“Jesus! You scared me.”
“Sorry.” Gabriel takes off his cap, letting his reddish hair escape and allowing me to see his face better. He has that kind of soft face that would make you fall at his feet if he were to make eyes at you. “So, I’m curious. Any reason as to why you gave a milk shake to someone who ordered an ice cream?”
“Oh, you saw that?”
“Everyone saw it. You were like on another planet.” He opens his locker and takes out his things.
“It’s so embarrassing.”
“Relax, it’s happened to me too.” He gives me a meaningful look.
I look at him sadly. “Dani?”
“Yeah.” He stares into his locker, deep in thought. “She and I are from different worlds. I’m just the pretty boy who works at Dream Burgers to her, nothing more.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Relax. I knew it wouldn’t work, but I didn’t expect to care about her so quickly.”
Oh, believe me, I know about that. “I don’t know what to tell you, Gabo.”
“Tell me your story.”
“My story?”
“Why are you so distracted today?”
I close my locker and put on my backpack. “I-I cut a person out of my life a little while ago, he . . .” I remember Ares’s cold words. “He wasn’t what I expected.”
“Disappointment, huh? That hurts.”
“A lot.” I sling my backpack over my shoulder. “I have to go. Good night, Gabe.”
“Good evening, Raquel Milk shake.”
“Really?”
“It will be days before I forget about it.”
I gave him the finger, and he acts surprised. “Bye, silly.”
Walking home has never been as depressing as it is today. The sound of cars passing on the avenue is like white noise, and the orange glow of the street lamps illuminates the route precariously. It seems as if my surroundings have molded to my mood. It’s almost midnight, but I’m not worried because crime is low in this area and my house isn’t that far away.
However, due to laziness, I make a very bad decision.
I take a shortcut.
To get to my neighborhood faster, I decide to cross under a bridge to shorten the path. It’s dark and lonely under there, and I don’t take into account the men who rely on that darkness to get high or sell illegal substances. My feet freeze when I see three men under the bridge. With the darkness serving as camouflage, I don’t see them until I’m almost in front of them.
“Do you want something, pretty girl?” one of them asks. His voice is deep, and he coughs a little.
My heart speeds up, and my hands sweat. “No, I don’t. . . . No.”
“Did you get lost?”
“I … I took the w-wrong way,” I stutter, and one of them laughs.
“If you want to come through here, you have to give us something.”
I shake my head. “No, I’m going the other way.”
I’m about to turn and leave when my phone rings, breaking the silence. Frantically, I take it out of my pocket, silence the call, and put it away again, but it’s too late.
“Oh, that phone looks nice, don’t you think, John?”
“Yeah, that would be a good birthday present for my daughter.”
I try to run, but one of them grabs my arm, dragging me into the darkness under the bridge. I scream as loud as I can, but he covers my mouth and holds me by the hair, keeping me still.
“Shh! Easy, pretty girl. We’re not going to do anything to you, just give us the phone.”
Tears fill my eyes. The man smells of alcohol and other chemicals I don’t recognize.
“The phone. Now,” demands another one of them, but I can’t move. Fear has me paralyzed. I want to move my hand and take out my phone, but I can’t.
The third man emerges from the shadows. He has a cigarette clamped between his teeth and a scar on his face. “It’s in her pocket, hold her.”
No, don’t touch me!
I scream, but the sound is muted by the hands of the man holding me. The one with the scar approaches me and puts his hand in the pocket of my pants, licking his lips. I want to vomit.
Please help me.
He pulls out my phone and examines it. “Nice, and it looks as good as new, it’ll be a good gift for your daughter.” He passes it to the other man, but his disturbing eyes never leave my face. “You’re very pretty.”
“Shall we let her go? We already have the phone,” asks the one holding me.