"After I ran away, I lived on the streets for a few weeks, using the money to buy food if I needed it. It was pretty hard – I usually slept in old cardboard boxes, and I cried a lot for the first few days. I missed you, Feliciano, but I didn't want to go back to that house…

"Well, then I met Antonio."

Lovi gestured towards Toni, who smiled and continued the story.

"It's kind of funny, actually; we were in very similar situations. My story was that my dad was an old drunkard who'd abuse me pretty often, so one day (I was twelve at the time) I got sick and tired of it. I stole several hundred dollars from him, yelled that I was leaving, grabbed some clothes, stuffed them in a box, and went out the door. I was living on the streets, too, until I met Lovi here."

"Don't call me Lovi."

"Lovi and I figured that we could team up and pool our money to get a cheap apartment, maybe have some shelter over our heads. We finally found one that only cost $300 a month – the lady didn't ask questions. I guess she just cared if we had money. The room actually had a refrigerator and a bed and a bathroom already in it, so that was pretty good."

Toni nodded at Lovi to take over. He sighed and picked up the story.

"The tomato bastard and I—"

"Tomato bastard?" I interrupted.

"That's what I call him!"

"But you like tomatoes, Lovi…"

"That's not the point, Feliciano. Anyway, the tomato bastard and I had a really good amount of money from the start, but, you know, we were going to run out eventually. So once Antonio was sixteen, he got a part-time job working at that burger place a couple blocks away from our apartment… and now we're both here, since we can get way better jobs later in life with a high school diploma."

Antonio smiled (it seemed like he always smiled). "Lovi's really good at forging signatures. We got some cheap school supplies, and here we are."

I listened to this story in fascination. "Wow… it must have been really hard at first for you guys!"

"Si, but we handled it."

I glanced at the clock and realized that we only had ten minutes left in lunchtime. Pointing this out to Toni and Lovi, we finished our food in a hurry; everything was gone in just over five minutes.

"Oh!" I turned to Lovi. "Lovi, can I tell Eliza and stepfather that you're okay and you're here? I'm sure Eliza would be really happy to hear—"

"No, you can't."

"Eh?" I frowned. "Why not?"

"Because they'll just make me live with them again! Sure, it'd be nice to live with you again, Feliciano, but I really detest that piano bastard!"

He went quiet for a moment, then turned back to me. "Tell me the truth, Feliciano… did they even try to look for me when I ran away?"

I hesitated.

"Tell me." His eyes looked almost pleading.

"Eliza… she really wanted to look for you and call the police, but stepfather said no. He said that if you ran away, then that meant that you didn't want to live there, and so they wouldn't make you come back…"

He sighed and looked down. "Okay." His fists were slightly clenched on his lap and the liquid in his eyes threatened to spill over. I leaned over and hugged him. This time he didn't protest.

When I pulled back, he muttered "I guess you can tell Eliza, but make sure she knows that I'm not coming back there."

"Si, Lovi!" I said happily.

The bell rang. We said our farewells and went off to our classes.