Page 146 of Pride High 2: Orange
“Get in the goddamn car!” Troy snarled.
“Fine!” Mindy said, but only so he would let her walk around it to the passenger side. As soon as she had, she bolted for the thin line of trees between the parking lot and the main road, planning to flag down a car for help. Assuming he didn’t run over her first.
Traffic was sparse at this time of night. Mindy didn’t see any other cars, so she remained close to the trees, figuring that she could run back to the parking lot if he came at her from the street. Unless he decided to get out of his car and pounce on her. Haunted by that nightmarish vision, she decided to sprint down the sidewalk and bang on the door of the nearest house. If she could make it there. She heard his car coming up behind her and knew she wouldn’t outrun it. Mindy ducked behind a tree. Troy’s car screeched down the street but didn’t slow. He did another one of his dumb ninety-degree skidding turns and kept going, but her fear remained, because he could easily change his mind and circle back around. She was frozen with indecision, not knowing which direction would be the safest, but she had to go somewhere. Staying where Troy could find her again wasn’t a good idea.
Mindy decided to cut through the residential neighborhood in the opposite direction than the one he took. She was crossing the street when headlights appeared, sending crippling fear down her spine. She managed to keep tottering and made it to the other side. When she spun around… It was only a truck. She whimpered in relief before running deeper into the neighborhood.
She forced herself to stop once hidden in the shadow of an unlit house. Mindy listened but couldn’t hear the angry snarl of an engine. She tried to mentally map her location. If she wasn’t mistaken, there was a commercial district to the south where she might find a payphone to call someone. It wouldn’t be her parents, even though she wanted her dad more than ever. They’d never let her go on another date if they found out about this. Which didn’t seem like much of a loss at the moment. Maybe she would call her dad. But first she had to make it to a phone.
She continued to cut across front yards, feeling safer away from the streetlights, even though it meant tromping through snow. Mindy bundled up her coat, which was light blue and had a fur lined hood. Fake fur, since it would have upset Silvia otherwise. If only she was here now! Mindy put the hood up but soon lowered it again, not liking how it limited her field of vision, even a little bit. Fear conjured strange thoughts. She kept worrying that Troy would see her, park at a distance, and sneak up on foot. He had seemed so nice! How could she have been so wrong?
Was it her fault? Silvia had dry humped Omar. Anthony and Cameron had already slept together. Maybe shewasimmature. Or a prude.
Stop being a cocktease!
Mindy tugged on her skirt, wanting it to cover more of her legs. She shouldn’t have worn it. Or kissed him so much without being willing to go further. Was that the unspoken rule? Why didn’t they teach this sort of thing in school?
She was shivering by the time she saw the glowing lights of a gas station and a fast-food restaurant, both of which seemed to be open. She remained fearful of the distant cars, worried that one of them might belong to Troy. Mindy wished she had never kissed him at all. Or even spoken to him at school. Oh god! They would see each other again in Spanish class! Maybe she should drop out. And move away. If she didn’t freeze to death first. Reaching the gas station took much longer than she expected. Mindy’s hands were shaking as she stood next to the payphone outside and checked her pockets for coins, but she had spent all her quarters on video games. She found a few crumpled dollar bills and decided to go inside to ask for change. And to warm up. She was on her way in when a familiar voice made her go rigid.
“Hey, Princess. How’s it going?”
Mindy swallowed and turned. A large dark shadow was standing next to one of the pumps while fueling up. When she realized it was Diego, she made a strangling noise and ran toward him. He straightened up as she approached.
“You all right?” he asked.
Mindy couldn’t find the words. She ran right up to him, figuring he was strong enough to fend off Troy if he found her. She felt so relieved to be around someone she knew that she threw herself into his arms and clung to him. Diego stiffened. He didn’t embrace her. His voice sounded hard when he spoke.
“What happened?”
“I was on… He wanted to… So…” She sobbed, unable to form a coherent sentence.
“Jesus!” Diego hissed. “You feel like an icepack!”
Mindy only trembled in response. Out of fear or because of the cold or maybe both. She felt Diego shift and heard the sound of the gas pump being returned to its cradle. Large hands wrapped around her shoulders. Diego took a step back. He eyed her a moment before letting go.
“Come on,” he said, walking around to the passenger side of his car where he opened the door. “Get in.”
She hesitated, not wanting to end up in the same situation. Diego noticed and rolled his eyes. “Or you can go inside the gas station,” he said. “I don’t care. But you need to warm up.”
She glanced toward the building, saw a number of people milling around inside, and thought of Troy again. “Will you give me a ride home?”
Diego shrugged. “Yeah, okay. I’ll be right back.”
He turned and walked toward the gas station. To pay, presumably. Mindy got into his car, which was still warm despite the engine being off. She locked her door and, feeling foolish, reached over to lock his as well. Maybe she was overreacting, but she liked how safe it made her feel. Although she jumped when she heard knocking. It was only Diego. She unlocked his door, but he didn’t say anything about it when he got inside. He simply started the engine, turned up the heat, and looked over at her.
“Where do you live?”
“Just off of Holmes, on Beach Street. Do you know where that is?”
He nodded and shifted the car into drive. Diego didn’t say anything along the way. Not at first, but she was used to that. Sometimes, when she was doing his makeup, he would sit there for half an hour without speaking a word. But his eyes always said plenty as they watched her. At one time she had thought he might be interested. Until she saw his dynamic with Ricky on New Year’s Eve, and how they wandered off together just before midnight.
“If someone hurt you,” Diego said, breaking the silence at last. “I’ll hurt them back.”
“It’s fine,” Mindy said, shaking her head. “It was my fault anyway.”
He glanced over at her and raised an eyebrow.
“If someone was kissing you,” she said, intentionally keeping the pronouns neutral, “and you were kissing them back, like a bunch, but then you didn’t want to do more, would that make you a cocktease?”
