Isabella

~3~

"Let me take this." I moved few feet away from her and answered my call. After few minutes of speaking with Gary, one of my men, I ended the call and walked back to her.

"I think I'll head home now, Selena, just tell mom and dad that I'll see them another day." I said and turned around to walk back to where I parked my car.

"But--wait!"

"I'll see you tomorrow." I gave her one final glance and ordered my driver to move. "Tomorrow, Selena, I promise."

~

Isabella

"Weren't you supposed to go Long Beach yesterday?" My friend, actually, the only friend I have, Nicole Santris, asked me as we walked down the busy street of New York. "How could someone who was nearly killed last night still stand in front of me?" She asked, sounding amused.

I rolled my eyes. I had told her what happened since she was the only friend I have and we don't normally do see each other all the time. Part of the reason was that I was always running, always killing, always traveling; making our conversing with each other live, nearly impossible. I didn't want to bring her on the danger in my life, gave her space, since I was scared she might get hurt. Three years ago, I had lost her trust when I lied to her that I was an ordinary worker, normal girl going about her daily life. But she had caught me, red-handed, murdering one of the guys that usually bullied her at her place of work. Nicole became scared, distanced herself from me and even threatened to report to the police. She called me names, all sort of names that I would never even imagining calling myself no matter how heartless I had been. It took months, years to be precise, to win her trust again. It wasn't easy since I kept on saving her life, countless times. She had no choice but to forgive me but I had to promise her that I wouldn't touch anyone close to her. Friend or enemy.

"Lucas don't control me."

"He only wants your safety. You can't blame him for treating you like his own daughter."

We walked down to where a bench was, close to a palm tree and a man selling fries and plopped down on it. "I don't need special treatment from anyone."

"Right." She smirked. "You've never had a boyfriend, can't blame you."

"Who says I need a man to survive? I'm a man-killer. Doesn't make any sense."

"To you, actually." She shifted closer to me and passed me a bag containing pepperoni cheese and fries. "So you wanna crash in my place for tonight?"

"Think so. Since pops doesn't want me near him, you might."

"Yeah and I hope you don't bring danger along with you. Seriously, my life is already a mess as it is."

"I know." I tore the brown paper bag open and pulled out a small nylon containing fries. Snapping it open, I took out a few sticks and started chewing it down.

Nicole watched me. "When was the last time you ate something as proper as this?"

I stopped. "Don't know. Maybe three months ago?"

She shook her head. "You're something else, Elsa. You always take care of other people's shit. But you never forget to take care of yours."