Kora sits on a street curb. Her slowly bruising face softly crying into her delicate and shaking hands. Before tonight, Joe has never hit her before. He's called her names, put her down, and made her cry; but never has laid a hand on her except for this very Saturday night.
Originally, Kora thought she has struck gold finding Joe. Past relationships had never lasted more than a month, and consisted mostly of men pretending to fall in love with her to get sex and leaving her the next day. Kora allowed this because of her irrational fear that she will end up alone. Kora's only 18 and has guys drooling over her. At 5'9" she has beautiful long legs that men can't get enough of. Her hair is long, black and thick. It's straight unless she curls it. Which she rarely does. Girls are jealous of Kora's hair. Her eyes are a grey-blue color that could hypnotize anybody who looks at her. Her lips are full, and her teeth are completely straight and white. Her skin is an ivory color, but depending on the day, it can also be olive. On this particular night her skin was ivory. Even though she was a model her confidence was very low.
"Of course you're pretty, you're a model. All models are pretty." That's what people always said to her.
If Kora had a nickel for every time she told someone "You don't have to be pretty to be a model," she would be rich.
Joe had been sweet at the beginning of their relationship. He wasn't worried about getting married anytime soon. He's only 22. About 4 months into the relationship they confessed their love for one another. It kind of went down hill from there. He started to drink. Kora thought it was cool that he drank at first, until he started to show up at her house every night, drunk. She would have to take care of him and nurse him every single night. Then the verbal abuse set in.
It was their 10-month anniversary and all Kora wanted was to have one fun night with him. They went to the restaurant that Joe's parents owned. But of course Joe started to drink. Kora pulled him outside and started yelling at him. She was so sick of everything.
She told him that all she wanted was one fun night; but that he was such an asshole that he couldn't even give her that. That's when Joe snapped. He took his big hand and slapped her hard across the face with so much force that she had fallen to the ground. After seeing what he had done, he was so scared that he ran away.