Tatiana
If there was anything in Emily’s gaze that hinted that she knows what transpired between Hasan and me, she didn’t show it. Or, she was just good at hiding it and was just waiting for the perfect moment to use it against me. For some reason, I couldn’t speak. Not when my thoughts were all over the place. I couldn’t risk blurting out what is meant to be a dirty little secret between Hasan and me. All I could do was stare at my best friend with suspicion that left her confused.
Emily directs me to my bed and helps me on the bed. She disappears for a second and appears with a bottle of water. I take it and gulp it down, thankful for the freshness of the whey and the way it soothes my dry throat. “Can you talk now?” Emily’s face is too close to mine. I blink, processing what she’d just said. Emily looks at me knowingly, her eyes widening. “Yes! Yes!” I say loudly in a tone that says I was anything but okay. I stand and move away from Emily, afraid to taint her with my immorality. “Taty, what is up with you? You’ve been out of it. Did Hasan do something— I don’t let Emily finish her sentence before I cut her off. “Did Hasan what? Why would you think Hasan would do anything to me?” I stutter anxiously, my cheeks suddenly burning red as I recall how he touched me. Emily chuckles nervously, though she tries to hide her confusion. “Calm down, Taty. I didn’t say Hasan didn’t do anything to you. It’s just…. I saw him leave your room, and you have been out since then.” She explains, and I realize my bashfulness almost ruins my cover. “Oh… oh... yeah, yeah … I’m okay. Totally fine. I’ll, um…” I scratch the back of my head, trying to find something to say to convince Emily she has no reason to worry. “I’m okay. Yeah, I’ll be down in a bit. Go have some fun in the meantime.” Emily nods and exits my room. F*ck! That was close. I sighed out heavily, throwing my body on my bed. I need to get my emotions in check, and I also need to kill Hasan. ***** Hasan’s party went through a complete 360 from when I walked in earlier. Music blasted loudly. The party was being held in our basement, which had soundproof walls, but somehow, I swear the neighbors could hear. I spot Emily in a full-blown makeout session with Hasan. He was the first to see me, and although his lips were locked on hers, he managed to give me his signature annoying and provocative smile. My stomach ties in a knot with jealousy. How could he tease me one minute and make out with my best friend the next? A hand wraps around my waist. It probably was one of Hasan’s friends wanting to dance with me, but I was too angry at Hasan to entertain anyone. First, he throws a party knowing full well it will get us in trouble. Then he corners me in my bathroom, and now he’s kissing my best friend? He is such an *ss. The kitchen is full of horny teenagers. On the counter, there’s a bowl of punch, and I know very well not to drink it. They probably spiked it with whatever drug they could find. I opened the fridge and took out a bottle of water. Before I could uncap the bottle, a boy I recognize from my calculus class takes out a transparent plastic from the back pocket of his jeans and shows it up to his friends, who yell out in excitement. “Hey! No drugs!” I yell out, but my voice could not be heard over the music roaring through the walls. Before I could storm toward them, Emily steps in front of me, squishing and giggling like a twelve-year-old who just had her first kiss. “Come with me.” She doesn’t wait for my response before she drags me to the patio. Outside, it's Hasan, his team members, and some girls on the cheer team. Emily lets go of my hands and hurriedly takes her place next to Hasan. Hasan, on the other hand, smiles at me knowingly. I return his smile with a threatening glare. I proceed to sit between Hasan’s best friend, who is also co-captain of the football team, and the co-captain of the cheer team. We sit in a circle, and there’s a bottle in the middle. Dave, Hasan’s best friend, stands up and clears his throat. “We are playing seven minutes in heaven.” He states, and everyone goes haywire, a common reaction for those who don’t have the balls to do what they want to do and rely on a bottle to give them seven minutes with the one they admire. Pathetic if you ask me. “The rules of the game are quite simple. You spin the bottle, and whoever the top lands on, you get to spend seven minutes in heaven with them. Why don’t we give the honors to our host?” Dave turns to Hasan. His friends howl playfully, messing up his perfectly styled hair. He empties his cup before scooting to the middle. He takes hold of the bottle and winks at me before spinning it. They wail together, drumming their hands in synchronization, chanting, and eyes glued expectantly to the bottle as it spins. Suddenly, ten pairs of eyes are on me. I look around nervously, wondering why at first, until my gaze meets Hasan's before shifting to the bottle pointed in my direction. Oh, f*ck me. “No. I am not spending a second with that *ssh*l* in heaven.” I am already on my feet walking back to the basement. “Don’t be such a prude, Taty. It’s just a game. Rules are rules.” Dave says. I stop in my steps, slowly turning on my heels. “It’s just a game, but that’s my stepbrother. How perverted can you be?” I snap. Dave shrugs as though my line of thought was absurd. “What do you think you’d be doing with him?” F*ck*ng *ssh*l*. He was trying to play the you-are-the-perverted-one card. “Don’t know. Don’t care. I’m out.” Dave stops me again. “Okay. Okay. In exchange for backing out of the game, why don’t you answer this question?” I didn’t have to answer any questions. The option to walk away was there. But I didn’t want everyone thinking I was such a prude. Besides, what question can Dave ask that would be more than me to answer? Nothing. “Do you think Hasan is hot?”_____
