She Won't Be Lonely Long

By seven o'clock Hannah was radiant with energy. She had finally taken her sunglasses off and was itching for an adventure to embark upon. Maral's condition was quite contrare. She was upset with Hannah for "snapping" earlier although Hannah claimed she had done no such thing. By ten they were quarrelling full force.

"All I said was, I'm not gonna be here around football season!" Hannah yelped, throwing her hands in the air defensively and letting them fall to her sides with a helpless whimper.

Maral's eye narrowed and she shook her head angrily, sending a shock wave throughout the satin curtain of hair hanging past her shoulders.

"Really? Cuz all I heard was, 'I'm Hannah, and I'm a fucking ass'!" Maral spat acidly, lowering her voice and blurring her 'N's as she falsely mocked her adversary.

Meanwhile, Sergio and Xabi sat on the couch, observing the altercation between the women. Sergio had a slight grin pulling his bottom lip to the side, and every few seconds you could hear a chuckle roll from his mouth. Xabi's brows gradually pulled up and his posture straightened as the girls fell deeper into squabble.

"Should we... leave?" Xabi murmered to his side where Sergio sat.

Sergio quickly shook his head. "No. We have to supervise."

"You're just pissed because I'm not going to throw my life away to move to Spain..." Hannah murmered, grinding her bare heels against the fibers of the living room carpetting to turn away.

Maral wasn't quite finished yet. "I'm pissed because you call that a life!"

Hannah stopped in her tracks, her brows pulling together with fury as she turned to face Maral again. "Why do you dissaprove of my life this time?"

Maral scoffed, slapping her hand against her knee and rolling the churning brown of her eyes towards a murky corner of the room. "Maybe it's the fact that you work in a fucking head-gasket factory--"

"We make steam traps, fuck-butt." Hannah grunted icily.

"Oh, pardon me. Steam traps. I completely understand now, because steam traps are a legitimate reason to confine yourself to bum-fucked Egypt for the rest of your life. Steam-traps! How innovative!" the raven-haired woman exclaimed sacrastically, a smug grin pulling the corners of her mouth back bitterly. "Your life sucks, Hannah. I'm mad because you let the shittiest life ever keep you from going places, and you're not happy at all; You put that shithole before me like it's better!"

Hannah stayed quiet for a minute, her gaze hardening as her thoughts dampened the heated conversation. Her thoughts were endless andshe chose to end the confronation before things escalated due to their relentless anger issues.

"Fuck. You." was all she said before dissapearing.

Moments later a cool draft of air swept throughtout the house and immediately hindered at the ear-splitting bang of the front door slamming shut. Maral inhaled deeply to calm herself and remained stationary for a minute.

"Darling..." Sergio whimpered, skiddishly raising a finger as access into her thoughts. "I know you're upset, but... do you really think we should let her walk around by herself past dark in Madrid?"

Once she had collected her motions, she turned to Sergio and shrugged. "She'll be fine."

"Oh...kay." he skeptically uttered in return while Maral brushed past him to retreat onto the back patio.

Blinding fury led Hannah quite a ways until she wasn't sure of her exact location or how to get back to the house, which was enough of a distraction to veer her central thoughts away from Maral. She had gone farther than she remembered, not in the city yet but in a residential neighborhood, and not a ritsy neighborhood like Sergio's. This neighborhood frankly scared the hell out of her. The sky was a deeper shade of black than it was by Sergio's house, most likely because of the time that had passed but Hannah was convinced it was just to make this place even more frightening. Street lights poking out of the crumbling sidewalk turned everything reddish-orange, illuminating hundreds of papery moths attracted to the light as they flopped around in the solid beams. The houses weren't incredibly small but not big, their yards and exterior ill-maintained, all surrounded with rusty chain-link that shrieked without the slightest touch. She continued walking, hoping that her feet would lead her to a nicer place so she didn't have to call Maral or Sergio, but she only led herself into a deeper ghetto that was more populated and made her feel at risk of something bad.

Now she wasn't the slightest bit hesitant to call and was thankful that she had remembered to get her phone out of Sergio's car before leaving the estate. Naturally, she dialed Maral's number because it was always first on her mind.

By that time, Sergio had joined Maral outside and had helped to somewhat calm her nerve. The ringing of her cell phone shook again the glass table overlapping her legs, and she gave the screen one cold glance before sliding it towards Sergio.

"You talk to her." she whispered bitterly, gesturing for him to quickly answer.

"Hola, Hannah." Sergio spoke into the phone cheerily, hoping to distract her from the fact that one of her closest friends couldn't have cared less about her at that moment.

"Sergio..." she squeaked helplessly. "I don't know where I am! But it's scary."

His brows pulled together and he sat upright opposed to the relaxed position he had been sitting in with his feet spun together on the surface of the table. Maral found a shit to give at last, alarmed with the reaction Sergio had given to whatever Hannah had said.

"It's alright, we'll find you... Can you see a street sign?"

Spotting one at the next block, she quickened her paced until the letters scrolled across the narrow rectangle of aluminum were legible. She did her best to pronounce it, but Sergio had to request the she spell it out.

"J...-E..-R...O...-N...--" she began but didn't need to finish.

"Oh." he sighed, smearing his hand across the dampness of his glistening forehead and sparing a glance to Maral as he contemplated what she should do. "Well, I suppose... stay there."

"Stay here?" she whimpered, her face furrowed as she peered behind her to spot some seldom movement far into the darkness progressing as the street stetched away from her.

"So you don't get more lost. Would you like one of us to stay on the phone with you?"

"No, I'm fine..." she sighed, doubting that herself but feeling a bit humiliated that she let rage put her in such a vulnerable situation.

"Don't talk to anyone. Don't let them know you are an American. We will be there soon."

The line went dead, and Sergio's last words didn't make her feel much better about her surroundings. Five minutes passed without sight of anything familiar to her, or anything at that. She was on pins and needles when she noticed a stout man about her age heading her way on the sidewalk adjacent to the one that she was at. He was short but bulky, not from fat but muscle. His head was shaved and he wasn't wearing a shirt, but a pair of ridiculously oversized shorts that reached to where pants should have.

As he made his way down the sidewalk, a nervous looking girl caught his eye and he stopped to evaluate her. She was all alone, trying not to stare as he did but failing sorely. Her hands were tightly stuffed in the pockets of her form-fitting jeans and she was rapidly tapping her foot, a shrill yet hollow sound that galloped across the street and lingered in his ears. It was apparent that she wasn't from those parts, because if she was then she certainly wouldn't have been standing on her own by the street practically waiting to be harrassed. She was lost, and didn't know her way home. That appealled to his demons and bent his path to the left, heading straight for her.