Steelport, 1952.

I opened my eyes to find the old and cracked up ceiling of my room.

Turns out, I was lying in bed.

Everything felt normal about it except... I couldn't remember what happened yesterday, or the day before that.

It was like I didn't exist before this day where I was 19 years old and waiting to go with my friend Shaundi to the annual Latino ball, that same night.

She was my neighbor, we both lived in the slums of Steelport.

Shaundi was the sassy one, it made a good contrast with my rather shy self, raised by very strict, religious parents. This fact explained why I felt faint at the thought of what they would do to me if they'd found out that, since that morning, I was no longer a virgin.

'Val, you gotta be smart, listen to me! You've been talking about this ball for ages, if you suddenly wish to stay home your father might be suspicious. He'll know something's up.' Shaundi said, sitting at the corner of the bed.

'I know, I know!' I got up as I wiped a tear from my greenish eyes, gathering all my courage to pull myself together.

Numbly, we started to get dressed without saying a word to each other. The mood was so tense we couldn't think about anything else.

Finally, I looked at myself in the mirror. It took me months to earn the money to buy the fabric for that plum gown. Shaundi said would be a perfect match to my dark hair and light skin. She was right, it was the most beautiful dress I've ever had in my life, but I was so worried I just couldn't be happy about anything.

As I helped my friend to adjust her hairdo, flashbacks of that day's earlier events started to haunt me:

'I will come back to get you, Val.' The handsome asian boy in the leather jacket explained to me, lighting a cigarette.

'You're leaving after what happened this afternoon?! You can't Johnny! My family will kill me if they find out.'

He blew some smoke, worried, but I've seen this expression before in his face. He was determined to do something and wouldn't back off no matter what I had to say.

'Where are you going? What is so important?!' I yelled, exasperated.

'I can't tell you yet, but it's a matter of life and death. I found out that there's something wrong with Steelport. I am going to see a friend, that Kinzie I told you about, and together we're going to investigate it. '

I didn't get what he was saying. Tears of anger and pain came. So Johnny just took me in his arms for comfort.

'Listen, what we live in this world isn't real... You'll understand someday. I don't have all the answers yet, but don't worry. I'll get us out of here.'

He bent to kiss me but I pulled away.

'I don't even know what you're talking about. All I know is that you're leaving me on my own to deal with this.' I snapped, excruciating pain landing in my heart when I gathered courage to say what I had to say next:

'This is goodbye Johnny.'

He looked at me, surprised, his eyebrows twitched behind his sunglasses. He never showed his feelings, but I knew him enough to know that it hurt him just as much as it hurt me.

Johnny threw his cig on the floor, and ran a hand through his hair.

'Damn. Does this have to be like this?'

I didn't have the strength to say anything else. I just stood there watching the street ahead us with empty eyes, soon the sound of his motorcycle going away got to my ears to add another layer of sadness in my heart.

My friend's voice suddenly brought me back from day dreaming:

'There you go. You look gorgeous honey, just smile a little and no one will suspect a thing.'

Minutes later, I sighed in relief as we closed the door of my home. The hard part was done, we managed to play our parts of two girls going to a ball: Silly and excited enough to fool my parents. Shaundi did all the talking, all I did was nod and smile.

Arm in arm, me and my loyal, beautiful friend started to walk to the neighborhood's high school.

Everywhere in the street, we crossed people in their best clothes cheerfully heading to the ball.

As we waited in line at the entrance, we heard a long whistle in our direction:

'Holy smoke Carlos, look! It's Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor!'

We turned to see who was speaking to us and saw two guys in suits sitting on the grass.

I sighed grumpily and turned away. The last thing I was in the mood for tonight was for a line like that. I grabbed Shaundi's hand impatiently to go inside, but she had already halted and turned her head towards her unknown admirer:

'And who are you? Pat Boone?' She joked, flirty.

'No miss.' The young man smiled, ear to ear, and within a leap and a second, he and his friend were close to us. 'I'm Josh Birk, and this is my best friend, Carlos Mendoza...'

He pointed to the young man at his side and there was a moment of awkward silence...

His friend was probably too shy to say a thing.

My eyes fell on him for a moment.

Just like me, he was Mexican and not really tall, but on the other hand he was quite good looking.

But as my glance found his... A shiver ran down my spine.

I saw him looking at me with unconcealed interest. When our gazes locked, pure fire ignited his brown eyes. It made me immediately uneasy.

To my relief this impression was dispelled by Shaundi's voice:

'Hi. I am Shaundi, and this is Valentina.'

We shook hands with the boys and Josh obviously wasted no time to ask her to dance. Carlos, despite of all his shyness was perhaps about to do the same, but I guess that my dark moods showed on my face, discouraging him and reminding Shaundi of my situation.

