I haven't toured around New York City in forever. I'm usually not one for going downtown and exploring, especially with the crime rates nowadays. But, after being imprisoned for eight years, I needed to step out into the world again and familiarize myself with the city's streets again. Lucielle offered to show me around, so we're going to spend some time together as she took me around the city to places I haven't seen or been to in a while, or even ever. I've never felt so excited to wander the streets of the city, but I can't help being nervous as well.

Ever since my arrest, my name has been all over the headlines, since it's not everyday you see a child being accused of murder. It's not likely someone would recognize me, but if they did, that's going to be an awkward interaction. I don't want to be spitted on by the rest of society over my past. But hey, the past is in the past, right?

I picked out an outfit from the collection my mom had given me, and tried to do myself up as best as I could. My hair wasn't in the best condition, and I didn't have great hygiene before. Lucy said she was excited to take me to some specific place, but she wouldn't say where. It was supposedly a "surprise", and I'm both excited and worried knowing her. For all I know, it could be anywhere from a nice restaurant to a brothel, and I wouldn't even be surprised if it was the latter option. Either way, I'm just eager to go out into civilization again.

Lucielle threw on a pair of denim shorts with another halter top, topped with sunglasses and white gogo boots- which was an interesting choice of shoes for walking around a giant, busy city. She put the short hair she had up into two french braids, ready to take on the day. Meanwhile I was in a pair of bell bottoms and a T-shirt, hair loose and messy. She looked like a fashionista, and I looked like a homeless man. Thanks for the show off, Lucy.

"Ya ready, Cynthia?" She asked, grabbing a small bag to fit her wallet in.

"Sure... I feel kind of underdressed, though."

She laughed and blew me off. "You're fine. No one cares about how you're dressed, people are more worried about being late to work. I'm just showing off."

She dismissed my concern and grabbed my hand eagerly. "Come on, we're going to be late for the appointment!"

Appointment? Was I being taken to the doctors or something? Whatever it was, she was awfully happy about it. She bolted towards the door, dragging me along.

We made our way down several blocks, running and pushing our way through the crowd. I was mesmerized by this woman's ability to run in gogo boots, that's gotta be a talent or skill somewhere. We paused for a moment to catch our breath off to the side by the bike lanes, and she checked the time on her watch. She sighed deeply and turned back at me.

"Yeah, we did all of that running for nothing. There's no way we're going to get there on time by foot, we're going to have to call a taxi"

"Why didn't we just call a taxi before running ten blocks?"

"I needed an adrenaline boost, it's good exercise anyways."

I exerted myself for no reason, great, good to know. She signaled for a taxi, and soon enough, one noticed us and gave us a ride. She told the driver the location: it was a hair salon. She looked over at me and grinned.

"Spoiled the surprise, but we're gonna get you dolled up first. When you look good, you feel good."

I've never been to a hair salon before, if I have, I don't remember what it's like. I was pretty stoked, and just relieved it wasn't Lucy's favorite: a brothel. I didn't know what types of hairstyles were in nowadays, but I guess I could see when we get there. As long as it blended me in with the crowd so it wasn't obvious I was a walking felon, I was fine with anything.

After about ten minutes, we made it to the salon near Times Square. As soon as we walked in, the aroma of hairspray and perfume bombarded me. The walls were a hot pink with purple stripes, and only a few chairs and rooms available. The environment was overall bright and cheerful, and every hair stylist in the room seemed to be doing more gossiping than styling. One of the stylists spotted us, and immediately made her way to us with a giant smile. She came up to Lucy and they both gave each other a giant hug like they were long lost sisters.

"Lucielle, haven't seen you in a long while! Are you here for your usual, again?"

Lucielle chuckled and patted my shoulder. "Not today, Liz, I'm bringing this doll to her first hair appointment to give her a makeover."

Liz nodded and reached her hand out for a handshake.

"Ah, I see. What's your name, kiddo?"

"Cynthia." I shook her hand and she brushed her fingers through my hair, getting a feel of what she was working with.

