A shared taxi

The night enveloped the city in a false tranquility. Neon lights from bars and yellow streetlights painted streaks across the wet asphalt, but for Magi and Julia, every beam of light was a spotlight illuminating their shame. They walked pressed close to each other, Magi in only her thong, Julia in Magi's borrowed top and her thong, trying to cover herself with her arms, feeling the cold, dirty pavement beneath their bare feet. The few passersby looked at them with a mixture of morbid curiosity, disbelief, and disdain.

"We can't... we can't keep going like this," Julia sobbed, her teeth chattering from both the cold and the panic.

"A taxi," Magi murmured, her voice trembling but determined. "We have to get a taxi."

She raised her arm, which felt like lead, when she saw the lights of an approaching taxi. The vehicle, an old sedan with the stale smell of tobacco and canned air, pulled up beside them. The driver, a man in his fifties with a greasy cap and deep-set, alert eyes, rolled down the window. His gaze slid over their semi-naked bodies with an obscene slowness, a slow, toothy smile appearing on his face.

"Good evening, princesses," he said, his voice hoarse from cigarettes. "Hard party, huh? Get in, I'll take you wherever you want."

Opening the door and sinking into the worn vinyl seats was a momentary relief. But the driver's gaze in the rearview mirror was now a tangible, heavy presence.

"Where are you going, so... lightly packed?" he asked, starting the car.

Julia, trembling, gave her address in a whisper. Magi gave hers after, trying to make her voice sound firm and failing.

The ride was ****. The driver kept looking at them in the mirror.

"Well, well, considering how expensive these areas are," he commented, whistling softly. "Looks like business is good, huh? How much do you charge for such an... exclusive ride?"

Magi clenched her teeth, looking out the window. Julia huddled in the seat, wishing she could disappear.

"We are not what you think," Magi managed to say, with more firmness than she felt.

"Of course not, of course not," the man chuckled, condescendingly. "I'm just saying, to walk around like that, you need courage. Or need." On a curve, his hand "slipped" from the steering wheel and brushed Julia's bare leg, which was closer to him.

Julia gasped, pulling her leg away as if she had been burned.

"Don't touch me!"

"Calm down, princess, it was an accident," he said, but his smile widened. "The roads are bad. The car dances."

Magi shot him a furious look in the mirror, but he just winked. The rest of the ride to Julia's building was an inferno of stares, crude comments, and driving "accidents" that resulted in opportune brushes. When they finally stopped in front of her building, Julia was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

"Get out quickly, Julia," Magi urged, holding the door open so the man wouldn't try anything.

Julia bolted from the car and ran barefoot towards her building's door, without looking back. The driver sighed, disappointed.

"So ungrateful. And now it's you and me, beautiful. Alone."

He started the car again, this time more abruptly. Magi gripped the seat, her heart pounding. Now the comments were direct, the stares more prolonged.