Shut Up And Kiss Me (gxg)

14. Well, F*ck

       MY HEARTBEAT ROARED IN my ears. 

       I didn't think I'd ever been so terrified in my life. It was different when it happened to other people—it was different when it was on the news.

      But now, on the threshold of an alley, with four men gathering around me, it was real.

      It was real, and I didn't have time to scream.

      The first homeless man—the one who had rung the bell—bared a smile. His front teeth were missing, and in the dim streetlights, I could see a glint of gold.

      The other three were dressed in ragged clothing. I could barely see their faces through the streaks of dirt—filth. But the whites of their eyes shone bright, stark against brown skin.

     Fuck. I knew how this ended. Of course I did. 

     I was frozen in place. I'd never been a fast runner. Backing up into the alley—that would be stupid. But even if I had wanted to, I couldn't.

     The homeless man with the gold teeth pulled me in towards him and pressed a hand against my mouth.

     I opened my mouth to scream, to cry out, but I tasted copper and dirt and sewage. 

     Panic rose up inside of me like a tidal wave.

     "Hey there, fellas," said a voice from the street.

     Aaron. He'd said five minutes. Five minutes, and he'd come looking for me.

     I would have laughed at the word fellas at any other time, but—not when I was cornered in an alley, with a large, dirt-caked hand pressed to my mouth.

     "Mind your business," snarled one of the men. 

     "There better be no trouble here," Aaron said darkly. "That's my girlfriend right there. You don't want to make a scene, do you?"

     And he held up his phone. In the dark light of the alley, I could just make out what he had typed onto the keypad. 9-1-1. 

      "If you don't get away from her in twenty seconds, I'm calling the police."

      "What'll the police do by the time they get here?" snickered the man holding me. "Carry a dead body or two?"

       The threat in his words almost made me buckle to my knees. But he was the only one, and when the other three men slowly retreated back towards the sidewalk, he released me with a sneer.

       I could still taste his hand against my mouth. I could still feel the press of his thick fingers on my lips.

       "Not worth it,"  said one of the others.

       They must have decided to just drop it. Maybe in the light of the city behind him, Aaron's six-foot frame and broad shoulders had been too much of a challenge. 

       I wondered if Aaron really could have taken them on. I knew he was athletic—he was the captain of the football team. But would he outmatch four men with nothing to lose?

       I was glad I wouldn't find out, though. As soon as they were gone, I pitched myself into Aaron's arms.

       I didn't cry. I wasn't sure I had it in me. But the shaking intensified until he had to hold my shoulders. Keep me still.

      "I didn't think," I said, over and over. "I didn't think."

      Things like that didn't happen to girls like me. I'd been catcalled before with Skylar. I'd even been groped once in a club, by some guy who Aaron later punched. But being cornered in an alley by strange men . . . I'd never really thought of that as a possibility.