There’s a few groups of people hanging out in front of it, talking and laughing. So I just pretend like I belong and pull into the first driveway so I can turn around.

“Nice car,” a young teenage boy calls out. He says it loud enough that I can hear it through my closed window. Loud enough to make every head turn to see what he’s talking about.

I ignore them all, but internally I’m wondering how frightened I have to be to push that little panic button.

I would be mortified if I had to use that.

Instead I just put it in reverse, do a two-point turn, and pull back out onto the road so I can backtrack my route. I really don’t want to turn back onto that street where all the crowds of people were. It looked like a neighborhood you see in movies where drug dealers hang out on the corner.

I see that girl again. The pregnant one with the suitcase, only now there’s a boy with her and they are fighting. She screams obscenities at him, and just my luck I get stuck at a red light in front of their bus stop.

“What the fuck you looking at, bitch?” the boy yells at me when he notices my stare.

I turn my head away quickly. Please, please, please turn green.

And the next thing I know the girl is screaming. She’s on the ground and there’s blood coming out of her mouth.

I honk my horn. The boy flips me off. I open my door. “Stop that or I’ll call the police! Stop that!” He’s still hitting her and she’s curled up on the ground protecting her belly.

“You want some too, bitch?” the boy says, turning to me. “Get back in your car before I knock your teeth out.”

I get out and close my door. “Knock my teeth out?”

“Oh, you want some, huh, bitch?”

I squint my eyes at him. He’s about five foot ten. Not too tall. Skinny. Maybe one sixty. And his eyes are blazing with anger.

I look at the girl on the ground. She’s still crying and bleeding, but she’s trying to get up. A few people have appeared from nowhere. They stand close by, but do not try to help her. “Do you need a ride somewhere?” I ask the girl. “I can take you so you don’t have to wait for the bus.”

“She ain’t goin’ nowhere, bitch.”

I look at that boy and wish I could knock his teeth out. “I didn’t ask you. I asked her.”

“I speak for her. Now get, before me and my boys take your pretty blonde ass around the building and keep you for ourselves.”

My eyebrows shoot up and I take a step forward. “Oh really? You think you’re gonna take me somewhere against my will? Because I’ve got to tell you, I’ve been there, done that, my friend. And I’d like to see you fucking try.”

He just stares at me, then looks over to some other boys who might be his buddies. They don’t say shit. He’s on his own. “She ain’t going. Tell this bitch you staying here, Rosa.”

“You know what, Rosa?” I never take my eyes off this little punk who thinks hitting girls and threatening to kidnap them is just another day in his life. “I don’t know who this guy is, but I do know he’s an asshole. So if you’d like to get the hell out of this place right now, all you gotta do is say so and I’ll take you.”

The punk looks over his shoulder at Rosa, then back at me. “She’s stayin’.”

“I’m not staying,” Rosa finally says. “I’m not staying.” She grabs her suitcase and starts pulling it towards my car. There’s a whole line of cars behind me, watching this whole scene go down. I’m surprised they aren’t honking. I suppose the YouTube possibilities trump getting where they are going on time.

Rosa approaches the punk, clearly scared to walk past him, so I take a few steps forward with my hand out to encourage her. “Come on.” She tries to hurry past him, but just before she gets clear, his hand darts out and cracks her in the face one more time.

I flip out. I lunge forward, covering the few paces that separate us, and hurl myself at that asshole’s back. He flies forward from the momentum and crashes to the ground. And that hammerfist to the neck that was next to useless against a raging, adrenaline-pumped Derek Hauser back in Nebraska does the trick for this stupid kid who thinks the world is his to hurt.

I pound his neck three times, enough to stun him and make him stay down, and then I jump up and grab Rosa’s hand and pull her towards my car.

People clap as I shove her suitcase into the backseat and she climbs into the passenger side. The light is red again, but I don’t care. Everyone in all directions is stopped to watch the scene unfold, so I look both ways and take off.

“Oh my God,” the girl says. “I’m shaking so bad.”

I look over at her as she holds her hands out in front of her ample belly. They are indeed shaking very badly.

“Just relax, OK? Do you know how to get out of this neighborhood? Because I’m lost.”

She just stares at me.

“What?”

“Lady, I’m so lucky you got lost. He said he was gonna kill me for trying to leave.”

I look over at her and study her face, streaked with blood and tears.

Do people really mean that? I mean, when a teenager says he’ll kill you if you leave, does he mean that? Or is it just posturing? Is she just supposed to cower and give in to him? Or is she supposed to take his threat seriously and fight back with all her might?

It’s confusing. Too confusing to think about right now. “Where should I take you? Do you have a place?”

“Turn left here, then just go straight. I’m going to a place in Silver Lake. A home for abused women. They said they’d help me.”

I let out a long breath and remind myself.

#IAmNotTheGirlWithTheWorldsBiggestProblems

Chapter Nineteen

#HowDoYouKissTheInvisibleMan

I DROP Rosa off at the home for abused women in Silver Lake, and in repayment, she explains how not to end up in Westlake again.

I’m very grateful for that. What I did was stupid. But it’s hard to feel bad about it when it feels so good to help this girl.

I give her the cash I have in my wallet, which is not much. Seventy-two dollars. But her face lights up like I just handed her a million bucks.

And then I make my way to the studio. Not to ambush Vaughn, but to hug him and say I’m sorry for being so difficult. I am not the girl with the world’s biggest problems. Maybe I was that girl once. (Or twice.) But I’m not her now. I’m lucky. I’m married to a great guy. I have a large home, lots of money, a car that doesn’t break down, friends, family, and good health.