"I'm Liz, what are you thinking of getting done Cynthia?"

I didn't know how to respond. I looked over at Lucielle, seeing if she could respond for me like she was my mom or something. She seemed to get the message, and glanced back at Liz.

"Give her the "usual", darling. It'd suit her well."

Liz shook her head in agreement, and walked me to some sort of bath looking thing. I wasn't sure what the "usual" was supposed to be, but I felt like Liz was pretty trustworthy. She laid me down, bringing my hair into the sink to wash it. I haven't had my hair properly washed in so long, I forgot what it was like. It was refreshing to finally treat my hair and give it a long, well deserved wash.

After a few hours of drying, cutting, styling, and lots of gossiping, she was finally finished. She made a little bit of small talk with me, but mainly talked with Lucy, catching up on whatever drama they left off on from the previous appointment. Liz got married a few months ago apparently, and was spending a lot of time at the bar and admitted to developing a drinking problem. Lucielle was no help. Instead of giving her advice to work through it, she gave recommendations on the best bars nearby and the strongest alcohols that will get you the most knocked up. It was quite an interesting conversation, I was almost sad it ended.

She turned the chair around to face the mirror, and revealed my brand new hair. It was... stunning! I've never seen my hair so healthy and fluffy before. The stylist had heavy inspiration from Jane Fonda and Barbarella, at least that's what she told me. I didn't mind at all, in fact, it looked pretty much similar to the hairstyle most of the other pretty girls were wearing. Light and feathery with cute layers. I felt like a brand new person. My confidence was boosted dramatically, and I felt motivated to take on the day. Lucy wasn't lying when she said if you look good, you'll feel good. And I sure as hell feel good.

Lucielle paid the hairdresser, and we left to move on to whatever she had planned next. I felt cool trotting down the sidewalk, flaunting my fresh haircut even though nobody gave two shits. We walked down a few blocks, and as we waited to cross the street, she turned to me.

"Ever had coffee before?"

"No, why?"

She seemed surprised and excited by my response. "Well you are missing out, come on, I'll show you to my favorite coffee shop in Manhattan."

She ran ahead of me, ravished. I tried to keep up, but she seemed to be having a lot of fun showing me around. She gestured her hand for me to hurry, pausing so I could catch up to her.

"Don't worry, it's only a few blocks down this way." She said, pointing down the street.

It was a small little coffee shop called Chock Full O' Nuts. It smelled pretty good, and the colors were fairly calming. I guess it was a fairly well known cafe, since it was packed with people. There was a pretty long line, but Lucy seemed unbothered. She went ahead of everybody, jumping the line and going straight to the counter.

What the hell was she thinking? I'm not in the mood to be jumped by an angry New Yorker right now, but she seemed unscathed.

"Lucy, what are you doing? Wait in line."

She scoffed, "Wait in line? Not here, kiddo, I get a pass. Come on up."

I wasn't sure what she meant, but to hell with it. A barista came up to her with a similar reaction as Liz.

"Lucy pie! How's it going?" The woman squealed.

"Pretty great, it's this gals first time trying coffee from here, make it special."

The barista started taking Lucy's order, but I was still deciding what I should get. I mean, everyone drinks coffee, so it must all taste the same. She came over to me, asking for my order. I shrugged.

"Just surprise me."

I'm too indecisive for this, meanwhile gogo boots over here seems to know exactly what she wants and how she wants it.

We grabbed our coffee after it was ready, and found a small table to sit down at. I have no idea what I was actually given, but hopefully it was good. Another complete stranger walked past our table, waving and saying hi to Lucy. I laughed in confusion, but slightly impressed.

"So, do you just know everybody in this city?"

Lucy takes a sip of her drink. "I might as well. I have a pretty high reputation here, I've fooled around with nearly everyone's husbands AND wives- if you know what I mean." She jokes, although I don't think she was actually joking.

"So you're actually a prostitute? I was just kidding about-"

"Not actually, kid, don't worry... I just have a lot of exes."

