1 I
Karina wiped away the tear that had run down her cheek a few seconds earlier. She was medium height, thin, olive green eyes, light brown shoulder-length hair, and white skin. It was a quarter past six in the evening. She was lying face down on her bed, dressed in a light blue t-shirt and her favorite pink thong, nothing else. Her left hand was cramping from holding her head and her legs were playing up and down as Karina listened to a song by the pop artist of the moment. Without realizing it, her gaze fell on the photograph on her bedside table under the glass above it. It was the picture she and her mother had taken when Karina turned fifteen; she was now seventeen. A year earlier, her mother had died of a heart attack. When she took the picture in her right hand, a tear came to her eye.
After a minute, Karina heard her dad's keys opening the front door on the ground floor of her house. She left the photograph on the bedside table, jumped out of her bed as fast as she could and locked the door to her room. Although she had a very good relationship with her father, she did not let him see her in her underwear, with the shame that any other girl her age might have. Her father, hearing the bang on the door of Karina's room, asked her in a soft, calm voice if anything was wrong.
- No, Daddy, I'm changing to go to Selena's. We're going to watch horror movies.
He knew very well that Selena was his daughter's best friend, so he had no problem with her going out and only answered with an "OK" and went to the kitchen to find something to eat.
Karina put on the blue jean that was hanging over the chair in front of her computer, a pair of white socks and shoes. She went into the bathroom and quickly brushed her hair. She took her wallet and left her room. When she came down, she went to the kitchen to look for her father to let him know that she was on her way to her friend's house, but the scene she found caused her much sadness. Stephen, her father, was sitting in front of the dining room table with an empty plate on it and crying. Karina hugged him from behind and whispered in his ear:
- I love you very much.
- I miss your mother. There was never a lack of food when she was alive.
Hearing this, she opened the refrigerator and took out a tray of precooked food and heated it up in the microwave. Once it was hot, she placed it on the empty plate in front of her father and, kissing him on the cheek, went out to Selena’s.
Despite the fact that it was almost seven o'clock at night, Karina walked without fear because the town in which she lived had always been characterized by being very quiet.
A few minutes passed and she arrived at her friend's house, who lived five houses away from hers. Selena was standing in front of the window of the main room and, when she saw her friend arrive, she immediately opened the door to pull her in from the arm and tell her:
- Now that my parents are out of town, all that's left is for Emilia to come and watch our "horror" movies.
When she uttered the word "horror", she made a quoting gesture in the air with the index and middle fingers of her two hands. They both laughed out loud because they knew very well that what they were going to watch was the kind of movies that girls like them still considered forbidden.
They sat in the room and talked while they waited for Emilia to arrive. An hour passed without her friend arriving, so they decided to go to Selena's room and watch the movies she had. Once in the bedroom, Selena opened her bedside table drawer and pulled out a book with a lock that appeared to be a diary.
- I don't want to know your intimacies - Karina joked.
- Patience, my friend - answered Selena.
She lifted the mattress and pulled out a tiny golden key that she hid underneath the mattress. Karina stared at every move her partner made.
Her friend opened the so-called diary, which turned out to be a book-shaped safe to trick thieves. Inside, there were two adult magazines with naked men on the cover. Karina also watched a DVD that had the phrase "Selena's Stuff. Please don't touch" written in permanent marker. Without giving her time to ask what was on the disc, Selena took it and put it in the player. She turned on the TV and lay down next to Karina who was also lying in bed.
Selena watched the film quietly so as not to wake up Karina, who had fallen asleep a few minutes after starting to watch it. When the movie was over, Selena woke up her friend to inform her that it was ten o'clock at night and that she'd better go home before her father got angry.
- I'm very tired, I'd better call him to give me permission to sleep with you tonight. May I?
- Of course you can, silly - answered Selena.
Karina took the phone in the bedroom corridor and dialed her home number. There was no answer. She tried once more, but again the same thing happened, no one answered. Thinking that her father might have been out with one of her friends, she took her cell phone and dialed his cell phone. Just like when she called home, this time she didn't get any answer. Selena, seeing her nervous and pale, asked her to calm down and try the cell phone call again. This time someone answered, but they took the call without saying a word and immediately cut it off. Karina put on her shoes as fast as she could and ran down the steps to get out on the street and go home.
