ONE

A Night in London

Lolita was alone and unhappy, but that didn’t matter. She was dancing the night away, alongside her sorrows. She would wake up tomorrow with the most distorted headache and forget that this ever happened. The fact that she came to London to physically write her exams and still failed was enough to torment her for ages to come; which was why she was at a club in the city, dancing it away.

Everything and everyone felt the same. A girl offered her a long pipe and she took it. When she placed it between her lips and tried to inhale the smoke, a reaction occurred in her chest, forcing her to cough violently.

The girl laughed, patting her back. “Have you never had a smoke before?” she asked.

Lolita shook her head as she hit her chest with her fist. “No.”

“Don’t do that. You’re going to make it worse.”

The girl somehow raised her upright, and then placed the pipe on her lips again. Lolita followed the girl’s muffled instruction and took a small drag. She allowed it to settle in her chest before taking another, then another.

“Whoa,” laughing, the girl hid her pipe away. “Look at you, weirdo. You’re a pro! You sure you never had this before?”

Lolita shook her head. Her hand slowly went to the ends of her hair. She knew the girl called her a weirdo because of her hair color—most people did, anyways.

“Are you okay, weirdo? You should be happy, this is fun!”

Lolita felt disorientated. Everything seemed distorted and everyone seemed to be pushing into her. Voices merged into noise and the noise merged into a swirling music above her. She could almost see the rectangular shape of the dancing music above her. It merged into the various colors of the club, and it was so beautiful.

Someone cut into her reverie, groping her left breast. Lolita didn’t feel it at first, until the hand pinched her nipple. She jerked away, and then started to move in the crowd, not sure where she was going to.

“Come here, princess!” she heard him say.

She thought she was moving, but that was only in her head. In reality she had only moved a small feet, still struggling to find her way through her drugged state. Someone gripped her from behind, the man from earlier.

“Hey, Princess,” he snickered in her ear. “You’re just the right dose of woman that I need.”

“Leave me alone,” she said weakly.

“Oh come now, my darling. You want this.”

He licked her neck, his breath all smelly and strong. Lolita’s knees buckled and her purse slipped free from her arms. She suddenly felt very alone. She was in a strange city with absolutely no one to call for help.

“Come with me,” the man continued. “I’ve prepared a very nice gift for you.”

“Leave me alone!”

“Hush now, don’t make a scene. You’ll like this, I promise.”

Lolita pushed back against him but he felt so strong and her attempts felt so weak. Something blocked her vision, a much taller man.

“What are you doing?” he asked, his voice deep and guttural. “Let her go this instant.”

The man behind Lolita snickered. “What are you, an angel? You’ve been going around spoiling my games!”

“You’ve been going around harassing women. This place is mine and it doesn’t need someone like you!”

In Lolita’s hazy vision, she saw the new tall guy nod his head to the corner. Two guards emerged, flaking him. When they snatched the man behind her away, she fell to the ground in a hump. The tall man looked down at her, disapproval written clearly on his face.

“You should not be here,” he said.

She acted on impulse, standing on her shaky feet and running as fast as she could in her drugged state. When she got outside, Lolita brushed her hand through her hair and inhaled deeply. She needed to clear her head and find her way back to her hotel, but she couldn’t for the life of her think about anything beyond the sight in front of her.

When she turned around, she saw a man approaching her. She wanted to run, but her feet remained glued to the floor. From his stature, she could tell he was the one who saved her earlier. He was holding a bottle of water and her purse.

As he reached her, his head cocked to the side as he studied her features. And then he raised his arm, saying:

“You dropped this.”

“Your voice is smoother than I thought,” she blurted.

“What?’

“When you spoke inside, you were terrifying. Now you’re just…” she peered closely at him. “Wildly attractive.”

“What?”

“You’re attractive,” and it was true. “Your voice, your face…” she began to circle him even though she was several inches shorter than him. “Would you like to spend the night with me?”

He didn’t even smile. There was something about him that seemed to draw Lolita closer and offset her at the same time. He was attractive, but in the dangerous kind of way. He looked like the kind of man who lured in women with his intense eyes.

“Don’t stare at me like that,” the man snapped.

Lolita straightened and cleared her throat. “Like what?”

“Like you’re damn horny. Get yourself together and go home.”

She pouted. “But I want to stay here, with you.”

“You didn’t like the way you were touched in there,” he pointed out. “What makes you think I’d be any different?”

“You saved me?”

He looked incredulous at her answer. “So? Anyone could save you just to eat you later.”

Lolita grinned. “Oh please, eat me. I bet you could do so many things with that mouth of yours.”

He suddenly reached out—like he wasn’t thinking—and grabbed a fistful of her hair. Lolita hissed at the intrusion, but his face was curved and the moon casted its rays of light on him. He was so beautiful, so painfully beautiful that she didn’t mind him yanking out her hair.

“How old are you?” he grunted.

“19,” she answered.

“Too young for me. Too young for anyone here.” he stared her down for a second longer, and then released her. “Come on, go home now.”

“My home isn’t here. It’s in Hawaii. You can come there with me or you can come to my hotel with me. It’s just around the corner, I think.”

“Where is your hotel, then?”

“I don’t remember. I’ll just check for the card in my purse.”

She started to reach for her purse, but he held his arm back, away from her. There was an expression on his face that she didn’t recognize, but it scared and excited her.

“I’ll come to your hotel with you,” the man said.

Lolita grinned. “I’ll never ever forget you,” she promised.

He chuckled. “Oh you will. They always do.”

When he curved his arms around her neck and drew her for a kiss—or at least that was what she thought—Lolita’s vision went hazy. His face was the last thing she saw.