“I think she kicked my nut up inside me.”
Chad was backing away, staring between us with a look on his face that was half relief and half fear.
Asshole was always a follower. Probably went along with William to seem cool, never thought I’d be there, or that if I was that I’d turn them down. He only ruined my dress when we were kids because he wanted to impress his big sister’s friends.
William was right. He was a pussy.
Nothing but a stupid kid who kept getting mixed up with the wrong people.
If he didn’t stop, he’d wind up in jail instead of college.
I thought that dispassionately. Chad and his problems didn’t really matter me any more, although if I’d realized that a few months ago, I’d have felt sad about losing a childhood friend to bad choices.
They were his choices. I couldn’t bring myself to regret someone else’s actions.
I didn’t fear him. I didn’t fear for him. I didn’t even care about him.
William, though…
William would be trouble if I didn’t do something. Maybe even if I did.
I walked over to him, careful to stay outside of grabbing range.
“Listen to me,” I said, carefully. “If you ever so much as breath too close to me again, I’ll skip the principal and the police. I’ll go straight to the bikers.”
He stared at me, unblinking, hate in his eyes.
“You believe me,” I said. It wasn’t a question. I saw no doubt in those cold eyes.
“Don’t try to get revenge, okay? You tried to hurt me, I tried to hurt you. We’re square. If you start shit, I’ll come down on you with the fury of a thousand suns. I’ll fucking kill you, you son of a bitch.”
I turned and walked out.
Neither of them moved or spoke as I moved the bin blocking the door and left.
If they’d tried to stop me I swear I would have killed them right there. Fuck the consequences.
I made it out of school without talking to anyone else, and I was halfway home on my quiet path when the rage died down enough for the fear to hit.
They’d almost succeeded.
They’d almost raped me while I was powerless and trapped and locked in.
I was stupid enough to think that bad people listened to signs on doors like ‘Girls Only.’
How fucking naive was that?
It was like I thought the locker room was my own private clubhouse in my own private tree. No Boyz Allowed.
It was like I thought I was safe.
A while ago, I think I would have been. I wouldn’t have been at school so late, and even if I had been…
It would have been different.
I would have been like the other girls at school, untouchable. Not worth messing with.
Someone like William would have known it would be my word over his, and he would have left me alone… Well, okay, someone like William wouldn’t have left me alone, but he wouldn’t have gone looking for me either.
If he’d have found me alone, sure, if he’d stumbled across the opportunity, he would have hurt me if he thought he could get away with it, but…
He wouldn’t have gone looking. He wouldn’t have made his own opportunity.
I was different now.
There was doubt.
If something bad happened to me, if William and Chad raped me… not everyone would have believed me.
Even some of the teachers would have taken their side.
It was hard to believe that anyone but Coach B would believe those weasels, but…
Shit.
My head was going round and round. I felt like I’d ridden the Tilt-A-Whirl after eating too much cotton candy.
I wanted to throw up.
I wanted to scrub everywhere William had touched me.
I wanted Merle.
I kept walking, letting my body take me home, taking deep breaths.
By the time I got to my apartment I felt like everyone walking past me on the street was a threat.
I almost jumped out of my skin when a kid tossed an empty can into a trash can, making a ringing noise of metal
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