Capture

Briar

"Gotcha!" A bright voice says behind me. The hands fall from my face and shoulder. I whip around to see that it is my best friend Spencer who had grabbed me. I cough as I try to slow down my heart rate.

"God, Spence, I almost had a heart attack because of you."

"Really? You are usually so hard to scare," She laughs, a soft high pitched sound that I have heard so many times before. "I'm actually kind of surprised you didn't try to kill me when I put my hand on your shoulder. Oh, and changing the subject, we have a lot to talk about!"

"Yeah. Can you give me a moment?" Spencer nods, then starts heading towards Roy's house. She walks on the edge of a ruff street curb. The bright red heels she wears stumble slightly as her foot catches on a crack in the curb. She reaches her pale arms out on each side of her for balance. Bending with my hands on my knees, I look down at my own brown, worn-out shoes. They look dull compared to hers, but I don't care. I stand back up and begin to slowly walk beside my friend.

As we walk in silence, Spencer waits impatiently for me to catch my breath. Every few moments she is looking over at me with her big green eyes. Finally, I roll my eyes at her and let her speak.

"Okay, okay, so since you've been gone, something really exciting happened," she sings.

"Oh, really?" I smirk. Spencer thinks almost anything that happens to her is extremely important.

"Yes. So my daddy, he saw how sad that I was when you left last time and he was like, 'my baby should have something to keep her company' and so he got me a new puppy! His name is Buster and he is so cute! He's a golden retriever and-" As Spencer blabs about her dog, I think of how different her life is from mine. She lives in Tuscan area, like my father, and has always had the luxury of money. Her father gave her everything she wanted and more. Even though Spencer was a little spoiled, she was still my closest friend and treated me as an equal.

"-he loves to cuddle with me, and I love him so much! You have to come see him!!" I smile at her excitement. She is practically jumping up and down.

"Okay, I will, I promise!" She wraps her arms around me for a split second, then lets go. Spencer is much taller than me, and infinitely prettier. She turns toward my father's house and keeps walking, silent but happy. She usually she has a lot to say, so it was odd that she went silent so quickly. She seemed to be holding something back right, but I don't push.

We approach the house. I want to jog the rest of the way, but Spencer can barely walk in the heels she is wearing as it is, so I don't.

We walk up the large steps to the front door, and I take a deep breath in. Before I can knock, a small lady bursts through the door. Melina, my father's maid. She smiles and gives me a gentle hug.

"Hello, Spencer," she says over my shoulder, then she pulls back. "Come inside. Your father will be so happy to see you,"

Melina leads us through the large doors of the mansion. We walk into the glorious front room with multiple doors and hallways leading to other rooms.

"Of course, you know your way around here, so I will let you two be," Melina offers. "I will go alert Mr. Pension that you are here," she says, then hurries down one of the many hallways.

I step back, marveling at the glossy floor and textured paintings that filled the room. Everything here was beautiful, and it was quite a change from my regular life. The last time I was here, it was many months ago.

Spencer waits impatiently on the stairs, and I remember that this was not unusual to her. Her house had practically all the same decorations as this one. I follow her up, and we race to where I would sleep while I was here.