The Mafia's Angels

13. The Shopping Trip

Genevieve's POV:

Stepping out of a huge red vehicle wasn't as cool as it seems in the movies. I'm still wearing this oversized shirt and it isn't doing much to keep me warm so I had put on Elijah's jacket, it being the only sort of coverage I had right now.

I desperately needed to eat something soon or I would probably collapse. I'd gone long periods of time without eating before in the past, but this time it was different, after all the stress from the past days. My mother encouraged me to go on multiple fasts and diets, because she just never thought I was skinny enough. Benjie always used to tell me it was just the 'asian standard' to be stick thin, not that it did much to shield the constant lecturing if I gained any weight.

None of that really matters anymore though, as I don't know when I'll see my parents again.

I walk round the back of the car to meet Josie who is still excitedly giddy from the car drive.

"Can we get food first?" I whisper to her, grabbing her arm in comfort.

"I just ate like this whole bowl of cereal," she groans, "I had too much I think."

"It's ok, I'll just grab something quick," I reply, not wanting to let her know or she'd probably worry about me for no reason.

"Wait," she pauses, "when was the last time you ate?"

"Um, I don't know," I respond, still whispering as Elijah sorts something out with Theo and Joon-Tae, Alex standing watch beside them.

"Did they give you food when you were... you know... " she says.

"You can say it you know," I laugh slightly, "I'm not overly traumatised by it."

"In the cell, dungeon-place weird dark room thingy...." she manages to get out.

"Well I'm not that traumatised," I interrupt, smiling as a scowl appears on her face.

"Ok, but did they give you food?" she presses again.

"No."

"WHAT?" she suddenly asks, a bit too loudly.

"Don't be too loud," I shout-whisper, "I don't want them to hear us."

"I can't believe they didn't feed you though," Josie says, glaring at the back of the four men standing in front of us, still talking amongst themselves in Italian. I couldn't be bothered to try and listen in. Plus, they already knew I could understand some of it, so they probably wouldn't be revealing any of their plans anytime soon near me.

"It's fine," I say, not really meaning it, "they probably just forgot, I forgot too."

"How can you forget?" she asks, puzzled, "If I skip one meal I'm famished."

"I don't always eat that much."

"I noticed."

"You what?" I reply shocked.

"I noticed," she repeats, "the first few days of the trip you barely eat anything and at school you always make an excuse not to come to the canteen. I barely ever see you eat."

"That's because I have home-made lunches and the canteen food isn't great," I reply, fiddling with my hands awkwardly.

"That's not what I mean and you know it," Josie says, squeezing my hand to try and get me to talk, "and the canteen food isn't bad, it's a private school. And there's a lot of cakes."

"My point exactly," I say, rolling my eyes.

"You know you can talk to me about anything," she says gently, "I'm always here for you if you wanna talk about anything... even if you don't feel like it's important."