Sunsets and Car Crashes

Francesca

The morning after an incident always felt very unreal. I woke up, badly bruised, cut and naked. There were faint streaks of blood on the white and black floor – my blood. I stared at it, wondering how it’d got there and then memories – terrible, white-hot, burning memories – flooded through my mind.

It almost knocked me senseless, the sudden onslaught of my own disaster: the way Roberto had made me touch him; the way he’d touched me, though I’d begged him to stop; the way he had invaded me, and punched me, and cut me with that trademark knife of his every time that I had pleaded for my ordeal to end...and then, after he’d had his fun, the way he’d left a five dollar bill on the kitchen worktop.

“Best thing about you, Fran,” he’d said, “is that even that is too much money to pay for you.” And then he’d left, laughing and left me to wallow in my own self-loathing.

I was crying again, furious, bitter tears that scorched my face. I stood up, though my knees were threatening to buckle beneath me. With shaking hands, I collected up my clothes – all torn and seemingly saturated with my blood – and dragged myself upstairs for a shower.

I’ve never really understand why showers help me to feel better after one of my ordeals. I guess it’s more a spiritual thing. The water seemed to wash away Roberto’s scent from my skin and my hair, just like all the others who had left their marks before him – though, technically, I’d never been raped before. The bruises...well, they would be harder to hide when I saw...

Oh god. I was meant to be seeing Will. The realisation of that was the final straw for my body. I jumped out of the shower quickly, and threw up everything I’d eaten over the past week. When I’d finished an eternity later, I rested my head on the side of the toilet bowl and began to cry again. My tears were no longer out of self-pity or anger now, though...they were for the fact that if I followed through with my promise to Will – of seeing him today – then it was almost certain that he would be killed. If I didn’t...I’d be letting down my first friend in almost five years.

What could I do? I can almost hear you screaming at me now to choose the obvious option – to let Will live and just disappear out of his life. But I knew Ermanno. I knew that he wouldn’t rest until he was sure that Will was out of the picture. Ermanno was a master of reading people. If I kept myself away from Will, I knew that I would be unhappy – more than that, in fact. Ermanno would see and would use him against me and then kill him anyway.

I needed a plan. I needed to get to Will and at least warn him of what could happen. I would have to cover my bruises – the less he knew, the better – and I’d need some kind of disguise so that if anyone was watching, they wouldn’t know it was me.

I reached up and flushed the toilet, suddenly realising how I would make this work. Now...where had I put that bag....?

***

The bus was crowded. Perfect – just the cover I needed. The back row of the top deck was empty, however, which suited me just fine. I hobbled towards them, praying that I didn’t fall over in my heels. I was wearing work clothes. Why? Because I knew that no-one was in the office today, and I knew there was no CCTV footage in the building. Ermanno wouldn’t have it installed in case the police ever got involved – it would only prove that he was a cold-hearted, ruthless villain. All I would have to say tomorrow would be that I wanted to get some work done because my computer was broken. I’d just have to get in a little earlier tomorrow to make it seem like that was true.

I had a small, thin, material bag with me, which held my sunglasses, skinny jeans, tee, hoodie, beanie and a pair of battered trainers. I didn’t want to wear my converse – they were covered in blood, and I knew that Will would ask questions if he saw them.

I quickly got myself changed and shoved the hat on my head. I stuffed the work clothes and shoes into the bag and kicked them under the seat. All I needed was to put my sunglasses on when I got off the bus and I was a totally different person. I giggled to myself. It was like being a teenager all over again, and sneaking out to a party. Fun, with a hint of danger. I loved it.

William

It was approaching half one and there was still no sign of Francesca. Jake and Angel were playing on Halo quite happily, while Nick and Jess were laughing at them. I was stood at my window, watching out for her. She wouldn’t let me down – she was different. I just knew it.

Nick seemed to notice my increasing agitation. He hauled himself up from the sofa and stood next to me, looking out at the street.

“She’ll get here, Will. Don’ worry about it.” He smiled at me. “She probably missed the bus or it’s late or summat like that.”

I nodded, but wasn’t convinced. How could I be when, at the back of my mind, there was a nagging sense of danger – she wasn’t safe. I tried my best to ignore it. After all, how could I explain it to Nick? Oh yeah, by the way, she’s actually part of the mafia, dude. Sorry I didn’t tell you, didn’t really think it was important. Right.

Nick went back to his seat after a minute or so. I stayed, keeping watch. If she didn’t turn up in five minutes, I was going to panic and call her. Every time I saw even a flash of movement along the street, I believed for a half-second that it was her. But I had no such luck.

The minutes slipped by, seconds feeling more like hours. Finally, just as I was about to call her, I saw her turn the corner and head towards the house. I broke into a grin and turned to the others.

“She’s here!” I told them. “Look!”

The other four ran to the window, eager to see who my new friend was. It sounds childish, I know, but since they’d arrived, the only thing I’d been able to talk about was her, how she made me feel, what we’d done the day before – leaving out, of course, the details of most of our conversation.

Whilst they talked amongst themselves about her, I bounded to the door and opened it. We grinned at each other. She ran over and threw herself into my arms. I hugged her tightly, which made her yelp in pain. I dropped her quickly.

“Sorry,” I said quietly. “I didn’t mean to hurt you...”

She laughed off my concern. “Don’t worry about it. I’m just in the wars today.” She smiled at me, but, as she took off her sunglasses, I saw that she was faking it. Something had happened.

“Fran...? What’s wrong?” I put a hand on her face, worried for her. Her smile faded. She put her hand on top of mine and tugged it away slightly.

“I can’t explain right now, Will...please don’t try and force it out of me...” She pleaded with me using her big, silvery eyes. I sighed and nodded, making a mental note to ask her later. She smiled at me gratefully.

As I led her into the front room, the other four had returned to their original activities of canoodling and Halo. Nick and Jess glanced up and smiled at Francesca.

“Guys,” I announced, “this is Fran. Fran – meet the gang.”

There was an awkward silence for a minute or two. Francesca stood in the doorway, just behind me, staring at the other four with wide, terrified eyes. They stared back. After what felt like hours – only forty-five seconds in reality – Jess stood up and shook Fran’s hand.

“It’ll be nice to not be the only girl around here for once. Jake’s girl is away on holiday...”

Francesca suddenly broke into a jubilant smile. “You...you’re from England! Oh my god, so am I!”

Hearing Francesca’s accent made Jess giggle. I sighed in relief. There was the ice-breaker. Plain sailing from there.