A warm summer night, the calm sea, the sandy beach, the peacefulness of long past midnight; Tiffany sat alone, staring at the full moon, its pale green light illuminating the ocean. All she could think of was the incident from earlier, the fight, the...what was the reason?
She could not recall; something meaningless, she was sure of it. Besides, there had never been a real reason for friendly confrontations; and yet, she could not swallow the insults that ensued, the harsh words exchanged. As she stared at the moon sitting peacefully on the sky, she felt calm and relaxed, able to breathe, to think, to...
The bushes behind her rattled; terrified, she turned about and met the two staggering about young men guffawing at nothing in particular, each holding a half-empty bottle of white wine.
"Fuck, man," one said in a stentorian voice, "did you see that bitch? How she shook her ass? She wasn't even wearing underwear, man!"
"Oh, will you quit, already?" The other protested, yet laughing thunderously. "You got slapped, called a 'dirty fucking bastard', and that's that. Let it go!"
"No! I mean, she was fucking begging for it, damn it!"
"Apparently, it was someone else she was begging; not someone of the likes of you!"
"Fuck you, Fred."
"Oh, shit," he heaved, trying to suppress his laughter. "Didn't mean to hurt your feelings, man. Will you survive the embarrassment?"
"You think it's funny, huh?"
"You thought it funny a moment ago!"
"Fine, you're right..." he surrendered with a sigh, then they both suddenly burst into more blaring laughter. "It was quite funny, I'll admit it. How she grinded up against my crotch for a good ten minutes, before she realized I was not her boyfriend."
"And the poor bastard sitting at the counter, drinking his sex on the beach cocktail, watching like everything was alright."
"You saw him, man! D'you think he'd come up and fight?"
"You were lucky, though; what if her boyfriend had been a boxer, or something?"
"I can outrun you, Fred," he clapped his friend's shoulder. "Shit," he suddenly elbowed his friend on the ribs, nodding towards Tiffany.
"Why, hello there," Fred said, abruptly tuning his voice down to a deeper pitch, "what are you doing here all alone? Want a hit?" He sat on her left and shoved the wine bottle in her face.
"No, thanks," she mumbled under her breath, pushing the wine bottle away; her body grew rigid, when Tom took a seat on her right.
"Fuck, man!" Fred protested, addressing his friend. "Yet another God damn prude!"
"Don't pay him any attention," Tom quickly apologized to Tiffany. "He's been drinking quite a bit; he's harmless, though," he offered her a smile that quickly turned into a sinister grin.
Tiffany pushed her dressโwhich had been lifted high up to her thighsโdown over her knees.
"Don't cover yourself up, baby," Fred said and pulled her dress off her knees. "It's just us here," he shrugged.
"What are you doing?" She cried in protest, when Tom unbuckled her bra.
"Just..." he said with an innocent smile. "Making you more comfortable, that's all. You don't have to be frigid, baby. As my friend said, it's just us."
"Look, I..." she started, then paused and threw her head back with a sigh.
They held her down, when she tried to leap up on her feet.
"Want to leave us already?" Fred asked, with genuine befuddlement. "Why? We didn't do anything."
"I just...my friends are waiting for me, that's all."
"Oh, they can wait a little while longer," Tom dismissed her. "Besides, if they were really waiting for you, you wouldn't be here, would you now?" He winked and ran his finger over her bare shoulders, gently lowering the straps of her sundress.
"Stop it," she tried to shrug him off, but, he remained unfazed.
"Quit being like that," Fred fired back, running his hand along her calf.