CHAPTER 24
Just over a week had passed since Aria had seen the ocean for the first time. Just over a week with no word about EJ. That was how it was in this life where relationships were forged only by the commonality of circumstances. One day someone who had been a prominent figure in the mural of your life was suddenly gone and you might never hear of them again.
Omkar and Aria had seen each other every day but one. On one of those days, for the first time in almost two years, Aria had gone to see a movie in a movie theater. Though the theater wasn’t fancy by any means, compared to all the places Aria had been for the last year, it might as well have been an opera house. She felt underdressed and self-conscious walking through the foyer. Omkar had taken her there on a date when his attempt to convince Aria to meet up with a friend of his had failed. There was an off chance that his friend might have let her stay on his couch for a while until Omkar could come up with a different solution, a better place for her to stay. But when he made the suggestion to Aria, she refused to entertain the notion. Aria was uninterested in favors. She didn’t like the feeling of owing anything to anyone, much less someone she had never met before. She found the whole idea humiliating.
It was a terrible movie, with all the underwhelming drama of a decidedly burned-out sequel to a movie that Aria had never seen. But she didn’t care. She watched the changing light from the scenes displayed on the screen, turning Omkar’s face dark, then illuminating it again. Aria had found some dandelions to eat off of someone’s lawn, but she hadn’t planned her day well enough to find anything else to eat. As a result, when Omkar bought her a bag of popcorn, she had gorged herself on it until her stomach hurt too much to eat anymore.
At first, Omkar was shy and formal about the date. Aria had to graze the outside of his arm with her pinky finger to encourage him to lift up the armrest between them and take her hand. When he did, the dew of sweat started to accent the heat between their hands. Omkar was nervous and elated. But he felt frustrated with himself that no matter how many times he saw her, he couldn’t force himself to act cool. Instead, he felt like an immature schoolboy, devoured by the anxious limerence of puppy love. He found his own reaction all the more frustrating because he knew it wasn’t puppy love. What he felt for Aria was something much deeper. It was something that he could not name.
Aside from the movie date, they managed to see each other for an hour or two in between Omkar’s classes and work shifts. For the most part, sustained by the little items that Omkar would bring her, Aria spent her time at the car lot, counting down the minutes between their time together. But today, knowing that they would not meet up until after sundown, Aria had decided to follow a tip that the St Francis Center offered a warm breakfast to those who needed a meal.
Aria looked down to watch the blur of her high-top sneakers carrying her across the pavement. The walk, which she had started while it was still dark, had already been longer than she had anticipated. It had taken her through shopping centers, past highways and into industrial parts of town. She was beginning to wonder if she had taken a wrong turn somewhere. Wandering into unfamiliar territory was always a risk for anyone on the street. It was a risk that made her regret coming alone. But with Taylor gone an hour before her to the acting studio and both Luke and Wolf gone the night before to an art walk event, she hadn’t had a choice.
Up ahead, Aria could see the bright orange sign belonging to a Home Depot. The sun had not yet touched the painted stalls of the parking lot, which before business hours were vacant. A group of nine or so men were standing near the inlet where people pulled into the lot. Every morning men who were out of a job, or unable to get work for one reason or another, would stand there to see if someone with a construction project would hire them and pay them cash for the day. For the most part, though hardened by manual labor, the men looked benign enough. Still, Aria felt tense when she passed them. She felt herself walking quicker to try to get out of range.
The hair on the back of Aria’s neck stood up as if she were being hunted. None of the men had made a sound when she had walked by. They had not cat-called, like she had prepared herself for them to do. They had simply watched her pass intently.
It all happened so fast. By the time she felt the eerie feeling of predation and had turned around to check behind her, the man was already close. Upon seeing her notice him, he broke into a run in her direction.
Aria bolted as if on automatic pilot. Panic and adrenaline sprinted through her veins. She tried to run sideways to evade him, but he was faster. Aria had unintentionally cornered herself.
The man pushed her from behind, trying to throw her to the ground. But instead, the force threw her against the wall of an industrial warehouse. Her face buffered her fall. She did not notice the burn of the scrape, or the way the peak of the pain subsided when blood began to flow from her lips and nose, until after everything was over.
Aria didn’t defend herself as
