"Are you alright?" Mr. Robert asked, drawing Poppy's attention.
She turned to look at him, hands popped into the pocket of her jacket. "Yeah, I am. Why?"
The old man peeked out of his store. "You didn't look so good talking to that man. Are you sure everything is fine? Was he harassing you? If he was, you can tell me, and we can—"
"No, no, he wasn't." Poppy shook her head at him. "It's someone I know. We just didn't agree on something."
She walked off to one of the shelves, looking over for something to pick up, but then something caught her attention. On the aisle next to the one she was at, a man was there, in a suit and shades, back turned to her. But that wasn't the problem that caught her attention. It was how weird this man was acting.
Glancing behind him every now and then, as if keeping tabs on her. He wasn't actually taking anything off the shelf, just pretending to.
Poppy was seconds away from approaching him, but then she stopped, her face darkening in a scowl. She had a guess, and she was very sure this man worked for the mafia.
They were tailing her, keeping tabs on her.
Balling her hands into fists, she turned and walked over to the register where Mr. Robert stood.
"I'll be back later."
"Where are you off to? Chinese food?" the old man asked.
Her lips angled into a smile. "Yum." And she turned, leaving the store, making her way down the streets. She did stop at a Chinese restaurant, making the order she wanted and leaving with a bag of them.
She was ready to flag down a cab but stopped instead, turning around to glance behind her. That man was following her. He did follow after her even into the restaurant.
Poppy breathed out and decided to keep walking down the street. She made a beeline for an empty alley where people barely walked and very carefully kept her meal aside.
The man was behind her, but a short distance away, and she'd picked up a stone close to her feet, turning so quickly, the man had no time to understand what was going on, not until the stone hit him right in the very center of his forehead.
He grunted painfully under his breath, palming his forehead with a confused expression on his face.
What the fuck?
He looked up at Poppy, but she was already so close to him, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and kicking his knee.
He fell on one knee, lifting his head to look at her.
"Wait—"
"Why are you following me?" Poppy questioned. "The mafia, they sent you, didn't they?"
The man shook his head.
"Mafia? What mafia? I-I'm just a passing civilian, I wasn't following you—"
Her feet connected with his stomach, causing him to keel over, rough coughs fleeing from him.
"Do you think I'm stupid?" Poppy asked. "I know you're with them, and I know they sent you to keep tabs on me. This isn't the first time they've done it."
The man looked up at her, blinking rapidly as if he didn't know how to go about the entire situation.
"What is your name?"
He didn't answer.
"I asked, 'What is your name?" She glared at him.
"Jordan. Jo-jordan. That's my name."
"Now Jordan, we're going to come to an agreement here. Do you think you can fight me off if I decide to beat you up? You know my parents were the heads of the mafia, right?" she asked.
Jordan frantically nodded, swallowing. "Y-yes, I know. I know."
"Good. So would you like to come to an agreement with me, or would you rather I beat you up?"
He quickly shook his head.
"Agreement, boss!"
"I'm not your boss, don't ever call me that again." Poppy scowled and gripped tighter on his collar. "You're going to go back and find out if there are more of you keeping tabs on me. You're not going to tell them anything about me, do you understand?"
Jordan wouldn't nod.
"Do you want me to call the cops and tell them how you were stalking me? I don't think you want to go to the police, you already look shady enough in this outfit."
"No…" He shook his head.
"Good. Answer my question."
"I'll do it. I'll do it."
"Good, good, that sounds better." Then she squatted closer to his level. "And in case you get caught trying to snoop, tell them I said, no one, and I mean no one, will ever have control over my life. My parents did once, but they are gone, and I'm free to rewrite my life. Do you know how hard it was for me to build up from scratch? Get my license, the one thing that is mine, and finally taste a normal life?"
Jordan shook his head at her.
"Of course you don't. None of you do." Her expression fell. "Tell them to leave me alone, all of you, because I will never step back there, into that life again. I'm not a selfish monster who only cares about their desires and not those they hurt in the process. Leave me out of it, this life is mine, and no one will take it from me!"
Poppy shoved him off and stood to her feet, walking back to the bag of Chinese food and picking it up. Her chest rose in deep breathing, and she glanced at Jordan over her shoulder.
"I will never come back there. Ever." And she left.
Jordan stared at her leave and quickly lowered his gaze to the phone in his pocket that was ringing. He took it out answering.
"Sir?"
"Where is Poppy?"
He glanced at her fading figure. "I…I haven't seen her today, sir."
"Jordan."
"S-sir?" he swallowed.
"You don't want to be an idiot now, do you?"
"N-no. Not at all, sir."
"Good." There was a dry chuckle. "Your report on Poppy, I want it. Now."