Escape Route

Three

"Okay, Riley." Emerson said before checking his phone and then shoving it back into his jean pocket. "Welcome to Athens!" he exclaimed lifting his arms dramatically.

I held my backpack, over my shoulder tighter. My eyes caught the many tourists shuffling around and taking selfies with their friends. At least it was people they knew, unlike me.

"C'mon I'm sure you're gonna love it here." he grinned. "I'll make sure of it."

"We are gonna stay here for some time," I spoke. "We have to set some rules."

"I'm all ears." he smiled slightly with a nod.

"Don't think that we're here as a couple or something, just... friends." I pointed a finger towards him. "Got it?"

"Oh, we leveled up from strangers to friends, even better." I gave him a look before he uttered a, "Sorry, continue."

"No funny business. " I said sternly.

"Could you... explain that. " he tried to hide his smile with a confused face.

I sighed.  "You know what I'm talking about, things that friends wouldn't do."

"Aye, aye Captain." he saluted. "Anything else or can we go?

"Sure, whatever. "

Surprisingly, Emerson found us a taxi quite quickly and just like that, we hopped on to where we were staying for the time being.

Emerson talked the whole way with the driver while I watched through the window. The sights were amazing as well as the architecture. Everything looked so beautiful and lovely. Pure white were the colours of the buildings. Even better than the pictures.

"Beautiful." Emerson said, before clearing his throat and lifting his eyebrows towards the window. "The city."

"Yeah." I replied, still in awe. It was a long forgotten dream of mine to be there and finally I made it.

×

They brought us to where, I assumed, we were staying. While Emerson climbed out to get the bags in the car's trunk, I couldn't help but stare at our fascinating surroundings with the car door still open. 

"Riley!" Emerson's shouting gave me such a fright that my phone fell onto the ground, outside of the car. "Stop dreaming."

Before I could reach out and retrieve it, a hand came in view and reached for the phone. "Than-" I couldn't even finish my sentence when I noticed that it wasn't someone trying to be helpful. I was getting robbed!

The man ran as fast as he could with my phone, but before I knew it, Emerson was right behind him. My legs brought me as fast as I could, but Emerson was already pulling him by his shirt.

"Dude! I warned you!" he breathed heavily, before quickly turning the thief around and allowing his fist to come in contact with the man's jaw. He punched him square in the face.

"Geez!" winced Emerson, crouching down and holding his knuckles with the other hand.

The thief stumbled a bit to one side, but was still standing. My leg moved quickly, tripping him and as a result, he hit the ground landing on his stomach. I felt my arms quickly searching for one of his before holding it behind him.

"Okay, you're in a very tough spot, my guy." I spoke calmly, watching him trying not to move.

"You can either return what wasn't yours in the first place or you know..." I shrugged, ignoring the many people staring at us. "I could break your arm."