“I have to get back home,” I said to my best friend, Liam. I had stayed at his house for a little when my parents broke out into a fight.
“Be careful, Sophie,” he said, giving me a hug before I climbed down the balcony, jumping down, balancing on the trellis over the patio then proceeding to climb down the fence. Liam waved as I walked towards the alley, heading towards my house.
I held my one-shoulder bag in a tight grip. I may have been down this way many times but that doesn’t change the fact that I didn’t trust the shadows. Quietly making my way closer to my relatively safe house, I kept close to the side wall.
My breath hitched in my throat when a hand came from behind and covered my mouth, the other hand wrapping around my waist and pinning my arms, locking my body against the stranger’s.
“Hey, babe,” he said, his alcoholic-stinking breath fanning my face. “You know, we’ve seen you out here before, Bruno and I.”
I flinched. Another shadow came before me, stinking equally of beer or something, duct tape in his hand. He pulled my tee up slightly, getting it out from under the other man’s arms.
“We wouldn’t want to keep that pretty shirt of yours taped down and covering that pretty chest of yours, now would we?” the man named Bruno said, starting to pull off the silver duct tape and wrapping it around my stomach and keeping my arms pinned.
He slowly peeled away the other man’s fingers. My mouth was uncovered and I opened it to scream when a disgusting pair of lips crashed onto mine. The toxins in just the smell of his breath seeped down my throat, making me want to gag. I tried to wriggle away from the hands starting to browse my chest and running up my thigh to the front of my jeans, feeling another pair of gross lips attacking my neck and jaw. My lips escaped Bruno’s long enough for me to scream.
“Hey!”a boy, looking around my age, yelled from the end of the alley closest to us.
“This is none of your business, boy,” Bruno said, then turning back to me, “Now where were we?”
“I’m not a boy,” the apparently-not-a-boy said. He walked under a gleam of moonlight as he came towards us, and I saw he was fit and looked like he would do well in a bar fight, his curly, brown hair framing his hard face.
“Hold onto her, Matt” Bruno said, and Matt’s hand slid up from my stomach, feeling up my chest before covering my mouth again, running kisses up my neck. I’d had enough with these dickheads. I bit Matt’s hand.
“Damn it!” he yelled, “The little bitch bit me!”
“That’s what you get fucktard,” I said before I kicked my foot up behind me, nailing him in his manhood. Curses flew out of his mouth. A kick that hard, I’m not sure he would still be able to have kids, but what do I care? Did look he would be putting to good use.
I looked to see Bruno lying face down on the pavement, the curly haired guy standing over him.
“I didn’t need your help,” I said bitterly, walking towards him.
“Seriously?” he asked, sounding annoyed and confused, “That’s not what it looked or sounded like! Especially when you screamed bloody murder!”
I would’ve taken care of myself,” I said, flicking my chin up and starting to walk by him.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” starting to get loud, “You could have died!”
“You know I don’t appreciate being yelled at,” I said, as he started following me. He groaned loudly, annoyed. “And I wouldn’t have died.”
“Fine, but you could’ve ended up in a police station, filing a report about being raped by those two buffoons,” he argued, quieting down. I paused, not answering. “See! You know it, too!”
“I would’ve been fine,” I said, calmly. He sighed loudly, stopping for a moment, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Can I at least walk you home?” he asked, catching up then grabbing my arm, forcing me to look at him.
“I don’t even know your name,” I said, and he rolled his eyes, “You could be a stalker. That was some perfect timing back there.”
“I’m Harry,” he said, “and I’m not a stalker, the timing was really good luck on your part.”
