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had one, which I realized I didn’t. Exhausted from my escape attempts, which only seemed to amuse them, I decided to play possum. Maybe if I stopped playing their game, they would lose interest. It was my only hope. Jules carried pepper spray wherever she went, just in case. Why didn’t I plan ahead like that? Fuck. How bad was it going to hurt, and how was I going to get home once they were finished? What if I got pregnant, or caught some horrible disease? What if they really meant that thing about “or else”?
    Thirty minutes earlier I had been curled up on my library couch fantasizing about Italy, admiring a hot guy, and now I was about to lose my v-card to four Neanderthals posing as high school football players. Clearly, I was cursed. If only I had stayed in the library, I would be warm and safe and fully clothed. If I survived this, and part of me didn’t want to, I would never let myself feel this vulnerable ever again.
    “Nice tits.” Jed/Jeff bent down and ran his hand across my chest, causing me to shiver, out of both cold and horror. No one had ever touched me there before.
    “Look at her—she likes it.”
    “You moron, she’s just cold.”
    Where was that superhuman strength people said they experienced when faced with a life-or-death situation? One person could lift a two-ton car, and I couldn’t move a two-hundred-pound running back so much as an inch. I was no longer deliberately playing possum; I was completely paralyzed with fear.
    “Hey, Sasha, what’s the matter? No more struggle? It’s more fun if you fight a little.”
    From the shadows came a new voice. “You wanna fight a little?
I’ll
fight with you.”
    My eyes flew open. Springing from behind a bush and up the steps in one fluid motion,
he
stood with his backpack on one shoulder and a pair of nunchucks, chain rattling, dangling from his right hand. He was no longer wearing that secret smile, and his dark curls were tucked under a ski cap, but there was no mistaking it: my rescuer was the boy from the library. If he’d been wearing tights and a matching cape, I couldn’t have been more surprised.
    Paul looked slightly annoyed at the interruption, but he didn’t move from on top of me. “Look, bro. There are four of us and only one of you, so I suggest you put away your little toy and keep walking, unless you want us to beat the shit out of you.”
    “As impressed as I am by your math skills, I’m not going anywhere. Let Sasha go … or else.”
    How did he know my name? Naked from the waist up, five boys looking at me, I was totally humiliated as well as terrified. Nunchuck Boy meant well, but, although he was as tall, he was half the width of one of the football players. He didn’t stand a chance. Jed/Jeff lunged, but he was faster, the satisfying thwack of wood on bone and the clank of the chain echoing in the empty park, followed by a yelp of pain. Perhaps my fate wasn’t sealed.
    “Shit, man. That fucking hurts. Okay, I get it, you’re a fucking karate master.”
    “But it’s still one on four, dude,” said one of the other geniuses.
    “Damn straight,” Jeff/Jed agreed. “We could still take you, even with your funky Jap sticks, but maybe you want to join us?”
    His answer was another flick of his wrist. The chain seemed to move in slow motion, striking Paul in the ribs. Falling to the side, Paul gasped in pain.
    “You don’t hear so well. I told you to move so she can get up.” My hero tossed his jacket at me. “Here, Sasha.” I jumped to my feet and covered myself.
    “I’m sure Sasha wouldn’t mind one more. You can even have the honor of being her first, if you want. She’s fresh meat.” Jed/Jeff rubbed his head and smiled, still believing he and his friends had the upper hand.
    “If I want to fool around with a girl, I don’t need four other guys to hold her down. Do you assholes actually enjoy a good skull fracture? Don’t you get enough of those on the field? No? Works for me …” Nunchuck Boy