Pain ricocheted throughout my entire body as Fernando physically dragged me into the fast food restaurant, and to my surprise, we didn’t head for the front counter. We headed straight for the bathroom. “Ow,” I said as he pushed me through the bathroom door. “Look,” he said, pointing at the mirror. I tried to raise my head to see my own reflection, but I couldn’t. It was as if the muscles in my neck had locked in the down position, forcing my head to look only at the ground. I knew that wasn’t the case…I knew it was all mental. I didn’t want to see what Tony had done to me…again. “I can’t,” I mumbled, fighting to hold in the tears. “LOOK!” Fernando yelled at me, slamming his hand against the wall. Slowly, I raised my head, terrified to see the damage that had been inflicted upon me. “Oh,” I gasped as I saw my own reflection. It was worse than I could have imagined. My face looked like a nightmare from an old fashioned freak show, or the head of a demented, badly bruised apple doll. Both eyes were completely encircled by large, dark rings, instantly reminding me of a raccoon. Where there should have been white in the right eye, it was red, looking as if someone, as a joke, had peeled a tomato, and then replaced my eyeball with it. My jaw was so swollen it appeared as if I had stuffed my cheeks, like I was imitating a squirrel, preparing for winter. My bottom lip resembled a really bad collagen injection I had seen in a celebrity magazine a few weeks back, except that mine had split in several spots, and was an unhealthy shade of burgundy. In fact, dark splotches of blue, and purple, and this strange reddish color, covered my face…the camouflage of abuse. “Who did this to you?” Fernando said, placing his hand on my shoulder. “I can’t tell you,” I replied, the tears streaming down my multicolored cheeks. “He’ll hurt you, too. May even kill you.” “Ain’t nobody gonna hurt me,” he said forcefully. “And he ain’t never gonna hurt you again, either. Now tell me what the fuck is going on.” I stared at the monster in the mirror; almost not believing my life had brought me to this place. Just the week before, I was calm and confident; cocksure and cool. The world may not have been my oyster, but I had all the pearls I would ever need, and I was happy…at least I thought I was happy. So much had happened in the span of a single week, I could barely wrap my mind around it all. “I stole some money,” I finally confessed, defiantly watching the monster in front of me. “From my ex. It was money he owed to his drug supplier…I never thought he would find me.” “How much do you owe him?” Fernando squeezed my shoulder, forgetting, I guess, that I had just taken a serious beat down. “I stole five thousand,” I continued. “But he says now I have to give ten.” I broke down, crying. “I don’t know what to do.” Fernando took me in his arms, hugging me tightly. “We’ll figure it out,” he whispered in my ear. “We’ll figure it out, together.”

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