Jenna browses the candy aisle at 9 pm at Walgreens on W 7th Street, not really looking for anything in particular, but just wasting some time. There’s another hour before Jamie’s party starts and she’s only a 20 minute walk to his apartment. She doesn’t even have any money with her to buy anything because she’s forgotten her wallet, but she has her cell phone. A coworker dropped her off here on her way home from work, and she’s a 30 minute drive from home.
Her mother, Janice, thinks she will be staying the night at her friend Lindsay’s house. Little does she know, Jenna hasn’t spoken to Lindsay in over a year. Jenna just uses Lindsay as an excuse to do things she knows her mother wouldn’t approve of, such as meeting a guy online named Jamie, or going to parties.
She has known Jamie for 4 months. At first, she was very put off by how quickly he wanted to meet up, but she expressed this to him and he was receptive. They had a video call over Facebook Messenger before meeting in person, and he was, as he’d claimed, a college sophomore who played as a tight end on his college’s football team. He had even shown her all around his place, where there were countless photos of him playing on the field.
This makes Jenna feel inadequate at times, seeing how everyone else her age is in college full time, either in their own apartments, or living on campus. She wants a taste of the night life, to live like other people in their early twenties. But her father died of a heroin overdose before she was born, and her mother had been just 22 herself at the time. This made her overprotective of Jenna. Also, with no husband or father around, they always struggled, so Jenna was working to help pay the bills, and full-time college life would make that hard to balance. Plus, college is expensive. Jenna always says she will figure something out. You’ve got to have a positive outlook to make it through difficult times.
Jenna exits the Walgreens and steps out onto the sidewalk. She can smell the chicken from the restaurant on the corner, but their lights are off. It’s dark outside and one of the street lamps is flickering. It gives the entire street an eerie aura, Jenna thinks to herself.
She figures she may as well head to Jamie’s house. So what if she’s a bit early? Maybe she can help with something, like making a big bowl of jungle juice. She begins her trek.
As she’s walking, she hears a group of men coming from down S Olive Street. She isn’t sure how many there are, and considering all of the horror stories on the news these days, she doesn’t want to find out. She heads in the opposite direction, knowing it’s not the right way to go, but it’s a good thing she will be early either way. She decides to just circle the next block.
It’s kind of strange how desolate the Los Angeles streets are for a Saturday night. Cars are driving by, but it isn’t like it is during the daytime. Cars are always bumper to bumper. Jamie imagines a dust-ball rolling down the street and smiles at herself. She has her hands in the pockets of her bluejeans, and she’s doing her best to avoid stepping on any cracks. No matter how old she gets, she will always avoid stepping on cracks.
Jenna is distracted by her thoughts when she feels pressure on her arms and chest. To her horror, when she looks, she sees a muscular arm around her torso. Before she can react, he holds his hand and a wet white cloth over her mouth. She smells a sweet aroma, and isn’t sure how to react as she’s pulled backwards.The man pulls her into his car, still holding the rag over her face. She begins struggling, trying to reach his face behind her. He’s got a baseball cap on, and she pulls it off, quickly throwing it aside so she can try to reach his face again. She learned somewhere that one of the best forms of defense is simply sticking your fingers into their eyes with as much force as possible. He’s strong, and apparently nimble too, because he dodges everything. All of her worst nightmares fill her mind. Is she going to be raped? Murdered? Sold on the black market? These are the thoughts Jenna has as she fades into darkness.
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