"I was just checking the glasses" I threw my charming smile at Tyler, and turned to Charlie. "It was good to meet you.He smiled innocently, throwing a kiss at Kendall before leaving. I took the time to check the expressions on each one's faces, before I said anything wrong. Kendall still looked humorous, leaning both hands on the internal counter. Tyler looked at me with suspicion, but slowly replaced his frown with a narrow eye. Dennis had wide eyes, and I wondered if it was because I imagined I had heard something. And then my look found Zachary's.His eyes didn't study me like they did the last two times we saw each other, and I was content to think that he had already seen enough to care about my jeans or my cute sweater. He wore a leather jacket that night, the fabric adorned by small metal spheres on the shoulders, shining against the smooth surface. Above a white T-shirt, a curious ammunition-shaped pendant for rifle attracted my gaze. The golden leather cord reached the cente

I tried to lock my jaw, but the pain that spread through it stopped me. The permanent taste of copper enveloped my teeth after another blow, this time, hitting my nose in full. I felt the snap. I heard my bone breaking at some point, and I couldn't do anything but shake my legs, giving even more freedom for the maniac to get space to get between them.In the middle of a quick thought "above the notion that I was being beaten by fists that looked like bricks," I blamed myself about how ironic it was to be attacked for simply returning home a little later than my standard work schedule. Compared to the days when I came back from a party, wearing an extremely short outfit, no intimate piece that blocked the path of a pervert, or sober enough to react. The shock made me cry and beg, louder than I would for the pain in my face, or the tinkling that a metal object produced against the closure of my pants.I did not allow myself to imagine how my face would stamp the cover of a disappearance

Kendall looked away, assuming his thoughtful expression. I had to count my breath during your time of reflection, just so that I didn't give in to the urge to jump out of that bed and find that damn man. It was outrageous that he was being treated in the same place as me. I begged for my life, because of him. I cried in front of strangers "something I didn't used to do even in the presence of the closest friends" because of him, and I still needed to endure every layer of pain that stamped my skin, another courtesy of him."As far as I know, all the police were ambushing Gary... You know, because he's the "Cap Maniac". " Kendall told me, nibbling her lips with visible discomfort.I knew who that vulgar codename was referring to, of course. Months earlier, the police had alerted all people who lived between the third and fourth avenues, in locations near Astor Place, about a series of homicides. On the news, the most brutal headlines of murder involved that same story. The point was th

All the shock of what had almost happened hit me hard on Friday of that same week. Maybe it was an answer from my subconscious to the questions that the wide-smile and distant-looking psychologist asked me. I didn't mind memorizing your name, since I was determined not to receive any other consultation after hearing your initial words. "You shouldn't feel guilty," she said, "Gary Swan shouldn't touch her even if you were naked. It's not your fault."I didn't have the courage to say that I didn't feel guilty. I felt hate. This reached a level above all that clinical litany, and I knew that if I proclaimed aloud for the millionth time that Gary Swan should be dead, my own sanity would be put to the test.The doctor wrote down in a little block when I lied about feeling nothing but physical discomfort, even so, she tried to convince me that I had no responsibility about having entered the path of a psychopath, saying that justice would be done "both to me, and to so many other victims st

Approximately forty minutes later " considering the amount of cars in traffic" the sea came into focus, skirting the feet of the city like a carpet designed by the gods. Even when we went down on the pier, knowing that much of the trip would still take an absurd time to be calculated, the sovereignty that exhaled from each small wave below us was like a calming effect. Kendall and Tristan were not intimidated to pay attention to what my father and another man were talking about; maritime instructions, I noticed.The speedboat that would take us home was huge, and due to my father's familiarity, I was sure that he would have driven something similar someday, even if he was not the captain on our journey. I led myself to the bow, taking Kendall with me, and we sank into the benches that surrounded the vessel. Tristan and my father went to the cabin, and the man who was helping them returned to the pier, throwing a small nod that only Kendall responded to.I tried to ignore the nervousne