"Is Rosemary soon to be added to that list?" I teased.

"Nah, she's different. I think she's mine permanently, or at least I hope so." She changes the subject, directing the topic to something else. "Try your drink, see if it's your thing."

I nodded, and carefully took a swig. I probably should've taken a smaller sip, because I didn't even end up swallowing any of it before regurgitating every drop. Lucy breaks out into laughter, teasing me. I attempt to get the bitter taste out of my mouth, trying not to draw attention from everyone. I didn't want to hurt the barista's feelings if she saw me spitting out her drink. I gather myself, and push the cup away.

"That tastes like shit."

She snorts, grabbing and handing me a napkin. "Don't worry about it, it's not for everyone. Clean up your spit, though.¨

I wipe up the mess I made and make my way to the trash can to dump everything. As I made my way to the trash can, I noticed a guy about my age behind the counter looking at me, and I can't help but look at him back. He quickly looked away, seemingly embarrassed that I caught him looking. He was fairly tall, maybe around 6'0 feet, with pretty blonde hair slicked back and well groomed. He only caught a glimpse of me admiring him before resuming back to work. His tone sounded young, and he was fairly slim as well. What stuck out to me though was his charming smile, a smile that could light up a whole town. He was fairly sweet and talkative with his fellow coworkers, too. Damn.

¨Cynthia, yoo-hoo? Earth to Cece?¨

Lucy was calling over at me, and I quickly snapped out of whatever haze I was in. That was only slightly embarrassing, but of course Lucy caught notice of exactly who I was looking at, and made the situation more humiliating. I sat back down at the table, and she immediately started pulling my leg about it.

"Ya looking at the cute boy, aren't you?"

My eyes were darting around, looking everywhere but at Lucy. "No, I was just reading the menu." I said, cheeks turning hot and red with embarrassment.

"Mhm, if you say so. Well, any place you want to go to next?"

I didn't have any ideas in mind, so we decided to come up with a little itinerary for the rest of the day. Most of it consisted of shopping around hotspots like fifth avenue and Times Square. We decided to go to some tourist attractions while we were at it and had the money as well, like the Empire State Building and even to Lady Liberty herself.

I gotta admit, I had a really fun time hanging out with Lucy after all these years. She's fun and knows all the ins and outs of the city. She's changed a lot since she was a teenager, less miserable; or maybe I was just a bratty kid. Either way, she felt like more of a best friend to me than a babysitter, like the big sister I never had. As long as she sticks around, I think things will be pretty smooth sailing. She knows everyone and everything, from the latest gossip to the history of every damn building and restaurant. The little knowledge she had was wasted on the most useless shit ever, but hey, it's not like I'm any smarter.

Once we came close to the end of our little 'tour', I was pretty exhausted. However, that boy from the cafe was still sitting at the top of my mind.

With Lucielle knowing all the drama and gossip going around, she also happens to know a thing or two about boys. She's had her fair share of exes, anyhow.

I think that's gonna come in handy pretty soon.

𝔸/ℕ:
-I'll most likely add more to this so it's a bit longer later, but I needed to get something done for chapter five lmao. It's pretty late and I'm tired of looking at a screen 😩 so this is what we have for now.
- 𝙵𝚞𝚗 𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚝, Chock Full O' Nuts 𝚒𝚜/𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚊 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕 𝚙𝚘𝚙𝚞𝚕𝚊𝚛 𝚌𝚘𝚏𝚏𝚎𝚎 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚙 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝟼𝟶'𝚜-𝟽𝟶'𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝙽𝚈 :) 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚞𝚊𝚕 𝚌𝚊𝚏𝚎 𝚒𝚝𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚏 𝚒𝚜𝚗'𝚝 𝚊𝚜 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚘𝚗𝚕𝚢 𝚏𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚘𝚍𝚊𝚢 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚒𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚋𝚊𝚌𝚔 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚗, 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚏𝚏𝚎𝚎 𝚐𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚜𝚘𝚕𝚍 𝚐𝚕𝚘𝚋𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢. ☕️