Carmela opened the front door to meet a Purple Rain t-shirt holding a helmet. Moving up, eyeliner and stiff punk hair, shy smile.

"Sorry to bother you, is Catalina home?"

They pushed a pair of flats they held in their other hand at Carmela, who watched as the pointe shoes approached her, not moving to touch them, "She forgot these... The men who took her were kinda in a hurry."

"Lano," the teen introduced themselves.

Carmela didn't find any words, behind her a continous shuffling demanded her attention, whispering sounds kept breaking her focus. A loud thud made the house silent again. On top of everything, she'd discovered her acting talent required Caterina to be convincing, because Lano was worried.

"Were they, like... your security or something? They just walked in and--It looked like something was happening so I followed the car on my bike."

"Yes," Carmela straightened and took the shoes in one move. "Thank you!"

"Could you also tell her I read that poem she liked?" Lano took out a phone with a cracked screen, to search something on it. "The one she was named after?"

"Luceafărul?" Carmela was inching the door closer and closer to closing it but had to stop.

"Yes! What you said, The Morning Star," dark polish continued to type.  

Carmela wished she knew more about it, not just that it existed, "Didn't know Eminescu was that famous."

"Wikipedia says it's the last poem of the great romantics."

"Well, by the time a trend reaches Romania it has died everywhere else. Now--"

"But what I didn't get at first was," Lano wasn't going away. "Catalina always talked as if it was a love story, you know?" they showed their phone.

To: Mom; Dad. Call 911 send them here. Shared location. Don't call me please I'm fine.

They showed her the Send button, "And I'm thinking it's not. Like what, the girl says no, like, three times. To immortality! And who can blame her? Immortality with some guy she only talked through a window? A star?! Like, maybe the girl wanted to hold hands!"

Carmela just stared back, in response.

"Do you think it's a romance?" dark eyes asked her, finger over the green button. "Cause he didn't take no for an answer."

"I don't think it is," Carmela said, hoping she got the message right. Teens and their internet. 

Lano pressed send. "Didn't think it was. Although, the funniest thing happens at the end--"

"You should go," Carmela tried to stop them, but they were on a roll.

"Catalina from the story just leaves the Morning Star, Genius and Philosopher, and elopes with some mortal," Lano smiled. "And get this, he wasn't a prince or anything. She runs off with a squire!"

They closed the screen with one press. "I guess it was a romance after all. It was just from the villain's point of view."