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Not quite steady, he reached for one of the Corona bottles on the table and disappeared out onto the back porch of our house.

I took the opportunity to make myself comfortable on the couch, which turned out to be a mistake, because the pleasant tiredness that often caught up with me after training days literally overwhelmed me until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.

Images of the handsome Copeland boy flashed through my mind. The two of us in our school uniforms, sitting at the edge of the swimming pool without paying any attention to the water around us, and him looking at me the way he always did in the schoolyard as soon as I smiled at him.

Suddenly, he reached out his hand and placed it on the side of my thigh.

I flinched.

“What are you doing?” I whispered, overwhelmed, watching as his hand continued to wander along the outside of my thigh, all the way to my butt.

“God, Mads... If I had known earlier how good this feels...”

Collateral

Gustavo Santaolalla

Tony's hoarse voice made me blink in confusion, and all the images of Nash left my head. All that remained was his hand on my butt, pressing into my flesh, kneading it...

At first, I saw the TV, the image now nothing but black-and-white static, then, as I turned on my back, I discovered Tony sitting next to me on the edge of the sofa, his hand... under my black skirt.

“Tony, what...” I blurted out, and the tired smile on his lips intensified, but I was too shocked to mirror his expression as I usually would, too confused that his hand was sliding further and further under my panties and suddenly clawing into my butt. “Stop...”

I wanted to move away, but Tony pulled me back by my leg with his free hand.

What was happening here?

Before I could say anything, he stood up, pulled the blanket off my body, and looked down at my legs with a look I had never seen on his face before.

Goosebumps broke out on my bare skin.

“You're scaring me...” I managed to get the shaky words out, but he was already leaning over me, placing both hands on my arms to steady himself, as if he would otherwise lose his balance.

My whole body stiffened under his weight.

Was I dreaming? Tony would never touch me like this. He was my uncle, my friend...

“Tony...”

One of his fingers landed on my lips and the pungent smell of cigarettes and Corona beer filled my nose, making me feel nauseous.

The pounding in my chest was impossible to ignore.

“Shh... don’t be afraid, Mads.”

His voice, the way his hand wandered down my arms and back to my trembling thigh, had the exact opposite effect, but I was too paralyzed to react.

“We're all alone.”

He chuckled softly, as if he had lost his mind, and I knew it was the alcohol that made him forget who he was. Who I was.

“And since you already gave up your innocence at a damn party for some nameless bastard...”

I flinched as his spittle hit my eye, stiffening further as his hand forced its way under my panties again.

“You’d better not wear a skirt to the next party.” Disappointment mingled with anger in his gaze. “As if you were begging to be fucked.”

I felt the burning of my rising tears, not understanding what was happening, what I had done wrong, or if this was all just happening in my head as it tried to process what had happened at that party.