He gave me a little smile and looked down at the table; I placed my hand on his and said his name. He looked up at me. The look he had across his face was so sad, and it looked a little disappointed even. I pecked him on the lips and started to pick up the mess on the table, he helped then grabbed the tray. I took the shake and with out saying a word, walked outside and stood on the sidewalk. He shortly followed. Then suddenly I had a craving for a cigarette, I dug into my purse and I pulled out my lighter and the box of Kool cigarettes.

“What the hell are you doing?” he asked me. “It’s probably not the best thing for you right now.”

“I don’t care, I had a craving. I haven’t smoked in over 3 days, so I don’t see a problem. And besides, my wounds are all most healed.” I replied trying to light it. “Damn it!” I yelled.

“Here.” He said lighting it for me. “I hated doing that but I would have never heard the end of it.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem, but just one question.”

“Yeah?”

“How in the hell did you get those anyway?” he started to whisper. “You’re only 19.”

“My ex new a guy who owned a Kool factory, he got unlimited boxes of these things. Now I just call him up and poof, I got ‘em. Why? Want one?”

“Sure, why not.”

I pulled out another and stuck it in his mouth and lit it with a flirty look.

“But, with the whole cigarette thing, isn’t that illegal?”

“I guess. But I made a little deal with him.”

“And what's that?”

“If he gets caught, I have nothing to do with it. Why you ask? Because I was his primary babysitter from the time I was twelve until up to about a year ago.”

“That is a retarded reason.”

“AND, I saved his life. But hey, its retarded right?”

“What!? You saved his life?! When? How?”

“Let’s just say a mob was sort of after him because he didn’t give them free cigarettes like I get, so then they went after him. I saved him by you know…… shooting one of the guys in to shoulder I believe….. I don’t remember exactly.” I glanced over to him, he was completely horrified. “Niko? What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine… I…I…. I was having a hard time uh……”

“Niko?”

“Huh? Oh, uh… nothing. I was just trying to picture what you where going threw, it must have been bad.”