Bené Meirelles was thirteen years old when he first met Tereza Valerio.
As a boy from one of the poorest slums in Rio de Janeiro, Bené had very little choice in how to lead his life. The only way to survive the slums was to turn to crime, or to the police. Otherwise his options were pretty slim. Fishmonger, vegetable seller... all professions that would keep him at the bottom of the slums.
Despite the contrary belief, crime did pay in Rio de Janeiro. And that was the route that Bené chose to take. The police force had never even been an option. The police were cruel, manipulative bastards. Bené didn't want to be like them. He wanted to own them.
So by the time Bené was six, he was running around with the more established hoods of the slums. And by the time he was thirteen, he was a more established hood.
Bené would steal, mug, and participate in a lot of drug smuggling and selling. It wasn't for one of his more serious crimes that he got sent to a juvenile detention centre, though. He'd been found vandalising government property, and when he first saw Tereza, a girl of his age with bright green eyes and wavy black hair, he was waiting in the reception area of the court where he had his hearing, she was on the other side.
Maybe it was bring your kid to work day. Maybe she was there with a relative, but the pretty girl which clearly didn't belong to the slums was definitely not there because she was a juvenile delinquent.
That didn't stop her eyes from finding Bené's, though.
If Bené believed in love at first sight, that would have been it. But of course he was a thirteen year old boy. He forgot about the pretty green eyed girl after a few weeks. Maybe even a few days.
But when she came back into his life at eighteen, Bené instantly recognised her.
***
At eighteen years old, Bené Meirelles was a well distinguished slum gangster. He and his two best friends controlled what went in, and what went out of the slums.
They no longer wanted to leave. They were in control and had everything they wanted. Bené had given up on education when he was ten, so he didn't have any friends from school. All of his friends were gang members and slum rats, and of course girls that were interested in him because of his dangerous status and good looks.
Bené wasn't bad to look at all. He was always dressed in the best fashions, always with expensive accessories. Nothing ever seemed to look bad on his 5"10 form, his slender but muscular body well built. But Bené looked especially attractive on the beach, in his long swimming shorts and oversized sunglasses. The young man's skin was a naturally dark colour, and his face was soft, almost childlike, with very intense brown eyes. His hair fell in black baby dreadlocks, well kept and always looking perfect.
It was very easy to understand just why Bené never had a problem with girls.
This summer had been a lazy summer, Bené had spent almost every night on the beach. Most of the high school students had recently graduated, so a lot more of the city kids were coming down to the slum's closest beach, a lot of kids he'd never seen before. On this particular night, Bené had been there with a group of about thirteen other boys. Some had been rich kids from the city that he'd met through clubs, and some were kids from his gang. He was never alone, though.
A group of high school kids from the city had apparently been planning an overnight stay on the beach. Like Bené's gang, they had spent the entire day at the beach, and now it was night time. Both groups stared small bonfires, not paying any attention to each other. Bené hadn't even paid any attention to the other group until a small female form, no taller than 5"1, began to walk towards their group, apparently just taking a walk, with her feet in the water.
The young hood watched her curiously, her face shadowed by the night. But the girl had a good body, he could tell from a distance. She was dressed in a short skirt, coming mid thigh, and a loose tank top shirt. It was getting a little colder now, but the water was still warm so she walked with her feet in the waves.
Bené watched her smooth, tanned legs get closer and closer, and grew quiet as the rest of his gang continued to laugh, and smoke, and drink. It was only when he looked to her face though, that Bené got completely silent.
Shoulder length black curls framed a pretty face. Familiar, but more grown up than the face he'd first seen five years ago. Bright green eyes, and a pretty mouth... Bené recognised her instantly.
The girl he'd seen at the court, the girl he'd 'fallen in love with' for a whole seven days afterwards.