“Excuse me, beautiful~! May I sit here real quick?”

        I look up to see a taller man standing in front of me with a wide smile, he then lifted his dark sunglasses from his eyes to rest on top of his head revealing bright violet sort of eyes. I was a bit taken aback by his appearance, he was almost like a celebrity. In fact, I was so taken aback I nearly fell off of the bench and had to regain my balance a bit.

        “Oh my~ don’t be too star-struck, sweet heart!” With one hand held one of his hands to help me back up, the other a phone that was still pressed against his ear.

        Sweet heart..? I had to blink for a moment at his words before looking down to see that I was basically sprawled all over the bench. I was a bit flustered but they way he looked down at me was an immediate turn off.

        “Oh…I'm fine—here, you can sit.” I quickly move out of his way ignoring his out stretched hand and sat closer to the edge of the bench. He gave me an almost blinding smile, honestly the boy was too good looking if that was even possible. Still, he took a seat next to me—sitting a bit to close for my liking although he definitely didn't notice as he continued his conversation on the phone.

        “Sorry about that Vinny, just helping local cuties.” He says this and turns to wink at me; I could feel my face getting hot. ...Oh so he was just a flirt—yeah no, as good looking as he is, he just seems like another rich asshole.

        At this point I figured that the blonde knew he was too close to me, yet he didn't do anything to move over and continued his conversation. “Now what were you saying before?”

        I tried my best to focus on anything else but this man's conversation, but the way he spoke was pretty loud—especially when he let out a long 'really' after a moment or so of listening to the speaker on the other line.

        “He said that~? Sorry, he definitely lied to you then. I'm out in the Plaza right now and I don't see either of them.” The blonde listen for a moment, then I could hear a voice screaming on the other line. The man chuckled, “Heh, well~ I'll look for both of them for you—they shouldn't have gotten too far if last you saw the two in the Central.”

        Although this was a...riveting...phone call that I was so rudely listening into, I wonder how long this girl was going to take to find 20 ulters or haggle to the amount she wanted. I thought this as I tried to keep on hand on the bench to maintain my balance.

        Looking up, I expected to see the tall brunette to be in front of the cart; maybe she was fishing out the last bit of allowance or maybe—

She was gone. Juniper was gone.

        My heart lunged out of my chest and I stood up abruptly—so much so it startled the boy beside me. I didn't pay any mind though, I started scanning my eyes in the area to see where the 13 year old went.

        “Oh my—Dear, you alright?” The man asked, he had placed his hand over his phone and looked up at me with a tilt of his head. “You looked like you’re going to have a stroke—though I’m not sure exactly what that looks like...”

        I didn't hear a word he said. I started walking back up to the stand where I last saw the girl and quickly asked the man that ran it if he had seen the brunette that was haggling with him just moments before.

        “I think she went in that directions..?” He pointed to the opposite direction of where I knew the girl's mother was. “I don't know for sure though.”

        “Um okay, thank you anyway...” I said quietly looking in that direction and debating wither to go in that direction or just to get her mother. “Screw it!” I pushed myself in the direction of where the man had pointed and started scanning the area for Juniper.

        Like I had said before, it was still a bit crowed—and it certainly didn't help that most of the people around me were really tall. Still I did my best scouting for Juniper.

“Ah, Juniper!” Relief washed over me as I spot her longer styled hair. “Why did you walk off like th—!”

        “Ah!” Both me and the girl—that was definitely not Juniper gasped when I made contact with her shoulder, almost making her drop both the soft pretzels in her hands.

        Now that I looked at her a bit more she definitely had the same hair styles but she was wearing completely different clothes—a lot more cutesy then what Juniper was wearing. She was also, what looks like, a date with a shorter man. He was staring at me with a wide-eye expression before his eyebrows furrowed together.

        “U-Um—sorry! Wrong person..!” I say this immediately retracting my hand. I then quickly ran up ahead, before the girl could say a word.

       I felt my ears burn in embarrassed by that interaction—it also didn't help that I was still in a frenzy to find Juniper. It was at this point was when I realized that I was in another part of the little shopping district that you haven't been to yet.

Meaning I was just as lost.

        “Gahh, I should have just gotten Mari...” I grab my head with both of my hands and gripped my hair. “I'm never going to find Juniper now..!”

“Huff huff...Man, you're hard to keep up with!”

        What am I going to do?! I haven't even been here a day and I've already lost a child!? What was Mari going to think of all this—this cannot look good on my part! There going to have to get police involve and it might be on local news! All I wanted to do was get a dress for my stupid a— sister but no nothing can ever work out in my favor! I'm so sic—!

        “Yoohoo~ You alright there..?” I snap out of my mental meltdown to see a hand waving in front of my face. I slowly look up and see the girl from she rested her hands on her knees as she took in a deep breath. 

Did she run after me..?  “Hello~? Anyone home~?” She then proceed to tap my head lightly, I blink.

        “I'm...” I tried to say that I was fine but the words didn't seem to come out. Just then I felt drops of water hit my hands. Then as if I was hit but a wave of emotion, I began to break down and cry in front of this stranger.

        “Ah! U-um...” The girl stumbled over her words, clearly taken aback by my sudden out burst. She reached over and began to pat my back but my sobs only got louder. “T-There there...”

        “Why…did you run off like that?” I heard a quiet voice mumble a moment or so later, I looked up snotty noise and all to see young boy that was with the girl earlier. “…You’re making women cry now..?”

        “Shut up, Cal...” I notice that the girl voice was a bit deeper then before but as soon as I took note of it she turn to me and smiled; “You better now..?”

        “N-No...” I wiped my hands against my cheek and looked back at the two of them. “Sorry to be weird and cry all of a sudden...I think I'm just stressed.”