TatianaI felt suffocated. My lungs refused to pull in enough oxygen as I stumbled through the crowd, weaving past strangers whose faces blurred out completely. Hasan’s laugh echoed behind me, mocking and haunting through the five fragile years I had spent trying to bury him in the darkest corners of my memory.I couldn’t be here breathing the same air as him.I couldn’t risk those eyes that once looked at me with obsession, but in the sweetest way possible were now sharpened with hatred.So I bolted through the crowd, every step sinking me down like I was running through a quicksand, as my pulse hammered in my ears. Five years. Five whole bloody years since the damn video. Since my mother’s screams. Since Hasan had been dragged out of our lives and my life ruined forever. Five years since I had betrayed him with the most cowardly act of my existence; pointing the finger at him, letting him take the blame for something we had been a willing participant for. I had thought he was gon
TATIANAThe night had barely started and it was already falling apart.I stepped into the club, music pounding through my chest, club lights slicing through the smoke as I forced my body into motion. It was supposed to be easy, just my everyday routine to smile, dance and collect my tips. But tonight, some client decided to make it personal.A man heavily induced with alcohol but with an entitlement heavier than it all had cornered me during my slow set. “Hey, doll, come over here. I want to talk.”I shook my head, forced the faintest smile. “I’m working. Sorry.” I replied. His gesticulation disgusted me and even after months of working here, I still couldn’t stomach such people.The man sneered, reaching for my arm. “Don’t give me that, you know you want this.”Him touching me was my thirteenth reason. I pulled my arm back, slapping his hand away. “Back off,” I hissed. “No means no, you sick fuck!” I barked as I picked up his glass, threw the contents on his face and slammed the glas
TatianaFIVE YEARS LATER.The nightmare always started the same way: me on my knees in our old living room, my mom holding up her phone to my face with the video that ruined everything, her face red with a mix of tears and rage. “Do you understand what you have done, Tatiana? You’ve ruined us, Tatiana!” she screamed. “You’ve dragged this family into filth.” she added, her voice laced with pain and betrayal.I tried to speak, but my throat felt like it had been sewn. My hands shook so badly and my lips trembled horrendously I thought they would fall off.“Mom, I’m -”Mom’s hand raised in the air and I flinched, bracing for the slap, but then an arm hovered over my face. “Don’t touch her.” Hasan said in a cold tone, his eyes red with rage. The fire in his voice matched the fire in mom’s eyes. Hasan’s jaw locked, every vein in his neck visible as he stood in front of me like a barrier. My mother’s face crumbled, grief twisting her into something even more terrifying than rage.“I lost
TatianaI didn’t move. I just lay there, breathing in the faint scent of Hasan’s shirt, the warmth of his arms around me like a shield I never knew I needed. My body was heavy from crying, but inside my chest, my heart wouldn’t stop beating as if it was trying to remind me of the mess that is my life.I could have stayed like that forever, cocooned in the safety of his hold, but the more I listened to his heartbeat against my ear, the more something stirred inside me. The same thing that caused all these headaches.Lust.I wanted to stop thinking. About the damn videos. About the blackmailer. About my withering friendship with Emily. About the videos. I didn’t want to feel like Tatiana Olivera. I just wanted to feel like I belong to him.I tilted my face upward. Hasan’s jawline loomed above me. My hand lifted on its own, brushing against his chest. Hasan froze, but only for a second, then his gaze dropped down to mine and then I kissed him.It was hesitant at first, unlike the other f
TatianaEmily’s face was crimson, her hands trembling at her sides. Her chest rose and fell rapidly, every breath a dagger tearing through the fragile air between us.“You don’t know me at all,” she whispered first, her voice quivering. Then it cracked into something sharper. “You never knew me, did you?”I opened my mouth, but the apology got tangled with my shame. The words came out fractured and brittle. “Emily, I didn’t mean…”“Yes, you did!” she screamed, her voice slicing through the walls like glass shattering. “You meant every damn word. You’ve been sitting there, staring at me like I’m a criminal, doubting me, blaming me after everything I’ve done for you!”Her hysteria was so loud I didn’t realize my door had opened until I saw movement. Hasan appeared in the hallway, his expression unreadable. And then, behind him, Mom emerged from her bedroom, her robe wrapped tightly around her as if she had already been woken by the storm erupting in mine.“Girls?” Mom’s voice had a whip
TatianaI’m not sure how long I stared at the grainy footage in my hand, but I know it’s a long, long time. In fact, so long that when I blinked out of my state of shock, the time above my phone indicated that minutes had passed, within which Emily had descended a few steps and right when she was about to put her hand on my shoulder, I quickly tucked away my phone.Emily looked at me warily, hiding her concern behind a mild chuckle. “You okay, T? You looked like you’ve seen a ghost.” Tilting just enough such that her face was inches away from mine.“Yeah, just another message from the stalker.” I say. Emily sticks out her hand.“Let me s-““No!” I answer quickly, quickly before Emily could even finish talking, thereby raising suspicions. Emily tilted her head quizzically. “I mean.. it’s nothing. Just another silly message. Let’s go upstairs.”Thankfully, Emily didn’t press any further. We walked to my room and barely seconds after sitting down, Emily began listing out names of people