Finding Love | ✔️

fifteen

/The heart that loves is always young/

~ Greek Proverb

♡

We live in the basement," he says, taking me to a series of stairs that lead downwards.

"So...this is your house?" I ask, shaking. I'm a bit frightened.

"Yes and no. I'm a street kid. I don't have a house. This parking lot is my home."

"Oh."

After we've scuttled down the stairs, the boy begins calling.

"Gramps! Aella! I'm here!"

I realize that I've been holding my breath as a huge sigh of relief balls out of my mouth when we approach an old, harmless crippled man lying on a torn blanket and a small white girl sitting next to him.

"Coming to live with us, I suppose?" The old man asks. "I'm the young man's grandfather. The name's Parker." He shifts as if to adjust the position of his leg. The other leg has been reduced to a stump.

I form a small smile on my face before turning to the girl.

"Aella. I'm thirteen." She looks at me, expressionless.

"My name is April."

"And I'm Eli, seventeen," the boy who led me hear says. "This is basically all the family I've got."

I nod, wondering how this group of misfits will become my new 'roommates'. Questions are buzzing round in my head. How do they sleep, where do they find food? What happened to Parker's leg? Eli's parents? How did Aella even get into the mix of this?

"We're good people, April," Eli says, possibly reading from the mistrust on my face. "We may not be much, but we do work together. We have at least two meals a day, getting money from my or Aella's work. We manage. We're surviving. So don't look at us like that, please."

"I'm sorry." That's all I can say. Parker looks at me for a while.

"Sit down, darlin'. You too, Eli. Time for some bonding time. Let's get to know each other."

"Um...I'm tired." I say.

"No, you're not. You're just scared." Aella says. Again, there is no expression on her face.

"I'm not."

"Then let's get started." Parker smiles, revealing a perfect set of teeth - one gold in colour. "We're each going to go round saying a little something about ourselves."

This is how the conversation goes:

Eli: I'm a magician.

Aella: I'm a pickpocket.

Parker: I'm eighty years old.

April: ...I'm sixteen?

Eli: I've lived here almost my whole life.

Aella: Eli saved my life.

Parker: I served in the military.

April: ...I've no family.

Parker: We'll be your family now.

***

After living here for a week or so, Eli suggested that I need to get a job.

"If you're staying with us a while, you have to contribute," he had told me.

Seeing as his job is to sit on the street and perform weird tricks, and Aella's is to steal, I wonder what my occupation will be. Every morning, Eli helps Parker onto his wheelchair and drops him off at a certain street where he begs.

Sometimes, Eli tells me, they come home full. Other times, they're all empty, but they have a little store of biscuits and juice packets that Aella gets. (Obviously stolen, though). It's a very confusing, because I don't know whether what they're doing is right or wrong.

It's then that I remember the conversation I'd overheard at La Dolce Vita. They said they wanted a couple of waitresses at the club. I should try for that...I'll just lie that I'm eighteen. I look it anyway. I don't know how much it will pay, but I reckon I should try.

It's mid-afternoon and I find myself retracing my steps back to La Dolce Vita. I let myself into the restaurant and look for a familiar face.

"Miss!" Max says from behind, apparently remembering me from the other day.

"Hi. I want a job at the club." I say quite candidly.

"Um...you mean Club L'Amore? It's on the other side. You've got to go all the way around to enter."

"But there's an entrance through here," I eye him closely.

"Fine, you win. I didn't think you knew about that. But next time, please take the other way. The last thing we want is to think that people are coming for our food while in fact they're just passing through," he nods.

I quickly mutter a thank you and make my way to the club. It looks different during the day. It's dead; it's empty.

I look around. There's no one on the top floor. On going down the stairs, I see a man at the counter.

"Hello," I say. "I'm looking for a job."

His eyes widen. "It's a miracle!" I can recognize his voice as one of the voices I heard last night. He's got a slight Italian tinge on his tongue (while the other guy had a heavier accent).

"Miracle?" I ask, and I can't stop myself from smiling because boy, is this man beautiful. He smiles too, little wrinkles forming at the corner of his eyes.

"Yes. We have been looking for some ladies to be our waitresses here. So thank you for coming!" He's grinning from ear to ear now, his dark pupils glittering.

"I don't mind," I say.

"Okay, so here's what you need. You need to own like three sexy, short dresses. The men love a waitress with a good dress on - gives you more tips. Also, good high heels. And make-up. And you just have to take the drinks around."

"I can do that. Do I have to do anything...physical?"

"Hahaha, no no," he laughs richly. "Waitresses are hands off."

"Okay."

"Great! For now I will give you three nights a week. Your shift is between 11pm-3am on Thursday, Friday and Saturday; those are out craziest days."

Today is Thursday.

"Okay...that's alright," I say. I can't get my eyes off his beautiful, manly face. His jet black hair is combed nearly back into a small bun.

"I can get one of our girls, Jessica, to take you shopping for clothes this afternoon. You don't seem like you know how to be sexy," he smiles. "But you can be with the right training."

I laugh, too flummoxed to be insulted.

"What is your name?" He asks.

"April."

"Ahh, Aprile. Beautiful name. It is nice to meet you, Aprile. My name is Davide, but you can just call Dave."

"Dave."

"Yes." He pauses and picks up his phone. "Hello, Jessica? There's something I need you to do for me..."

Before I know it, it's 11pm and I've a red dress on, ready to serve some random guy a martini.

♡