III. TRESPASSING
CHAPTER THREE

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NICK WALKED CARMEN HOME. When they arrive at the door, she turned to look at him. She stood there a second. And before they could do anything, the door opened abruptly.

Jumping in their place, scared, they look at the woman standing at the door. She looked mad—worried, sure, but mad.

"God sake, Carmen! You're insane going out like that without a coat or something," Polly said, not repairing on the boy in front of Carmen. "Next time go out naked too, I will be the same. Come on in!"

But Carmen didn't move. She turned to look at Nick again. Silently, she took his coat out and gave it back to him. It was there when Polly saw the boy.

"I'm Nick, nice to meet you," Nick said holding out his hand. But Polly didn't shake it. Instead, she look at Carmen with angry eyes that waited for her to come in.

Carmen start to walk into the house. Polly's eyes judge the boy. Before the door close, the girl gave Nick a little smile that said 'thank you'. He smiled back.

When the door shut, his smile went off. Confused, he started walking away. There was something about Carmen, something in her eyes and expression before they got interrupted. He saw something, just didn't know what.

Polly didn't ask anything about the boy, knowing very well that she won't get any answer from Carmen. She did think about telling Thomas, for him to make sure that Nick wasn't any kind of threat. She wanted Carmen to have friends, it will be good for her, but with everything that was going on and the new Inspector, they need it to be careful.

When Thomas arrived home, late at night, Polly was about to speak, she had been thinking about it all day long.

"Tommy," she said. The named one turned around to look at her.

"Yes?"

Carmen was sitting on the stairs, hiding. She could barely see her aunt's face, Thomas's back was blocking the view. But she knew Polly was about to say it, about to speak about Nick—about to ruin it.

Carmen didn't care too much, it was a time ago she stopped caring about things. So she didn't stop Polly, because she didn't really care. But deep down, in her mind, she did care, and she knew—she knew she care. And she was mad, they were messing with things that weren't about them.

Polly moved. Now Carmen could see her entirely.

Polly was about to talk. The words were about to come about.

Carmen watched carefully.

Something was machinating in Polly's brain. Carmen thought she was thinking about her words, but it wasn't till Polly turned her head and locked her eyes into Carmen's. There she knew—Polly wasn't gonna speak.

"Polly?" Thomas asked after a long silence waiting.

"What?—Oh, yes! Nothing, I'm going to sleep, that's it."

And she walked to the stairs, where Carmen waited. The girl stood up silently and nodded her head as a thank you.

"You're welcome," Polly whispered. "And please make sure I didn't make the wrong decision."

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Carmen decided to go back to school. It was time to see how things were going. She normally waited longer periods of time to be back, and last time she went was last week.

And she wasn't the only one surprise about her own decision. Finn was too, when he saw her sister go out of her room wearing her school clothes. It was a time ago when her family stopped noticing when Carmen went to school or walk around town—or maybe they never cared, she wasn't sure.

She was grabbing her breakfast, planning on eating it on the way. She always hated it sitting to eat breakfast with everyone else, she sometimes could stand lunch or dinner, but there was something about the morning, about breakfast with people, that she hated it. It's like she felt all the emotions that bloomed during the night, were now visible for the rest. And she didn't liked to be visible, way less visible by her family.

Finn's eyes followed her around, questioning her. Carmen just shrugged, because she just felt like going back—she'll ever said it, or put her mind into it, but the reason was very obvious: there was a person waiting to see her at school that morning.

Her little brother didn't seem to believed her, but there wasn't anything else he could ask or get an answer for so he simply left it pass.

In their way to school, Carmen split up from his brother, him going along as she stayed behind. Smoking a cigarette, she sat on the street for a while. She watched the kids walking to school; friends meeting each other, chatting and walking together, some of them running and playing.

Carmen is an observer. She likes to watch and look for thing no one else sees—knowing things about people who don't know she's observing. She always notice the details, it made her feel like she share secrets with strangers. She observes at friends hanging out on the streets and bars, observes at the lovers, and the loners. But still, she notice, she can't relate to other people. She's always been a lonely girl, and that's why she liked books so much.

"Hello, how are ya?" A par of legs stood in front of her, interrupting her view. She knew who it was, recognized the voice. Looking up, she saw Nick looking down at her, fixing his coat. "You're wearing proper clothes now."

Carmen was standing now, trowing the cigarette butt to the floor, she slide her hands into the pockets of her trousers. She started to walk, and Nick follow.

"Though you were going to school." Nick look at her. But Carmen looked confused, they were walking towards the school's direction. "Where your books at?"

She didn't bring any books or notebooks, neither she cared, she was just going as a duty of appearance—that she told herself—. Also, she didn't need them, if she learned anything at school she will keep it on her mind, not on paper. It's not like she would participate in reading or exercises, anyway.

Instead she just shrugged and kept walking.

She took Nick's bag out of his shoulder. It was very poor and destroyed, clearly he had it for years now. There were holes everywhere, we're you could see some of the books. It kept closed by a piece of fabric wrapped around. She opened it and look at the inside. School books, notebooks and two fountain pens. There was one book that wasn't for school, The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

"Have you read it?" Nick asked. Carmen nodded. They arrived to the building. "You liked it? I'm liking it so far, y'know."

Carmen gave Nick's bag back and entered into school.

Nick was smart, Carmen notice. He read, that Carmen knew already. But also he went between paying attention on class and doing his own. Yet, he got the answers right without trying so hard, he knew more than what they were studying. Carmen observed him all period. She pay attention to the way his eyes moved on the board while the teacher wrote, to the way his fingers played with the edge of pages when he read, to the way he sat relaxed but straight and well postured.

"Why does everyone keep staring at you?" Nick asked when everyone left the classroom to go on recess.

Carmen didn't said anything. She had never been ashamed about what her family did, about what her name meant to people, she grew up in the ambient, she understand the reasons and was use to it. What she didn't like was the attention, her brothers crave for that attention, they like it, it came with power and privileges, but that's exactly what Carmen didn't like. She just wanted to be invisible—not to be forgotten, just to disappear.

But no matter where she went to, unless she moved to under country, someone will always recognize her. And, even if she didn't talk to anyone, that prevented her to live the lonely life she desires.

There was something that made Carmen want to hide her live and family from Nick, not wanting him to get involved. She likes him, and wanted to keep him away of her brothers (she couldn't hide him from Polly anymore), wanted to keep him just to herself. If he got deeper in her life, means that he'll know too much about her, that she'll be too attached.

She looked at him in the eyes, then around as she didn't knew what he's talking about. But Nick didn't believed her, she noticed but still kept on lying.

"Carmen!" Finn yelled entering to the classroom. "You have any money on? There selling candy on the block!" Childish excitement sounding in his tone.

Carmen looked around her pockets and took some coins out giving them to his little brother. And after saying a quick thank you, he ran out of the place.

"Your brother?" Nick asked.

Suddenly, like if realization had just hit her, she go angry at Nick's questions. He couldn't know that much, Carmen didn't wanted him to know much. It was pretty obvious that Finn was Carmen's brother, everybody knew that, everybody knew her family, it was no secret. But an urgency of protecting Finn made her not wanting to answer to even the most obvious question. Because she didn't really knew Nick, she just met him one day ago, she just liked how he talks and follows her without annoying or overpassing her space. But Finn was different, he was her little brother, and she didn't want him to get much close.

It was all so sudden that it surprised herself too. Didn't really understand what happened to her, what made her to decide and think that way, she just stood up and left, forgetting about her coat.

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