talk to them if we need backup.” His eyebrows furrow, but he relents and agrees. It’s nice having a brother who knows when not to snitch. I wish he knew that back when he caught me eating his ice cream at three in the morning. It was a dirty move to expose me to our parents, and he knew never to do it again after they got an anonymous note all about his after-school smoking habit.

Aiden suddenly speaks up. “How about we explore the city?” I nod and smile while wiping away tears, then I realize that I might smell after spending the night in yesterday’s clothes. I sniff under my arms. I really hope the city’s filled with plenty of smelly goats.

There are no goats. In fact, it’s relatively quit. I guess other countries are also less busy during regular work hours. We walk around in a shop area and see plenty of jewelry shops to my surprise. I would’ve thought there’d be more food around here. I walk up to the window of one jewelry store and see an intricate ring shaped like a skull, with black gems imbedded in the band.

“Hey Aiden!” I call to my brother, who’s at another shop’s window. He looks over and I wave my hand at him, urging him to come over.

“Take a look at this ring. It would’ve made a nice addition to your collection during your goth phase.”

He looks at it, then responds with a silent middle finger and walks away as I start laughing. Little brothers are the best. My phone sounds off, and I pull it out of my back pocket and see that Mom texted me ‘where are you’. My brother’s phone goes off and he gets the same message. After we don’t immediately respond our phones start non-stop dinging. We look at each other in a mutual moment of ‘we fucked up’, then quickly reply to the incoming stream of texts. Considering that we’re left to our own devices most of the time you’d think we would have more freedom, but nope, we gotta deal with helicopter parents too.

After taking care of the parent crisis I stick my phone back into my pocket and we continue walking around. I start to hear other people as we walk closer to an intersection, and when we turn right I see a mass of people swarming around a single food stall. Because it’s food I take the plunge and start elbowing my way to the front. I get close enough to read the truck’s sign, and see it says: “FREE ROASTED WHOLE GOAT”. I suddenly understand why there aren’t any goats around. I get a little closer and reach out for one of the skewers, but I feel something weird with my back pocket. I check it with my other hand while still reaching for the food, and I don’t feel anything. That’s weird. I return my attention back to getting that meat, but then I realize something. That weird feeling was the emptiness where my phone should be.

I’m tempted to reach back with my other hand to doublecheck my pockets, but the food is too tempting. I make one last effort to reach the sticks, and I’m able to grab two. I hurry out of the crowd and back to Aiden, who was waiting on the sidelines for me to come back with our spoils. When he sees me he sniffs and says “I thought you were lost forever.” He reaches out a hand and tries to swipe one of the kebabs, but I swiftly hold it out of reach.

“Wait, did you think I got one for you? You obviously don’t know me that well.” I grin down at him as I smoothly take a bite from one of the sticks, and I can practically see the drool dripping from his mouth. I quickly finish them off as he stares, then throw the sticks in a nearby trash and say, “Ok, now that that’s finished, let’s look for my stolen phone.”