A Mere Observer

Sour-Patch Sustenance

No, no, no, no! I screamed silently as Trent jogged across the street to me. There was nothing I could do. He already spotted me and if I tried to escape, well, I'm not sure what would happen. Probably get lost again. I couldn't consider it though, because he was already two feet from me.

There was light pouring out from the glass doors of the hotel that spotlighted his face. His features were darker, irritatingly making him look extremely masculine while my eyes were surely puffy and red, my hair a mess, my shortness still too short, all of which I knew from an accidental glance in a mirror made me look no older than twelve. I could dab at my eyes and swipe at my hair but there was nothing to help how small I felt in front of him.

Such impeccable timing, Trent. Thanks.

"Hey," he said. He looked me up and down.

I tried to greet him back but I had to clear my throat before something would come out. "Hey."

"Are you okay?" he asked hesitantly.

"I'm fine," I said in a way that meant the exact opposite.

"Yeah, that was definitely convincing."

I didn't know what to say, so I just fidgeted with my shirt hem.

"What are you doing out here?"

How do I explain to him I couldn't go up to my hotel room because I dreaded my own brother's presence? Best to be honest I guess.

"I can't go up to my hotel room because Markus and friends are there."

"And that's bad because?"

"Because..." I sighed, unable to look him in the eye. I stared at his shoes. "Because they lost me in the middle of downtown."

"They what?"

Trent was making me want to cry again and that just made me mad. I was already empty. "I was exhausted, but they wanted to get junk food but we can't live off of junk food so I went with and they were too fast so I got left behind and I have a really bad sense of direction, okay? It's really bad so I was lost and when they found me they didn't care that I got lost."

I bit down on my lip to keep it from quivering. Why did Trent care anyway?

When I looked back to his face he was frowning, trying to process my jumbled explanation. It grew deeper as he spoke, "So, they let you go with them when you were already exhausted, lost you, at night, knowing you have a bad sense of direction, and now you're out here alone because they didn't even apologize? Did they? Did they apologize at least?"

He was making it increasingly hard to hold it in. I could only shake my head, not trusting myself to speak. He made a sort of frustrated grunting sound, turned around while running his hands through his hair, then whipped back to me. He was about to say something in earnest before his name was called from across the street.

"Uh, stay here." He hovered his hands over me like I was an object he was trying to balance. "I'll be right back."

He ran over to the friends who were waiting on him, said a few things with forceful hand gestures, then ran back to me. While he was over there I decided to inspect the blister on my heel.

"Look, Trent, you don't-"

"Is that a blister?"

From the pain that exploded at the spot when I poked it, it was definitely a blister. "Yup."

He sighed. "Look, how about we go back to my hotel, I get you a band-aid, and we chill in the lobby until you're ready to come back?"

Why did he feel so eager to take care of me? I really didn't get it.