BR(ok)EN

“What is your proudest moment alive?”

“That I hate my family.”

I blinked.

Once.

Twice.

The plan wasn’t like this. This ten minutes social experiment was intended to have a heartwarming conversation with strangers about their proudest moments. I clearly wasn’t expecting a young woman to walk into our booth and came out to me like that.

“Do you want to tell me about it?”

She let out a lopsided smile, “my parents love my sister more than me. They prefer me starving to that disabled girl. Could you believe it?”

“Maybe because your sister needs a little more attention? You know, because of her… condition?” I said, being extra careful.

“That’s what I think so. That bitch has all the attention ever since she was born.”

Honestly, I feel like cat got my tongue. I don’t want to say things that might hurt her. But, my digital hand watch shows 8.04 PM. We can’t just stay in silence for rest six minutes right?

“So, you hate your family because they didn’t give you attention as much as your sister gets?”

She chuckled humorlessly, “oh boy, I wish it was that simple.”

This blonde in front of me just keep on playing with the coupon our booth sells. She torn the paper into pieces and put it on the table. She looks straight into my eyes, makes me feels a bit uncomfortable.

“Would you be mad when your parents were planning to sell you?”

“What?”

There’s a few moments of silence as I shifted in my seat. This girl doesn’t show any expression. But those hazel eyes do scream tiredness. Her eye bags didn’t do any help, looks like her make ups failed doing its job.

“Your parents were planning to sell you?” I asked once again, confirming I wasn’t hearing things earlier.

“Yup, that’s what exactly I said. That’s not even the worse part.”

I hold my breath, anticipating what might be worse than this. I hope it wasn’t what I thought.

“They sell me to a fucking stranger so they could get money to feed their youngest daughter. Crazy, right?”

Bingo.

“They aren’t your biological parents… right?”

“My biological dad left us because that whore was cheating on him. I guess karma is a real bitch because my so-called-mom and step dad had a disabled daughter, which serves them right.”

A loud ‘beep!’ was heard from the outside, indicating our chitchat time is over.

“Your time is up!” My friend, Bryan, announced, poking his head through the blue tend. This girl was about to stand up, but I stopped her.

“Give us a minute.” I said to my friend. He furrows his eyebrows, but still nodded. After my friend is out of the booth, I looked towards the girl.

“Are you safe now?”

“Do you want to help me if I wasn’t?” She asked sarcastically.

“I have a vacant room at my house. You can stay there, if you want to.” I suggested. I know this sounds crazy. But this girl reminds me of Ayle when her ex left her back then. She was homeless and afraid of going home to meet mom.

She chuckled, “are you trying to get into my pants?”

My eyes bulge in fear. “No! That’s not what I meant!”

“If you are really wondering, I’ve got my safe place.” This girl winked and put her black leather bag around her shoulder.

I quickly stand up as she was about to turn around and leave our booth. “What’s your name?”

This girl smirks while slightly tilting her head, “I thought we aren’t allowed to tell our names?”

“I’m… I’m Alex Angelo.”

I extend my hand and looked at her hopefully. She looked at me up and down, before let out a soft chuckle. “Sorry boy, I don’t tell my name to stranger. Even if you are cute.”

“But-”

“Time’s up!”

Once again, I saw Bryan’s head poking from the blue tend. I know I’ll get a lot of questioning after this, but I just shrugged it off. I kept my eyes on her.

This blonde in front of me smirked and adjusted her bag before leaving.

“You have a nice name, Alex.”