"It's you and me. Together," he says. "Us against the world."
*****
All my life, I've never trusted men. The image of them planted in my head is the figure of my abusive stepfather who has made my mother and I live in hell.
But then, an encounter w...
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I can't believe my eyes. Am I having a nightmare? How come Tuck is here? This is Texas, and he's supposed to be in New York.
Not here. Right in front of me.
He eyes me from head to toe.
"You changed a lot, huh?" He smirks. "It seems like life is treating you well nowadays."
I still find it hard to breathe. My heart is beating so fast -- I feel like it would pop out of my chest.
"Why-why are you here?" I stammer.
Tuck scoffs. "This is my country too, you foolish girl. I can go wherever I want to."
I swallow. I don't know what business he has here, but I bet that it's nothing good, probably about money again or some transactions that I don't want to figure out. Those things always revolve around him.
As I don't want to spend any second longer with him, I walk away, continuing my steps, hoping that this is all just my hallucination.
How cruel could fate be? Of all the people in this city, how could we bump into each other?
While I speed up my pace, I can feel that he's after me.
To my horror, he grips my arm and whirls me around so that I face him again.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?" he snaps. "Do you think I didn't have anything to say to you?"
All those fear and painful memories come back to me as I watch him lashing out at me again. I even think that I would collapse if he didn't grip my arm, harsh enough to create a bruise on my skin.
Wincing in pain, I struggle to let go from him.
"Do you think you could get away from me just like that?" he hisses, his eyes piercing into mine. "Ugly bitch. You took the money, didn't you?"
But it's something that never belonged to him.
"Where's the money!?" he hollers. "Fuck you. Do you know how I've spent my life all this time? You little bastard. Give me the money!"
He shakes my body with so much force, his grip on my arm tightening even more and making me feel like my skin burns. My head is spinning.
How can I give him back the money? I've used most of it to pay for my college tuition fees, and I'm saving the rest of it for the remaining year to come.
Topping it up with the salary from my internship, I have no doubt that I'll survive until I graduate.
"Hey, old man! What are you doing to my girlfriend?"
A shout echoes in the air, and a small rock hit Tuck on his forehead, making him groan. We snap our head toward the source of the voice, and my eyes widen as I see my little neighbour, Flynn, standing in front of my apartment.
