"If that son of a thousand bitches ever sets foot south of the Caribbean Sea again, I'm gonna fucking kill the motherfucker!"

Claudia's glance was enough to cut Miyen's deadly promises off. He looked away, snorting, his arms locked around Silvia. She'd tried to rest her head on his shoulder, and had ended up with crumbling down on his lap, seeking in her friend all the support her bones couldn't offer her.

They were at Plaza Francia, and despite the traffic noise, a soft beep-beep-beep made Miyen and Claudia look down, to find Silvia typing on her phone.

"What the fuck d'you think you're doing?" he snarled.

"Miyen!"

He rolled his eyes while Claudia crouched down before Silvia.

She had calmed down a little. She didn't have trouble breathing and she wasn't shaking out of control anymore. Tears still rolled down her cheeks now and then, but she wasn't full-out crying like a while earlier.

The idea of food-shower-bed tried to make its way through her muddled head. She couldn't care less about it, but her body didn't agree. She still had Jim and that girl before her eyes, coming between her and everything else around. And it hurt. It hurt so bad. It was a rock crushing her chest, an insidious frost numbing her body.

"I gotta go," she mumbled.

Her friends leaned closer to hear her clearly.

"Where d'you gotta go, sweetie?" Claudia asked softly, hoping she wouldn't say the airport, because then nobody would stop Miyen from going with her and fulfilling his threats.

Silvia sat up and pushed her sunglasses up her nose. "Home. Well, your parents' place. And Bariloche tomorrow."

"Good idea. Come, let's get a cab," said Claudia.

"No, no." Silvia managed to move away from Miyen without crumbling down again. "You gotta go to the airport. Bet you wanna say goodbye to Tom. Miyen can come with me, right, Miyen?"

"Of course. I ain't leaving you alone."

Silvia met Claudia's eyes and nodded. She would've liked to smile. "Go."

"I'm calling my mom to let her know you guys are on the way," said Claudia. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

Miyen nodded with a determined scowl. Claudia sighed and hurried away.

She was lucky to get to the airport before the American crew, else she wouldn't have been able to reach them at the exclusive waiting area they took over. But Tom and Jo saw her from the bus, and she joined the group without any trouble. Nobody said a word about what had happened. Claudia saw Jo's questioning look and she shook her head and shrugged. Jo nodded. That was it.

Jim picked the furthest end of the waiting area and stayed there, apart from the rest. Deborah's counter-hangover combo worked slowly, and nobody felt like going anywhere near him and triggering one of his outbursts.

Sean kept an eye on him from the bar. Whether his little brother was in the mood, they were working, and in only five hours, they'd be holding a presser in a country where they had thousands of followers. So Jim would have to find a way to be up to it.

He knew it, and he was doing his best to pull himself together and play his part. He sank in his armchair and folded his arms, earphones on, cap down to his eyes, forbidding himself to think about anything but work until the boarding call.

He saw Claudia with Tom and Jo. The girls looked like they were exchanging contact information. His mind processed what his eyes showed, that was it. He didn't even think of trying to speak to Claudia, asking her about Silvia, giving the girl a message for her. He needed to muster his scarce energy to get off of the plane he hadn't boarded yet.

Closing his eyes was like kicking any attempt of focusing out the window. In a heartbeat, his head was filled with flashbacks from the weekend. Understanding it was useless to fight them, he just let them parade for him. He acknowledged them, agreed with them, waved goodbye at them.

He stood up right away when they heard the boarding call. Sean let him get some steps ahead before following. He saw Jim type on his phone and he could only roll his eyes. That was what all his moody calm was about. He still didn't get it.