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They made us pay for the beers with our American-bought sols. They hunched together afterward, as cool as glass, sullen, dirty-eyed. I told Laura I’d had enough, we were leaving. My shoulders curled, the swift intake of breath. He leaned in and licked sweat from the back of my neck with his tongue. I was panting with heat. His fingertips threaded under the waistband of my jeans, his palms cupping my waist. We gyrated without rhythm. It was a lie. "Tengo un novio," I protested, softly. I was grinning, girlish, frightened, trying to like it and failing. I could feel the strange, hard roughness of his crotch, the spokes of his jeans. He blew on the back of my neck, chilling slick flesh. Dark patches bloomed under my armpits. He pulled me closer. Juarez pressed his broad hand against my midsection, my thin shirt made thinner with damp. The music beat wordless and indiscriminate. I envied them. I couldn’t breathe. Laura moved more slowly, facing him, blissfully high. "I love the reggaeton!" he cried. "Reggaeton!" Alec started leaping, waving his arms, twisting madly. Juarez sidled close behind me, hands caressing my hips. They pulled us to the middle of the floor. Something mechanical with a high, pulsing beat crackled over the speakers. Alec called to the bar man for music. The hollow spaces in the bar felt larger than ever. I watched, my pulse drumming in my wrists. They toked up in the shadows, a thin red ember. Beer came in a dirty pitcher. We were the only ones there. Sun came pumping through the windows, clouding the air. It was not a coffee shop but a bar, low and dingy. "Get coffee?" Alec gestured for the words. "You girls want to go?" What had my mother told me not to do? They said their names were Alec and Juarez. The taller one was lean, shadowed, broad hands studded with steel rings. The shorter one had an open, angelic smile and an energetic mop of hair. Two boys approached us out of the crowd. We breathed deeply, felt alive, felt like we were part of it all. People streamed to the right and left, joggling our shoulders. We strolled along the arcade, bright with gem-colored shops. It was our last day in Lima. Laura suggested that we walk, take in the sights. I reclined in the shade of a plaza, green and white with sun. I asked, "What do you want to do today?" *** Author's note: this piece can be read from the first sentence to the last, or from the last sentence to the first.