Her charming smile melted:

'Oh... I am sorry guys, she is having a hard night. I think I will stay with her.'

Poor Shaundi. There was enough sorrow in her voice to fill an ocean. It was more than clear she found this Josh guy much cuter than Pat Boone.

'Go and enjoy the ball. You're not on death corridor like me.' I whispered.

'Really?' She asked, not entirely convinced.

I nodded and faked a big smile so she wouldn't waste a party like that because of me.

Her eyes sparkled and silently thanked me.

She turned on her heels to Josh and gave him the most inviting smile.

I had to grin too. Boy, she wasted no time...

Josh stepped in and offered his arm to escort her, smiling so much that it was clear that he couldn't believe his luck.

I took advantage of this to slip away and disappear in the crowd filling the gymnasium.

Sneaking my way around the couples dancing to the fifties music, I tried to avoid anyone I knew.

It was like everything there was made for one to have fun, I remembered how I've waited for this ball. But turned out, the big day came and I was miserable.

There were plenty of empty seats on the audience as most people were not passing a chance to dance and mingle, so I took my last cents to buy a coke at the bar and sat at a more reserved spot.

'What you've got yourself in…!' I winced, imagining the mayhem I would face if my family ever caught up with my lies.

Distracted, I noticed that I just spilled half of my coke on my dress.

'Fantastic.'

The loud music and too much people in that tight space just got suffocating. I felt a sudden urge to be outside.

As I tried to make my way through the sea of noisy, dancing teens my state grew to absolute panic.

The more I fought, the more the crowd seemed to push me back, this unknown guy grabbing my hand to dance with him.

I pushed him away with violence, opening a circle of complaining people he bumped into, and threw myself outside.

Passing through the playground, the quietness and the fresh air calmed my nerves.

I jogged to a kid's swing, tossing out my shoes and sitting on the sand. I couldn't give more of a fuck about ruining that stupid dress even more. Slowly, I leant my head over the metal of the swing, the cold iron feeling incredibly good on my burning forehead.

'Are you ok?' An hesitant male voice said behind.

Surprised, for I thought I was alone, I turned my head to see where that voice came from.

It was that shy guy, Josh's friend: He was kneeling next to me.

Embarrassed as fuck, I quickly tried to regain control of myself.

'I-I'm...! Fine, thanks. Just feeling a bit dizzy. I think I'll go home now.'

'I can walk you there if you're not feeling well.'

'No, that's ok.' I got up and my shaking legs made me stumble from right to left.

'Easy.' He said, grabbing me by under the forearm.

Surprised, I looked up to him and he smiled.

'I am not drunk.' I explained, pulling my arm from his hand. I didn't feel like letting another guy help me at a situation like that. In my head, it was like I was betraying Johnny.

'I know you're not! ' Carlos quickly replied. 'I saw it, you just had a coke.'

I blinked, annoyed, and raised an eyebrow disapprovingly:

'Oh, you were following me then...'

Carlos turned red at those words and coughed in embarrassment.

'Sorry, I was just wondering why you were all alone at the ball...!'

I stared back at him. He seemed so attained by what I said, it was almost cute. My will to keep being a bitch to him disappeared, and I smiled friendly.

'No, I am the one who is sorry. Thanks for your help I… I live not far away.'

'How come such a pretty girl like you was all alone at the ball, and didn't care to dance with anyone...' His voice started steady but as soon as I looked at him all confidence vanished, he looked away to continue:

'I mean, I wanted to dance with you...'

I didn't reply and kept my eyes on the road, not wanting to give him any kind of false hope.

For a few minutes, we kept walking side by side in silence.

'You're a weird girl, then.' He concluded, after a while. Funny enough, it wasn't said like he was criticizing me, all the contrary.

'Like you said.' I raised my eyes briefly at his, they were so kind and accepting, that, to my amazement I was feeling strangely understood. Me and that stranger just exchanged a few words, but never, not even with Shaundi, I've felt this quiet connection before. I had the impression we knew each other for ages.

We both stopped since we were now in front of the white fences of my house's garden (if you could call it that, or any other 'garden' in that neighborhood.)

If it wasn't for my feelings for Gat, I would've certainly wanted to stay outside and speak more to him, but then, I just shook his hand politely and thanked him for walking me home.

I sneaked to my room and tossed myself in bed immediately, without even removing my clothes or undoing my hair.

That whole day had been too much on me.

Without wanting to think about it, I hid my face in my arms and abandoned myself to sleep.

The next day, I woke up in the same position with Shaundi shaking my arm.

'Val, wake up! Val! Come quickly! Your father is talking about your marriage with this guy downstairs.'

This was enough to wake me up with a kick.

'What?!'

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