บท 165: ONE OF THE MANY VICTIMS (2)

"Next time I come, I will buy all your leftover food," he would say.

"That way you can close early and we can all see a movie." And while the other girls would titter and laugh, Edith would look away, conscious that the young boy's eyes were on her.

Joel.

Edith remembers his name, in fact, everything about him was still crystal clear on her memory as though it all just happened yesterday.

That was despite the fact that it has been thirteen years ago since those hot and sweaty nights in his cramped shanty home, rushing breathlessly through sex before his mother or brothers came back from wherever it was they had gone to in the morning.

Fast and furious through something she thought was love.

Edith's mother had smacked her hard across the cheek when she told her she was pregnant, and that was when she decided to leave home, never to go back ever again.

Besides, there was nothing really to go back home to in the first place.