Be My Friend.

The girl became more relaxed and the tension between her and Rick completely disappeared. The boy thought that it was the right situation to find out the rest of the details.

"What are you doing here at such a time? I doubt that your parents are happy with such evening walks?" he asked. It was obvious that a little girl who was well dressed could not walk on her own at such a time of day in an inauspicious part of the city.

"I will tell you, but just promise that you will not laugh," Corey looked at the boy with all seriousness.

"I promise. If I laugh, you can hit me three times, but not very hard," he smiled, and his answer completely satisfied the girl.

"Hmmm, okay," Corey took a breath and answered as she exhaled, "I wanted to meet the prince."

"Um, what?" Rick asked her, his face frozen in surprise since he did not assume that he would hear such a thing.

"I am telling you, I wanted to meet the prince! I asked my mother to go to the palace to get acquainted with the prince, but she said that he was busy with the queen and that we are flying home tomorrow, so we won't go anywhere, and then she went to the bathroom, and I saw on TV that the queen flew away from England on business, which means that the prince was left to wait for his grandmother at home and could be bored, so I decided that I needed to visit him and invite him to visit our place, and while my mother was in the bathroom, I got dressed and left the room, the mister at the reception didn't notice me and I left the hotel, I decided to take the subway so that it would be faster, and walked next to a stranger lady so that the police would not see me, and when we were at the station, I confused the stops and went the other way, and when I got out, I went to look for the palace ... and got lost."

Rick was listening to Corey's continuous monologue and all he wanted to do was roll his eyes. God, did this little girl seriously think that she could get to the palace to meet the prince? Hah, he assumed that she was lost, but for this reason... Apparently, his reality was much harsher, and it would not have occurred to him to float in rosy dreams in the hope of meeting the prince. Girls are such girls.

"If you were able to go this way alone, then why didn't you come back or go to the policeman?" Judging by Corey's words, she was one of those children who liked to get into trouble, which means she had to know how to get out of it.

"When I went back, there were three dogs, they ran after me, I got scared and ran away from them, and then it started to rain, I hid here, but now I don't know where to go," the girl sighed and lowered her head to her knees.

The fact that there were many stray dogs in the area was true. And some of them were very aggressive, so the girl was lucky that she was not bitten. Rick looked at the girl with sympathy and stroked her head,

"All righty, enough said. Ehh, okay, so be it, I'll take you back. Do you remember the name of the hotel, where you and your mom are staying?"

Corey shook her head, "No, I didn't look. I remember that it has a light wall and long windows. Ahh, from the window I saw a large park."

"And that's it?! There are so many hotels in London, how do you think we will find the one we need?" The situation was not in their favor, it was noticeably colder on the street, and Rick was worried that the girl could become seriously ill if she spends more time on cold streets. For some reason, at that moment, he did not think at all about the fact that he was also lightly dressed.

"Maybe you will remember something else? Maybe you heard how your mother mentioned the hotel's name out loud?"

Corey thought for a moment, "Oh! Mom said on the phone that she liked this hotel no less than their jewelry, which from now on is her favorite company!"

Rick scratched his head, "Hmmm, jewelry, long windows, a park," he closed his eyes and began to mentally sort through all the hotels in London he knew, until one of the images sparkled in his head, "Maybe Bulgari?"

"Yes Yes! Right! Bulgari!" Corey's eyes shone with happiness, the boy breathed a sigh of relief, now at least he knew the name of the hotel.

"So you stayed at the Bulgari hotel? Wow, and you are the daughter of rich parents, right? Not everyone can afford such a hotel. Who knows, maybe your parents have already offered a reward for finding you, what do you think?" The boy leaned closer to Corey and narrowed his eyes, his face expression was unclear.

The girl tensed, she did not like the unexpected change in his mood. Rick noticed her restraint, raised his hand and pinched Corey by the nose, "Sil-ly, how could you go so far alone? If you were so easily scared of me, what would happen to you if you were caught by bad men? Haven't you been taught that you must not run away from home and roam alone in an unknown city?"

Corey pouted her lips, of course, she knew that her venture was very risky, "Jason said that I could not meet the prince, and I wanted to prove the opposite to him."

"Jason? Your brother?" Rick asked.

"Nah, he is the son of the friend of my best friend's father," Corey waved her hand as if it was some insignificant person, then turned to Rick and continued with admiration in her eyes, "Imagine, he's already eleven years old, and my best friend Elena is smarter than him a hundred times! She is so cool! The best in the world! I wanted to take her with me to England, but her dad was against it, so she stayed waiting for me in America."

"I see! I'm very happy for you. It's great that you have such a girlfriend," Rick smiled, although he was not used to talking with children, for some reason, this girl's perky talk gave him joy.

"Yes, she can even remember everything at the first try! If you come to visit me in America, I will definitely introduce you to her. You can take one of your friends if you want. Elena is very kind, so you will immediately make friends!" Corey liked this idea so much that she even forgot that she was lost.

This little girl had such a wild fantasy that she already began to imagine what she would do with Elena and Riri when he arrives to visit them.

The boy looked at her, in his eyes, Corey was such a naive child, completely unaware of the cruelty of the real world, that coming to visit America is not the same as crossing the road, that this requires money, a lot of money. Rick had neither money nor friends because all his free time he was either working or sitting in the library, reading books that he could not afford to buy.

"To be honest, I have no friends, and I don't know your address either," he replied in such a tone that Corey's proposal did not arouse his enthusiasm.

"Then I will be your friend! I also have a piggy bank at home, I can buy you a plane ticket! I already have more than twenty dollars there!"

"Uh, no, young lady. It won't work, I'll somehow manage the ticket myself," the boy answered right away. He understood that twenty dollars would not be enough even to get to the airport, not to buy a plane ticket itself, moreover, he was not so helpless that a child, a little girl, would pay for it. "In general, we better hurry up and take you to the hotel until the problems find us ourselves."

"What problems?" Corey asked innocently.

"But you better not know about this," Rick grinned, took the girl by the hand and led her between the houses, bypassing the illuminated streets.

As a child, left to himself from the age of ten, he was well aware of the rules that operated on the street. The districts of the city were divided between street gangs and each territory had its own rules. Many areas were friends with each other, but there were those who were considered irreconcilable enemies.

By an unfortunate coincidence, the area where Corey's hotel was located was in serious conflict with the region where Rick lived and worked, but what was even more unpleasant was that Rick was in personal conflict with the younger brother of the gang leader who controlled that territory.

And to step on their field was tantamount to entering the camp of the enemy. All he wanted was to bring the girl to the hotel faster and return home just as quietly. He tried to avoid the main streets so as not to get caught by someone from the gang because in this case, he would definitely have a hard time.

Corey was walking, eagerly telling about her life in America, what she likes to do and what to play. She repeatedly said that when Riri comes to visit her, she will take him to all amusement parks and ask her nanny to prepare the most delicious cake for him. Or she herself will do it, although all she has learned so far is to cook simple cookies.

Rick only smiled silently and sometimes nodded in response. Everything that the girl talked about was from the category of science fiction for him, but deep down he would be glad to live such a fun and carefree life for at least a couple of moments. He felt that if he was next to this girl, even that would be possible.

Several body shapes flickered in the dark, Rick froze on the spot and squeezed Cory's palm, 'Damn it's not good,' he became so carried away by the conversation with her that he lost his vigilance for several minutes and, it seems, some people took advantage of this moment.

"Riri?" Corey looked perplexedly at the boy as he pulled her hand behind his back and covered the girl with his body. A second later, she heard a malicious snicker and only then saw several people in the dark, who were approaching them with unhurried steps.

. . .