Concepts of Change

II

30 April 1999

This is the day I feel my feet being strained. After many days of walking and waiting, running and wanting, this is the day that I wanted to die. It was basically like every other day in my life. I had found a newspaper that was being stepped on and picked it up to find that a picture of a young girl was reporting to be missing. It was a bad photo. She was described as having blonde hair, brown eyes and a slim figure. 17 years of age and was running from something. It was me. The only person that came to my mind about going to this much effort had left me. It wasn't James. He lied when he said he cared. As I was walking, I bumped into someone and dropped the paper to the ground. It was a young man, he didn't look much older than me.

"I'm so sorry. I can be clumsy sometimes." I say with a false look of sorrow in my eyes.

"No, it is my fault. I should know not to get in the way of a young lady reading the paper. Worried about the missing girl?"

"It must be very concerning for the girl's parents to not know where she is." I tried to keep my reply short and simple, hoping that he didn't notice the girl was me.

"My name is Oliver. Where are you heading? You shouldn't be out in the streets alone. It's not safe at the moment."

"Samantha," I say while reaching for his waiting hand. "I would tell you where I was going if I knew myself."

"You make a good point. Some people don't know where they're going in life. Some people are different and don't even understand."

I might be one of those people. I am that person. The person who doesn't know where they are going. The person who doesn't know where she's been. I've been hurt too many times to count and I don't know if I should have been counting because maybe that would have been a good idea. To know who hurt me and how, so that next time I wouldn't fall for it.

When I was walking with Olivier, I felt safe. Nobody looked at him for more than 3 seconds, and all he saw gave him a smile. This concept is friendliness. Something once again, was unknown to me. The thoughts that I begun to have varied from him being a police officer to Olivier having a criminal past. Maybe he had even been the state senator, but he seemed too young.

"So you look a lot like that missing girl. Is she your twin or something?"

"Well, I'll let you in on a little secret. I don't have a twin. As a matter of fact, I'm a triplet." I replied to Olivier's small talk as we walked.

"Woah. Two more people in the world that look like you. I would hate to be in the same room with you guys. The beauty would be overflowing." I began to blush at the last statement. After a long pause, Olivier had leaded me with his hand in the small of my back. We went into a cafe on the corner of the street we were walking on.

"One flat white and a hot chocolate please. Cinnamon on both, thanks." Olivier had placed the order and leaded me to a seat.

"Cinnamon? Maybe I don't like cinnamon." I was being cheeky on purpose.

"Well, if you don't drink it, it means I wasted money. For all you know, I might not have lots of it either. So if you think about it, it would be rude if you didn't drink it."

If I wan't confused before, I am now.

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Soon after we sat down, we were on the move again. The further we walked the less people we seemed to pass. Maybe I was being taken to my death. Maybe someone knew who I was and wanted to take me back where I had been. Maybe it was James in a mask to make himself look like someone else. There were so many maybes.