WARNING - STRONG, MATURED LANGUAGE AND ADULT SITUATIONS. READER DISCRETION STRONGLY ADVISED. 

Liz had never been this far from home on her own and she was cherishing every moment. Every mile was an accomplishment to her.

"You ever been to the beach before?" asked Lola of her quiet passenger.

"Yeah," said Liz. Paranoid that her appearance was such that Lola would ask that question. Who in So. Cal had never been to the beach after all?

"Well I promise you, you've never been to it like this," said Lola sure of her statement without knowing anything about Liz. She was right though.

"No, not like this," confirmed Liz.

Liz had figured this was where they were headed through the scenery and smell of the ocean and the breeze that were unique to the area. Even having been to the beach a few times Liz could feel the ocean was near.

The road was wide and clean, though confusing to navigate to someone unfamiliar with them. There dozens of lines on the road that appeared to cross and curve on each other. The streets turned and broke around structures that seemed to rise out of nowhere. The building got crowded really fast making everything more confusing and hectic. Still, everything around was clean, even the streets.

The lights were bright and the stores looked new and modern. Not the usual run down, pop shops on the littered streets with pot holes. Even the street reflectors on the road looked new. Making Liz think at first they were driving though a construction site since that was the only time she saw working reflector on the road. She could not see it yet, but if she closed her eyes Liz swore she could hear the ocean.

The house they went into was active. Full of people she did not know and some she did not expect to see. There were white, beach types in the house, blacks and Hispanics dressed in tight jeans and t-shirts and even Asians. Everyone was smoking and drinking. The smell of pot was undeniable as well as cigarettes and everyone had red plastic cups which Liz figured were not full of apple juice. Everyone was young. Not as young as Liz but no older than David. There was a huge T.V. in the center of the living room that was playing a video game. A war based game as far as she could tell.

Music was also playing through the house. Liz started to wonder in when Lola called her.

"Liz! Follow me."

They went outside to the patio where Liz finally recognized someone.

"T.J. look what I bought," said Lola greeting her cousin.

"Hey, shorty. Long time no see," said T.J. as he greeted Liz with a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

Tay, the older girl at school, phat man and the other goons that had been at the Quizeañera were there as well. Liz recognized all of them right away.

"Glad you could make it," said Tay.

"No problem," said Liz as she tried to figure out what was going on.

"So you know what you are here for right?" asked Tay.

"Getting initiated," replied Liz.

"And you sure you want this?" asked Tay again.

"Yes, I mean I don't know what I need to do but I want to join the crew," said Liz.

"Wait she doesn't know what she's going to do?" Liz heard someone say in the crowd that she did not recognize followed by others laughing.

"So what am I going to be doing?" Liz asked for the first time.

"Don't worry. It's no big deal," said Tay unreassuringly as she walked away from Liz whose paranoia was now getting the better of her.

"What's not a big deal?" Liz asked T.J. as he came to comfort her.

"Shorty don't worry about it. It's nothing nobody here hasn't done before," said T.J. His words not really comforting Liz.

"I just want to know what it is that I haven't done?" asked Liz getting noticeably scared.

"She hasn't done it yet? We should film it. Put it on the video. I know people who will pay major bucks to see that," Liz heard someone say in a low voice.

"What? I don't know if I can do this," said Liz starting to have second thoughts.

"Hey, hey, Liz. Don't be scared. We all had to do this initiations. Aint no big deal. You want part of all of this right? You want the clothes, the cars, the parties, be part of our group and you will be taken care of. We all got each other's backs. But we gotta know you are down," said T.J. in his smooth carefree manner that was almost hypnotic.

"Yes, I want all of that. But I just don't kno..." Liz was saying but got cut off.

"See I told you she was a poser!" said Tay from the side.

"Liz come on! Don't embarrass me. I vouched for you. I told everyone you were down. Come on now you owe me!" T.J. said in regards to him having to hide out at his cousin's place because of David.

"Yes, I know and I appreciate it but..." said Liz when Phat-boi pulled Liz the arm.

"Fuck this man, I took the pill already and I've waiting for an hour!" said Phat-boi taking Liz with him into the house.

"Yeah! You go Phat-boi! Take that shit. Cave man style!" someone shouted in the crown laughing as cheering erupted amongst the crowd at the sight of Phat-boi carrying Liz to the bedroom.

"Be gentle with her! It's her first time," mocked Lola.

"Don't hurt her like my last girl you ass!" shouted Tay.

Liz was terrified as she was being pulled and tugged against her will by Pat-boi who was clearly drunk as he smelled of alcohol and was an aggressive drunk.

"No! Let go of me!" yelled out Liz trying to free herself from his grip. She balled up her fist and struck Phat-boi on the shoulder and on the head but this only angered and annoyed him.

