Last thought before going to the backyard.

I stopped, my hand on the cold metal doorknob, my whole body trembling not only from the thermal shock but also from the adrenaline. Before crossing the threshold into the yard, I couldn't help but take one last look over my shoulder.

It was pathetic. Jack and Carl, who seconds before seemed to be analyzing every inch of my buttocks and the curve of my thighs, looked away in perfect synchronicity the instant I turned my head. The father pretended to adjust his napkin; the son returned to staring at his own lap, his ears still burning. My mother merely held my gaze with a triumphant glint in her eyes.

In truth, they had a 360-degree view of my small, naked body.

I turned my attention to the door ahead. A bitter monologue took over my mind. Until then, I had been naked within the "protection" of the house's walls. There were walls, a locked door, the privacy of a home. But the yard... the yard was the outside world. Between me and the street, there was nothing but a wooden fence that I knew had gaps. Any neighbor who decided to take out the trash or look out the second-floor window would have a crystal-clear view of the neighbor's daughter crossing the lawn as if she had just been born.

"It's just a shed, Liz. It's only a few meters," I thought, fooling myself to convince myself. But every fiber of my being screamed that I was about to cross a point of no return.