“Oh, I see. You
like it rough.” He took his hand off my face and picked me up with it. He
carried me over to the bed, his face buried in my neck. When I tried to scream,
he covered my mouth yet again with his and thrust his tongue into it.
I thrashed and
kicked when he stopped at the edge of the bed. He threw me onto the bed and I
tried to crawl away, screaming for help.
“Oh, no, you don’t,”
he chuckled, pulling me back towards him. He climbed onto the bed and then on
top of me. His weight was too much for me to handle. I couldn’t move underneath
him. He held my hands above my head as he undid my pants. I dug my nails into
his hand in an attempt to distract him. When it didn’t work, I bit down onto
his lip so hard I made him bleed.
He swore and
pulled his head away from mine. I stared at him, eyes full of hatred. He smiled
and bent his head to me once again, gripping my hands even tighter. Once he had
successfully gotten my jeans almost off, he started to work on getting my shirt
off.
Tears started to
threaten as he squeezed my chest. I was struggling to get breath. My hope was
dwindling. No one would be able to hear me scream over the bass of the music.
I didn’t have
enough strength to fight him off. He felt me stop fighting him and decided it
was safe to move his mouth and explore.
“That’s right.
Just stay q—” He began to murmur into my collarbone. I screamed as loud as I
could and prayed that someone would hear me. Blake quickly moved his free hand
and covered my mouth and nose, suffocating me.
“Gonna stay
quiet this time?” he asked, contracting his hand. I nodded my head slowly. He
took his hand off my nose, but left it on my mouth. He lowered his head to my
ear and roughly whispered, “Well, since you don’t wanna play games, we might as
well get on with it.”
He removed his
hand from my mouth and replaced it with his own mouth. His hand slid between us
to the top of his pants, which he quickly undid. Two silent tears slipped down
my cheeks and I tried to think of something else.
The door slammed
open and Blake looked up, startled. I seized the opportunity and shoved him off
of me and onto the ground. He got up quickly and stormed out of the room. I
pulled my pants up and looked to see who my savior was. My gratitude was
quickly accompanied by an underlying anger.
Chapter Seven
“Excuse me.
Think you were interrupting? I don’t recall an invitation being handed out.”
Trying to sound as pissed as I could, I could already feel myself regretting
this conversation. Truthfully, I was incredibly grateful that Sean was there. I
was scared to think of what might have happened if he hadn’t been.
“From the way it
sounded, I didn’t think an invitation was necessary.” His voice was hard and
bitter.
I laughed. “Oh
great. On top of everything, I now have a stalker. Is this some kind of sick
and twisted birthday present that I should get used to?”
He looked at me
for a moment as if he could kill me. Then, his expression changed into a smug
and comfortable look that I didn’t like. It made him look like the pompous
jerks that went to our school. Worse yet, it made him look like Blake.
“Didn’t seem
like you would’ve minded me stalking you last night.”
“I don’t know
what you’re talking about.” I plastered on the best snob face I could fake. Years
of drama class and watching the girls at school finally seemed to pay off. The
malice rang crystal clear in my voice.
“Don’t think I
don’t know that you’re using him to get to me. Not that it bothers me; it makes
you look a little more pathetic though.”
“It’s amazing. I
still
don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied through my gritted
teeth. Anger pulsed through my veins strong and hot. I wanted to throw anything
that was in arm’s length at him. I clenched my hands into fists to control
myself.
He took a step
towards me and I moved backwards, bumping into the wall. He put his arm up on
the wall, leaning against it. He leaned in as if he were going to kiss me. “Should
I refresh your memory, or will you go running away like a little girl again?”
I put my hand on
his chest to put distance between us…nothing like the previous night. I wouldn’t
let that happen again. “I’ll tell you what, I’m feeling generous. So, let’s
not, but I’ll let you tell
everyone
that we did so they won’t feel
so
bad for you about the fact that you’re staying with a girl that cheats on
you, all the time. Then you’d
both
be lying, spineless cheaters.”
As soon as the
words were out, I regretted them.
