Damaged (Rúben Dias)

Chapter 21

Dani's POV

"Hello?"

"Hey", Libby runs to the door to greet me. "How was the trip?"

"Amazing. I hadn't even heard of that place before but it was incredible".

"I'm glad you had a good time".

"I got a gift for you".

Libby's smile makes my chest ache. She's been trying so hard to overcompensate for what she did. Seeing I thought about her during my trip means so much to her. Like I knew it would.

"It's just a small thing. Don't get too excited".

I show her the little necklace I got. There is some sort of shell that's everywhere in La Coruña. The people who walk all the way there carry it as well and they have it in all sorts of souvenirs. So I picked a necklace with a small version of the shells. It's nothing special but Libby's eyes light up.

"That's so pretty. I love it. Can you help me put it on?"

She turns and moves her hair to the side so I can place the necklace. The way she looks at it, one would think it's diamonds and not a cheap necklace bought on a holiday.

"I missed having you around. Do you want to come to buy some food with me? I need to go to work after that".

"Sure. Let me get changed".

Libby and I make our way outside and I think I'm finally going mad because I see people staring at us. Why would anyone do that?

"Whores!", screams a girl. She can't be older than 16.

"Ignore it", says Libby, grabbing my arm to make me walk faster.

"We can't let people do that, Libby".

"She'll get bored and move on. It's ok. They all will".

"Has this happened before?"

"While you were away. Someone must have posted our address online or something".

"What the fuck? That's not ok!"

I can see Libby struggling to find the words because what can someone say in this situation? But we just go inside the shop, get the things we need and pay for them so we can leave quickly. I don't want to be outside right now. I just want to go back home. I feel like I need to hide. It's ridiculous.

"Thank you. Have a good day!"

We leave the supermarket and I'm hyper-aware of our surroundings again. That's why I notice the guy coming closer to us and try to alert Libby but he throws our bags to the floor before I have time to do anything.

"What do you think you're doing?", I scream at him, hoping someone would help us.

"Tell your boyfriend to buy this again for you. Which of you is he dating, by the way?"

"Fuck you!"

He just laughs and leaves and I kneel down to help Libby pick up our stuff. She's just doing that, afraid to look up.

And when I think we finally got rid of all of the psychos, I see the girl who first insulted us walking towards us, smoothie in her hand. And then she opens the lid and throws it to my face.

Rúben's POV

"Did you see what happened?"

I look up at Bernardo, who looks really worried. "No. Is everything ok?"

He shakes his head and shows me a video on her phone. A video of Dani and Libby being harassed, which ends when someone throws a smoothie at Dani.

"No one did anything to stop this? No one called the police?"