Page 39 of All the Ugly Things
He feigned affront. “I like pie, too.”
“Then tell him to buy more pieces. Goodnight.”
I walked down Ingersoll and headed east and felt his eyes on my back until I turned the corner, at least a half-mile away.
I was pretty sure I smiled the whole way home, muscles I hadn’t used in so long trembled from overuse. I might have even whistled a tune.
If Candace could see me now, she’d be so damn proud. I made a mental note to write her a letter when I had the chance. She’d told me not to, to forget about her and the six years I spent inside and only look forward, but if anyone would appreciate the night I’d just had, it was her. She sometimes had desserts mailed to her, but they were hard candies because she liked more sour than sweet but that didn’t mean she didn’t adore her sugar.
Cupcakes and cheesecakes… she’d cackle her loud, crazy laugh so loud the guards would bang on her door telling her to knock it off and then she’d laugh louder.
Movement from the side caught me as I reached the bottom step to our building’s small stairway and thrust me into the metal railing. A blinding, white hot pain radiated down my spine.
“Ow! What the—”
“Shut the fuck up, cunt.” A hand slammed over my mouth. Sweaty and reeking like onions.
I knew that smell. That voice. I gagged behind the hand and tried to swing my arm out but before I could fight back, I was yanked to the grass. With one hand covered, Manny had slid his other arm around my stomach, effectively shoving me behind a tree near the corner of our building.
Think. Think!All of my brother’s self-defense lessons ran through my mind like scattered pieces, too jumbled for me to focus when I was still being shoved, Manny’s feet kicking at my ankles to try to trip me.
His hand was pressed firmly to my mouth where I couldn’t bite him, only inhale the stench of his skin and his body odor that was so much worse than just onions. I gagged again behind his hand as he hissed in my ear.
“Say anything and I’ll fucking end you. You hear me.”
How could this be happening? And so close to home?
I‘d survived prison. There was no way in freaking hell I wouldn’t survive this.
No way in freaking hell.
I fought against him but he moved too quick, getting behind me and shoving my face into the ground. Mulch pressed into my face, cutting me like paper. I flinched from the sting, cried out behind his hand from the pain burning through my knees.
“Get off me,” I grunted behind his hand. I opened my mouth to bite him as I bucked him off my back. He was shifting, straddling me while clawing at my shirt and shoving his other hand beneath me to my stomach.
“No.” Fire raged through me. I would not freeze to this asshole. I would not go down without a fight.
As Manny’s filthy hand shoved higher up my stomach, I could feel him against me. My ass. Hard.
Bile rose in my throat and I gagged, tried to puke. Perhaps that’d loosen his hold enough but my stomach was filled with sugary goodness and nothing came up.
“That’s it,” he crooned into my neck. His chest was pressed to my back and his hand was shoving beneath my bra. “Knew you’d be a sexy fuck. You’ll give this to me, won’t you?”
I shook my head, scraps of mulch scraping my face, embedding into my cheek. I flinched and bucked against him.
Remember. Find your leverage and use it.
My feet slipped on grass every time I moved but I had to do something. It just had to be done right or I’d end up worse.
Instead of fighting against him, I gave in. My mouth went slack behind his hand and my body loosened. I stopped moving against him and even while that taste of bile in my throat was thick as sludge, I moved with him. It’d been too long… years since anyone had tried to touch me, it felt foreign, but I blocked it out.
“There you are. Good girl.”
I trembled from fear, but as I nodded, faking acquiescence, Manny loosened his grip on my mouth. As he slid his hand away, I leaned in closer, feigning a kiss… and then I lunged.
He’d shifted enough, probably in an attempt to tear off my jeans, but it gave me just enough room to bolt forward to my knees, bucking him off. His hand whipped through the air and I grabbed it, biting down as hard as I could.
“Ah. Fucking cunt!” he shouted and I didn’t see his other fist coming in my direction until it slammed into my cheeks.
