The biggest part of me felt that he saw me as an ant and wanted to crush me. But if that were the case, why did he keep showing up wherever I happened to be?

Whatever he wanted to do with me, why couldn’t he just get it over with?

I clamored up the wooden stairs and onto the boardwalk—no ‘taco hut’ in sight. I took another swig from my drink and started stumbling down the boardwalk, hungry for tacos. As the sun sank lower, everything seemed to be either closed or in the process. I continued to amble on, sipping my wine cooler and trying to keep my increasingly drunken thoughts off of Riley.

I came upon an alley, a light at the end of it. Was that the elusive taco hut? It was almost entirely dark now, and I was starting to lose hope that I would ever find a taco, let alone my way back to the beach! I was so stumbly and—

“What up, girl, you lost?”

I turned around. There stood three men, blocking my way back to the boardwalk. One of them looked like Jamal, but darker. Another looked Hispanic, and the third had blonde hair and was smoking something that was definitely not a cigarette. All three wore polo shirts. Had they been down at the bonfire?

No… those guys were all shirtless.

Speaking of which, I looked down. Oh god. I’d forgotten I’d taken off my baggy t-shirt. Here I was in an alley by the boardwalk wearing nothing but my bikini. I moved to hide my shame.

“No, girl,” said the Hispanic guy. “You look good. Real good. Good enough to eat.”

“Um, I was just looking for the taco stand.”

“It’s closed, girl,” said the blonde guy. He took a drag from his marijuana, and then tossed the half-smoked joint onto the ground.

“Yeah,” said the black guy. “Everyone’s headed home except for the guys partying on the beach… and you’re a long way from them.”

A sense of dread began to well up in the pit of my stomach. I gulped. “Well then…”

“Don’t worry about a thing, girl,” said the blonde guy. Even in my drunken state I couldn’t mistake the intent in his eyes. In all of their eyes. Want. Hunger. Dominance.

Lust.

They came closer to me, slowing as they moved, like a pack of lions about to pounce upon their prey, their predatory looks unmistakable. “We’ll take good care of you.”

I ran, not waiting for them to come another inch. The second I split, I stumbled, but I tried to shake off the effects of the wine coolers. I could hear them come after me and I cried out. My flip flops were slowing me down, and I had no idea where I was, dashing from alley to alley, the tenement buildings climbing higher and higher.

Not another human in sight.