        When I saw a questioning look cross the girl's face I explained; “I lost track of a 13 year old girl—she sort of has your hair color and length...”

The girl eyes widen a bit, “Oh! So that's why you grabbed me earlier...”

As if just remembering that now I felt my ears grow hot, “Yeah...that was why...”

        The girl then smiled a bit and sprung up to her full height, “Well then, you need help, yeah? You can't find her alone.” I could see out of the corner of my eye the boy roll his eye at her response but she ignore him.

        “But how?” I sniffed a bit, still recovering a bit from my earlier out burst. “I have no idea how long she been got for...she could be anywhere.”

The girl help me up from the ground that I didn't even notice I was on until now. She then gave me a wink and whispered;

“Don't worry—I have connections.”

        So there I was; sitting on a bench with two stranger whispering among themselves after the boy caught word of what the girl had whispered to me.

        “You can't seriously be thinking about calling any of…them, can you?” The boy had asked grabbing his date's(?) shoulder. “You know they'll end up telling Mav where we are...Which will end with him killing you, then killing me for being with you—and I really don't want to deal with that at the moment.”

        “Listen, it's better then option 2.” The girl sighed, she then looked over at me and I immediately turned my head. It's not like I couldn't not eavesdrop with how loud they were so called 'whispering'... 

        As if she could hear my thoughts, the girl spoke more quietly after that and I ended up not being able to hear the rest of the conversation. In the end the boy just sighed and I could see him nod his head. I also see the girl type something out on her phone before the two of them finally turned to me.

        The girl grinned, “Alright so here's the plan; you'll stay here and Cal and I are going to be right back with more info about the missing kid.”

        Before I could respond, the young boy known as 'Cal' sat down beside me. “No, revise your plan because I'm—” He yawns in the middle of his sentence then continues; “—I'm taking a nap before we do anything else.” The girl went to open her mouth but Cal immediately added; “You owe me this, Oli.”

        I could have sworn I saw a dark look cross over “Oli”’s face but as quick as the thought crossed my mind the young girl smiled once more. “Alright then, I'll go ahead and get some information. Since you're so tired, you can rest here with...”

        At that the girl stop mid sentence to turn her head towards me and tilted her head slight, “I’ve been so rude—haven’t I? Did even ask you your name yet!”

        Is this really the time for introductions when we have a literal missing child!? Regardless of what I thought I still gave a nervous smiled and answered; “Um...it's Emalee.”

“Emalee, hm?” Oli smiled warmly as she said this and chuckled, “That really suits you...”

        I awkwardly chuckled at the comment, not really know how else to respond. The girl, almost realizing that she had made things weird spoke again; “Oh, sorry! You’re just so pretty—I mean, I should at least introduce myself too! I'm Ol—”

        Interrupting the poor girl was a really obnoxious ring tone. This makes the girl frown a bit, “Um, sorry Emalee let me answer this real quick and I'll be right back.” With that she quickly turning around and started to walk around the corner as she took the phone call.

        It was now just me and the boy named 'Cal'—who already seemed to be drifting off to sleep from what I could tell. He had rested his arm over his face, I had to guess because the two of us were under the afternoon sunlight with no shade underneath either of us, but over all he seemed to be pretty relaxed.

        I, on the other hand, was a bit restless for obvious reasons; I lost Juniper and now I was unsure where I even was. Not to mention the whole thing with my sister had my stress to it's breaking point...

        “Hey,” Cal spoke beside me, I turn to see that he had uncover his arm from his eyes to look over at me. “Stop shaking your leg, you're fine.”

        I blink and felt my leg stop shaking; I hadn't even notice that I was going until he pointed it out. Taking a bit of a deep breathe and slouching a bit in the bench, I let out soft; “Sorry”.

        The two of us went into an awkward silence in that moment and I could help but feel myself tense up even more. It seemed like the boy noticed and sighed loudly.

        “You said you’re named Emalee, right?” He sat up a bit before staring down at me, I only nod my head. “Listen, I understand you’re stressing yourself out, but you are really not helping me sleep much at all. Not that I get great sleep anyway...” He mumbled the last part but I was still able to hear it.

        This ticked me off a bit, “Oh sorry for 'stressing myself out' by worrying about a missing child that you can’t take a nap. So sorry, I won't worry anymore because I have total control over it, asshat.”

        The boy said nothing more after my statement, he only stared at me with eyebrows scrunched together—almost as if he couldn't believe what I had said to him. I began to sweat a bit from the stares.

        After what seemed like a century, the boy sighed and mumbled a whatever. I was relieved when he finally turned and looked away from me—though my relief only lasted a few seconds.

“Wh-what—you—I—!?” I couldn't form a proper sentence as they boy set his head onto my lap.

       “The bench is uncomfortable.” 'Cal' said nonchalantly, he held back no hesitation as he closed his eyes and sunk further into my lap. “Since it’s your fault I can’t sleep you’re going to help me.”

I could almost feel my face getting warm, “But won't that girl misunderstand when she comes back?!”

The boy doesn't respond, the only sounds I hear are tiny little snores.

        No way he's asleep already!! My body remained in a stiff position at this realization, His girlfriend is going to be back any minute and be pissed..!

        "H-Hey!" I shake his shoulders a bit, trying to get him to budge while at the same time glances in the direction of where his date walk in. "God, this can't be good for my blood pressure..."

        After many failed attempts of waking up Cal, I slumped my shoulders and sigh. Honestly, this wasn't how I expected today to go—and at the point I was beginning to care less and less about the girl coming back. I tried, so if they break up it's not my fault.

"Don’t stress—He's my brother."