Compassion- Lookism

S i x t y S e v e n

    "What are you looking up?" Vasco asked as he took a seat beside Irene, glancing down at her phone in her hands. Her fingers were bright shades of pink as she shivered and typed with her thumb. It looked like she was looking at a small soup and chicken shop not too far from the park.

    "I was looking at some food options for lunch," Irene answered with a lie. She almost laughed at how ridiculous the sentence came out of her mouth. Her brother even cracked a smile at her terrible lie. They both knew she was too poor to even look at the menu.

    "Soup?" Vasco asked, giving her a questionable look.

    "Yeah, I'm not feeling too good. I think the cold weather has been hitting me a little hard." She chuckled, her lips were plumped with a deeper red color and the tip of her nose was shiny and bright pink. She looked like a deer a lot of the time, but now she looked like Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer.

    "Do you need to go home?" Vasco asked, placing a hand on her knee. His expression was comfortingly worried as his eyebrows were turned downward. Irene felt the moment that he touched her thigh his warm hand seeped through her jeans onto her leg. She let out a small chuckle as she felt the creeping feeling coming back.

    "No, I'll be fine. I took some medicine already." She answered. Daniel glanced over at her in a bit of shock. He was surprised to see how easy it seemed for her to lie through her teeth. It looked like it came naturally to her, but he knew she did a lot to not worry people, especially their mother growing up. Now she was doing it again to the people around her with such ease. It looked like she got used to coming up with excuses to have people not worry about her.

    "That must be that thug's girlfriend," Seungpyo mumbled to his friends. They all nodded and stared at the two talking before he got up and started talking to Jace. The loser now was friends with the most intimidating thug they had ever seen.

    "Let's avoid that bitch and go after Jace." Blondie smiled widely.

    That's when they paused.

    "Are you guys going to the bathroom?" Irene asked, eavesdropping in on her friends. She looked up with her flawless face to look at the thug. The girl was drop-dead gorgeous with a look that didn't even look real. Her big doe eyes, her slim face, her rosy red cheeks. She looked like an AI girl with her perfect hair.

      They both nodded.

    "Who is she?" The boy with grey hair mumbled out in awe. The other boys were struck with lightning as they stared at her in awe as she smiled. Her beautiful face was so cheery it felt like flowers bloomed all around her. Everything about this woman was completely different from what they expected as they stared at her before. The girls besides their boyfriends could see their hungry eyes as they stared at her from across the street. They already knew they were in trouble with this girl.

    "I'll stay here with Daniel," Irene said and stayed sitting while Jace stood up to his feet beside Vasco, giving him a look. Damn, he had to take a shit. He didn't miss the opportunity to try and give the boys looks to leave. He glanced over their way and shook his head slightly side to side at them. His eyebrows were turned downward and his lips were turned downwards into a frown. He hoped the look would keep them away. If they tried to mess with him or Daniel, Vasco would beat them, but if they got near Irene, Vasco would not hold back.

    "Is he gesturing for us to get out of here?" The boy with grey hair, Jasper, asked. The group all managed to tear their eyes away from Irene and watch the thug and Jace walk away together toward the pathway under the trees. They walked side by side, all buddy-buddy together as they walked away, leaving the two behind.