It had been a few days since the short conversation with Walter in the library that had ended so memorably and I’d seen him and some of his brothers around. If I managed to catch his attention, he would always keep his gaze on me, making me so nervous. At school sometimes I would get the feeling that he wanted to talk to me, but I would move on so quickly he wouldn’t have the chance.

I’d also been getting to know Hayley. She’d invited me to go to the cinema with her and her friends on the Friday after school and I had declined. I didn’t tell her it was because I didn’t want to step out of my comfort zone, I’d given her a measly excuse of feeling a bit under the weather and she had given me space. On the Saturday however, I’d walked into her on my way to the pub for my afternoon shift and we’d talked for a little bit, like friends would, I supposed. She’d suggested that we give each other our numbers and that we should arrange something later. I’d actually meant it when I agreed with her that time. Hayley was very easy to talk to and I could tell she wasn’t being fake towards me at all.

***

It was Sunday and I had the whole day off. I woke up late, feeling refreshed when I opened my eyes to a brightly lit room. The sunlight was shining through my closed curtains and when I opened them, it almost blinded me. I smiled to myself despite the pain, sunny weather made me happy, it took away the bad thoughts and memories.

After a shower and some breakfast, I wrote a quick shopping list, put on my coat and was off to do some food shopping. The supermarket was central, neutral territory, so it was no surprise that I saw a few of the Santiagos around on my way back. Four of them had gathered by the railings of the playground and I had to walk past without catching anyone’s eye.

I dropped my gaze and fixed it onto the pavement as I got closer, keeping my shopping bags close to my sides. I wished that the plastic wouldn’t make so much of a rustling sound, but it still had them turning to face me. The oldest Santiago everyone knew as Carlos, was in his early twenties and the others in the gang were a mixture of his brothers and his cousins.

“Hey, you okay?” one, I remotely recognised as Diego, took hold of my arm as I tried to pass.

“Get off,” I grunted, giving my arm a pull.

“Calm down, little lady,” he didn’t let go.

“Diego, leave her,” Carlos, his older brother, called after him with an uninterested expression.

“But she’s cute,” he played with my ponytail, ignoring Carlos and then lowering his voice to my ear. “You’re looking quite tanned for this time of the year, girl.”

“Stop it,” I looked up at him with a frown, my heart hammering.

Diego was a lot bronzer than I was, him being Venezuelan, and to be honest I didn’t think my skin tone was a single bit tanned for the month of October.

The other two Santiagos, Carlos and Diego’s cousins, watched apathetically and didn’t try to stop Diego bothering me. He continued to follow me even when I’d passed the playground and I started to grow even more uneasy, wondering if he would stop or not.

“You wanna have some fun sometime?” he purred into my ear.

“Leave me alone,” I pushed at him as hard as I could, my bags of shopping bashing about.

“But I don’t want to,” he tried to kiss my neck, barely budging.

He gripped the both of my hands and forced me to drop my shopping, causing food to spill across the pavement.

“Don’t be scared,” he murmured, holding my arms in a very tight grasp, pulling me roughly against the bricks of a wall that was covered in both the Simpsons and the Santiagos graffiti.

Memories I didn’t want back, started to arise and I swallowed, trying to squash down the fear but without much avail. I clenched my eyes shut but I couldn’t block out the dark images of a man, a man who was pushing his hands down my top. I was young, too young to even have breasts. His smell was overpowering, something I couldn’t quite describe, but something I couldn’t ever forget. It would linger on my body every time he’d finished with me...

“Stop!” I screamed, finding my voice. “Stop it!”

Diego jumped; startled by my volume, but if anything, it urged him on. He was unzipping my coat and kissing my neck, pushing harder against the wall. His nails scratched painfully at my skin as he ran his hands along my neck and down to my shoulders. I was crying and fighting back but it didn’t stop him, nothing I wasn’t used to.

All of a sudden I felt a whoosh of air and then Diego’s touches were gone. I opened my eyes and saw Walter pulling Diego off me and shoving him away.