“Sammy, is this
how you want this to be?” Sean said, softer than before, looking to the floor
and back up at me. He tried to hide his hurt behind a mask of bitterness.
“This is how you
made it, Sean.”
Defiantly, I
looked at him one last time, knowing my eyes betrayed what I didn’t want him to
see. Ashamed, I turned and left the room, leaving the door open. I only made it
a few feet before I heard the door slam louder than the music still blaring
from the party. Feeling terrible for our confrontation, I wished it hadn’t
happened the way it did.
With a heavy
heart, I turned around and looked at the door. A feeling of pity overwhelmed me
and I took a step towards the door. I wanted to console him, to comfort him.
Unsuccessfully, I tried to convince myself that I wasn’t the only one who said
cruel things, and that I wasn’t the only one who needed to apologize.
Emotionally
exhausted, I went to go find Cara to tell her that I was going home. Thank
goodness she was not all that well hidden. She was now intertwined on the couch
with the boy she was dancing with earlier.
“Sorry to
interrupt,” I tapped on her shoulder, “But, Cara I’m leaving.”
She looked up at
me, shocked.
“Why? And how
are you getting home? Brian’s with my sister.”
“I’ll explain
later, and I don’t know yet. I’ll figure it out.”
I turned away
from her, thinking about how I was going to get home, when a sudden inspiration
hit. I knew how I would get home, but it would require Blake and some
well-acted fondness.
Like Cara, Blake
was not hard to find at all. He was standing with his friends, drinking, of
course. I dreaded every step I took up to them. Then, their conversation was
audible to me and it took everything I had not to run away.
“Dude, that was
fast. Like, man, one minute you were following her in, and then, like you came
back out.” Blake’s friends were drunker than he was and it was quite pathetic.
“Well, you guys
know how I roll.” Blake’s voice was thick with implication. I grew more
disgusted and uncomfortable.
“Blakey Boo....”
I felt stupid and self-conscious. My voice sounded completely fake as I walked
up to Blake and his friends; they were too drunk to realize it though. He
pulled me to his chest and kissed me. Even though I kissed him back
reluctantly, every fiber of me wanted to pull away but, against my better
judgment, I stayed where I was. I’d already come too close to being in a sticky
situation with him this evening. Certainly, I wasn’t going to let it happen
again.
“Hey baby. You
and I gonna get together later?”
“Ooooohhhhh...,”
his friends chorused. I don’t know why, but at that moment I felt like an
autographed football up for auction.
“Well, baby,
since you know how
I
roll, you know it’s not gonna be with you,” I spoke
slowly and seductively as I stroked my hand up the back of his thigh to his
keys, which were hanging out of his back pocket. I prayed that his quad keys
were on them. “So, you know the
real
reason why he got back out here so
quickly was, since he didn’t take off his pants to begin with, he didn’t have
to put them back on,” I said maliciously. Might as well make him look as bad as
I could.
I gave Blake one
last look, and as usual his face was covered with a dumbfounded look. His
friends were all laughing as I walked off, his keys in hand.
Wondering what
his quad would look like, I walked out of the cabin and down to the mess of
quads. There were so many of them. Confused, I racked my brain for all of our
meaningless conversations about his “amazing” life. I vaguely remembered him
saying something about the fact that he rode dirt bikes. Maybe I wasn’t looking
for a quad at all.
With a new goal
in mind, I started looking around for a dirt bike or a motorcycle. There were a
few bikes in the midst of the quads. Turning to my left, I found a group of
bikes all in a line. All the bikes had big, bold white numbers that I knew
corresponded with their jersey numbers on the high school football team. Seeing
the number fourteen, I knew I had found the one I was looking for.
Blake had a
shiny black bike that he was extremely proud of. The memory of the night he
took me out on it was slowly coming back to me. It was similar to tonight,
except for the fact that I had been able to fight him off. He had been
completely out of it, and he wasn’t nearly as strong as he was now. I suspected
that steroids had something to do with his current condition. He’d left that
party screeching his tires as he sped off.