"Bitch!" he said as he picked her up and threw Liz over his shoulder and carried her in to the room. He tossed Liz into the bed and proceeded to lay on top of her, running his hands up and down her legs. Liz was mortified. She could not believe that this was happening. How could things have turned so fast? How cold nobody be stopping it? This wasn't happening she tried to tell her self. This isn't happening she said to herself. This will not happen! She told herself.

Liz was maybe one hundred and five pounds if that. She was five feet two with shoes on and had never been in a fight, but at that moment all of her anger and rage boiled over. She was not about to let this drunken idiot or anybody take advantage of her this way, at least not without a fight.

Liz squirmed and tossed, as hard and as much as she could. She brought her knees up to her stomach and kicked as hard as she could when she could. She tried to shimmy away from Phat-boi which was not an easy task as he was a large man given his name. He was closer to one hundred and ninety pounds and was having a hard time controlling Liz.

"Hold still!" he said as he tried to pin her down. But whenever he got a hold of her wrist or pull her legs apart, she would wrestle them free and pull her legs back together and shimmy away.

"No! No! Get off of me!" she would shout as she struggled. She was able to move away to the side of the bed and reached to the dresser to grab whatever she could get her hands on.

Liz grabbed an alarm clock and pulled it with all of her might and bashed it over Phat-boi's head repeatedly. This caused Phat-boi to cover his head and sit up to avoid her hits. Liz then used her legs to kick him repeatedly from her back. One of the kicks got him square on the nose which stung him. This gave Liz enough time to get up from underneath him and throw the clock at him as hard as she could. The clock hit Phat-boi on the head hard and broke, sending him reeling back in agony.

"Ahh you bitch!" Liz heard him say as she ran out of the room.

Liz opened the door where a group of people huddle around trying to hear what was going on inside.

"That's it? Phat-boi is a minute man!" said one of the party goers.

Liz tried to rush past by them when T.J. and Tay tried to stop her.

"Whoa, whoa what happen? What's going on?" asked T.J.

"He was going to rape me!" said Liz, never thinking those were words she would ever have to say.

"Damn! She fucked him up!" said Lola who had checked up on Phat-boi along with some of the other guest.

"He wasn't going to rape you. That is the initiation. Everybody has to get down like that. No big deal," said T.J. again, but to Liz this was definitely a bid deal.

"It is a big deal! I can't do that, I don't get down like that!" she said shaking from adrenaline and the expectation form everyone there for her to be Okay with this.

"Everyone has to get down somehow," said Tay.

"You got dicks and hoes. You don't got a dick then you a hoe," said Tay simply.

"Well, I'm not a hoe. I don't do that stuff. I'm not a whore," said Liz as she looked for a way to get out of the house.

"Hold up, hold up. Did this little bitch just call me a whore?" said Tay aggressively as she became riled up by Liz's comment. This confused Liz even more since she did not know how to answer without escalating things.

"Yes she did," someone in the crowd yelled out.

"So you think I'm a whore do you?" repeated Tay.

Liz still remained quiet as she felt the attention of everyone in the house on her.

"That's not what I said," said Liz finally.

"Then what did you say? Because I thought you said you were no whore so you wouldn't do the initiation. Well I did it. All these bitches here did it. So you calling all of us whores?" said Tay.

"If you are OK doing it that's cool. But I can't do it. It's not my thing," Liz found herself trying to justify her stance.

"What kind of answer is that? So now you saying it's OK if we do it but it's not good enough for you? So now you are saying you are better than us because we are whores?" said Tay.

"You are twisting my words," said Liz frustrated with the useless back and forth.

"Well, guess we are about to twist your neck," said Tay as a group of girls had joined in on her sides and were surrounding Liz.

Liz was bewildered as now she had gotten out of a sexual assault and had now jumped into a physical assault all in a matter of minutes. She was terrified as she found herself surrounded, outnumbered, and chants of "Fuck her up!" and "Fight! Fight! Fight!" echoed through the house.

One of the girls pushed Liz and she instinctively put her hands up which elicited "Ohhs" from the crowd as they took her defense as defiance.

"You think are too good for the initiation?" taunted again Tay as she closed in on Liz.

"I'm not doing it," repeated Liz.

"You getting fucked one way or the other," said Tay menacingly.

"Do what you have to do. But I'm not going back in that room alive," Liz found herself saying out of nowhere. She was still terrified, her heart pounding on her chest, pumping blood all through her body as she backed herself into a literal wall.

"Hola putas (Hello whores)!" yelled out someone from the back that caught everyone's attention as people parted to let Brianna through. Tay was the only one still staring down Liz as the other girls had backed off.