Help

twenty-four

F L O R E N C E

"What do you do with friends?" I ask Dominic while we stroll up and down the chip aisle. He shrugs.

"It depends," he sighs. "If you're Lucien, you would go to skateparks and drink alcohol. If you're me, I personally would enjoy a good game of road hockey."

"That's no help." I scrunch my eyebrows together. I find his advice to not be helpful at times. It defeats the whole purpose of giving advice.

"Well what do you want me to say?" He laughs, grabbing a red bag of triangle chips off the shelf. I don't question it. I mindlessly stroll next to him.

The store is empty, give or take a few stragglers. We've been on our own in most of the aisles for majority of this ridiculous shopping trip. I was forced to go because Emilio claims that I need to get out more. I don't know half of the products on these shelves. How am I supposed to be any help? I was happy watching YouTube in the kitchen.

"Maybe you could be a little more empathetic for your li—," I trail off when a man unexpectedly walks down the same aisle as us. I grab Dominic's hand and get as close to him as possible.

"Are you okay?" He asks quietly, as he pulls me into his side. When he scans the aisle and sees the man he has an 'ah' moment. Pushing my frozen body in between him and the opposite shelf, he shields me from the man.

My heart races, I can't breathe, at least that is what it feels like. "It's okay baby, he will leave soon. He won't upset you. I will make sure of it." He says as he shields me from the man.

Despite his navy blue, crinkly fall coat hiding me, I can still see the man's face. His jawline is sharp and his eyes are narrow. He's tall, but not as tall as Dominic. He wears a suit, a black jacket and dress pants. When he finally selects his desired chips, he glances over at me. We hold eye contact for five hours which was really only five seconds before he turns away. His eyes lingered on me far too long for it to be comfortable.

"Dom can we please go?" I whisper, still paralyzed in fear. I need to leave, I can't be here any more.

"Yeah," he quickly says. "We have everything we need." We walk towards the registers and pay at the self-checkout. Without any more incidents we load the car with the groceries and drive off.

"Florence," Dominic says. I look away from the window I was staring out of and turn to face him.

His eyes are on the road, his lips pressed together, jaw clenching. He shifts uncomfortably in his seat. He is clearly waiting for my answer, but the truth is I don't really want to talk right now. The way that man stared at me too long makes me feel like I need to stay silent. I don't know why, that is just how I feel.

So I nod.

He sighs before continuing. "In public, when you see other people you don't know, do you get scared?"

I nod.

Then he continues. "Is it because he was a man?"

This time I don't answer, I turn away from him and settle on watching the trees and the occasional sign flash by. My heart is rapidly pounding, my mind takes me back to a place I don't want to ever be again.

flashback

Once on the last day of the every month, Mom's husband, Trey, would have his friends over. They weren't nice friends, but they also weren't mean. They left me alone. The group of them would just sit in the living room and play poker.

Mom would sit in the kitchen nursing one, or seven cans of beer.

I would stay in my room.