Rushing so no one
would see me, I jogged over to the bike and stuck the key in the ignition. When
I turned it, the bike started with a purr. I tried to think of a place to leave
it. Quickly, I decided that I would leave it down near the lake for him to
find.
As I rode through
the night, terrible guilt came over me. The anger had taken over when I was
with Sean back there, a delayed reaction to Blake. Calmness was all I had for
Blake when it came to being attacked, but when it came to my defender, I was
awful and ungrateful. I had to talk to him as soon as I could. I
would
make
it up to him.
The breeze in my
hair put my mind at ease as I drove along the shore to the big rock next to the
dock. When I arrived, I nestled the bike against the rock and turned it off,
leaving the keys in the ignition. When I turned to walk away, I heard other
bikes driving up. Crouched under the dock, I listened, and tried to see. The
bikes turned off and the sounds of footsteps became audible.
“I can’t believe
she did that.” It was Frankie, Blake’s “right-hand man.”
“When I find
that bitch, she’s going to regret ever taking my bike.”
Threatening to
give me away, my heart pounded in my chest. It wouldn’t be long until he saw
his bike, and when he did, he’d find me with it. He didn’t sound as drunk as he
had at the party. Maybe it was all a charade he put on to seem cool. His words
were still slightly slurred, but he sounded like he was in complete control of
what he was doing. He and his friends started to pace.
I began to
wonder if this was some game and they’d seen me come this way. How else would
they know to find me at the dock? A few more steps and they would find me.
Mentally preparing myself to put up a fight if someone came my way, I was
surprised when I heard other engines pulling up. Relief washed over me…I still
had a chance to get away. Struggling, I tried to look to see who drove up, but
Frankie’s legs were in my way.
“What? Is he not
showing?” Blake called.
“No, he’ll be
here,” Jonathon’s voice reassured him. My stomach dropped. Jonathon was Sean’s
other best friend. I hadn’t seen him at the party. I didn’t even know he would
be up here.
Blake and his
gang walked forward to who I figured was Jonathon. I guessed it would be safe
and I inched out from underneath the dock. I looked around. It seemed as if the
party had all moved there. An ominous feeling overwhelmed me as I saw still
more people were arriving.
“He’s not gonna
show, Blake.”
“Yeah, he’s
gonna punk out.”
“Are we gonna do
this or what?” Sean’s voice came from the crowd of people. I tried to figure
out what everyone was doing there. As I looked around again, I realized that
the crowd was in a circle, forming a ring. Blake walked up to Sean.
“Wow boys, he’s
more of a man than we thought.” Blake slightly pushed on Sean’s shoulders,
provoking him. Sean took a step back and proceeded to retaliate. I heard Sean
yell as I stormed up to Blake and shoved him from behind.
“Don’t you dare
touch him!”
The crowd grew
wild and I could hear Cara yelling at me from the mass of people.
Blake turned and
looked at me, his eyes angry and wild. He grabbed my upper arms tightly and
threw me to the ground roughly.
“I’ll deal with
you later. You’ll learn not to—”
His sentence got
cut off by Sean’s fist going into his mouth and knocking him to the ground. He
went to get up and Sean pushed him back to the ground.
“Sammy, get out
of here. Now.” He didn’t seem angry at me. Sean just looked at me with eyes
that were filled with worry before they went blank. Giving me one last look,
Sean turned back to Blake, who was just managing to get up, and Sean kicked
him.
“Didn’t Daddy
ever teach you not to handle women like that?”
I scrambled up
and tried to make my way through the sea of people as quickly as I could. Not
quick enough though.
“Yeah, but that’s
not going to stop me from kicking
your
ass tonight.” The crowd’s
reaction was to be expected. They laughed and jested. I was almost through the
cluster of people.
“Get up. Give me
a real fight.”
Then, I was
running. The crowd had all moved in closer to see the fight that I didn’t want
to see. I kept running until I got past the edge of the forest. I slowed down
and started looking for the path. The noise from the commotion was starting to
fade. It grew quieter and quieter as I started to make my way up the path back
to the cabin. It was only quiet for a moment or two when I heard another engine
drive up.