NORMAL (55 page)

"You
fuckin' whore
!" Robin snarls and he grabs me by the neck and slams me back into the wall once again - the unforgiving brick an effective weapon. I feel all the air forced from my body as I make contact and my head swims with dizziness as I stumble to find my footing.

But it doesn't matter, I'm lifted from the ground anyway as Robin's hand tightens around my neck, choking out any air I had left. My eyes spring open in renewed terror as I realize that,
yes
, this time, he really is going to kill me, and as his free hand frantically rips at my panties, I realize that he's going to rape me one last time as he does.

And then he's off of me, and I'm suddenly released, but can't catch my footing and I stagger to the floor. There's a whirlwind of commotion in front of me, and someone else is there, and I can hear grunts and muttered curses, but it takes me a moment to understand that the second man is Sam, and that he and Robin are fighting.

"Tuck, over here!" Sam calls out behind him as he lands a solid punch to Robin's jaw. While he's off balance from the hit, Sam kicks out his leg and Robin falls to the ground.

Sam is immediately on top of him, straddling him and landing punch after punch. I still can't move, I simply look on in horror, knowing I should stop Sam before he kills Robin, but unable to bring myself to help a man who I believe with all my heart was about to kill me, and who was certainly about to rape me.

Suddenly more people are flocking into the alley, but still I can't can't get up, I can't even move. I can see that Tucker is in front, and he holds back whoever is behind him.

"Stay here. Keep an eye on the girls," Tuck says to Andrew and presumably Dave, Luke and Marshall as well, before he runs down the alley toward us.

I don't make eye contact with him, I'm too ashamed, and when Tuck approaches me, irrationally I cower against the wall and hug my knees to my chest with a whimper. I don't raise my eyes above his waist, but I can sense his hesitation in his stance, at a loss for what to do with me. I can only imagine what he must think of me right now, and I see him change direction to where Sam hovers over a barely conscious Robin just five or so feet away.

"What the
actual
fuck?" Tucker demands.

"He attacked Rory," Sam says simply. "Keep him down. He doesn't get up," he instructs, his voice tremulous and deathly serious, belying his barely contained rage.

Sam approaches me cautiously, crouching down so that we're eye to eye. I meet his midnight blues and despite their devastation, I feel immediate relief.

I'm safe.

My arms fling around his neck as I get up onto my knees, launching myself into his arms, and Sam catches me, squeezing me tight.
Safe.

"He found me," I sob over and over, unable to elaborate, drenching Sam in my tears. "I don't know how, but he found me, he found me..."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so
fucking
sorry," Sam whispers over and over in response. What he's sorry for, I can't imagine, but I can't break my rambling sobs to ask him, I just bury my face in his shirt and cry, repeating myself endlessly.

I draw strength from the innate security of Sam's embrace, and try to get ahold of myself. When I lift my head, Sam is still just holding me, watching me cautiously. Robin is laying on the ground, bloodied but awake, with Tucker's shoe pressed atop his neck in warning. No one else is in the alley, but I suspect the rest of our group is lingering just out of sight.

Sam begins to look me over, holding my face and brushing his thumb over the side of my cheek where it hit the brick wall. He winces with me when he touches what will surely be an ugly bruise.

"I'm sorry," he whispers again, before proceeding to lift each of my arms, turning them over in turn to search for injuries, but I only have some scrapes and bruises. I've had far worse.

His gaze continues down, and he reaches for my skirt and pulls it down to cover my thighs. I hadn't even been mindful of the fact that I was sitting here, completely indecent. When Sam completes his inspection his eyes return to mine. He looks so guilty, as if he was the one who attacked me and not Robin.

"Tell me you're okay," he pleads.

I nod. "I'm okay," I breathe.

"I'm so sorry, Ror. I'm such a fucking idiot. I came outside to look for you and... I
saw
you with him, but I didn't realize - I just thought you were with some guy and I just..." he rakes his fingers through his hair in frustration. "I'm so fucking sorry."

I want to ask him why he's sorry, to absolve him of his unearned guilt, but I'm too shaken to form a comprehensive thought, let alone speak again. Before I can form a response, Sam slides his arm under my thighs and I'm being scooped up off the ground. I start trembling again when Robin manages a to speak.

"Some
guy
?! I'm her fuckin'
boyfriend
!" Robin growls belligerently from the ground. "You're fuckin'
mine
Rory! You hear me, you-"

Tuck cuts him off by digging his shoe into Robin's throat, and Robin makes a strangled choking sound, but I don't turn to look at him, I can't. I just tighten my hold on Sam, who stiffened at Robin's words, and I can feel in each of Sam's tensed muscles that he wants nothing more than to punish Robin for his claim - to resume his brutal beating. But he composes himself quickly.

"I'll be right back," he tells Tuck, "keep him down."

Tuck nods once, and then his brow furrows in concern when his eyes meet mine. I avert my gaze quickly in shame. I hate the way my old and new lives have collided tonight. Sam is one thing - I
wanted
him to know, to confide in him - It was my
choice
. But now Tuck heard Robin say he was my boyfriend,
oh God
, and my pitiful rambling! It wouldn't take a genius to figure out what had just gone down in this God forsaken alley.

I cringe when I picture myself cowering against the wall with my skirt around my hips and a nasty bruise right on my cheek, visible to anyone. No wonder Tuck is looking at me with such pity. I am
pitiful
. I'm vaguely thankful that he had the foresight to ensure the rest of  the group stayed back from the alley, but I know this won't stop the story from spreading for long.

"I can- uh, walk," I murmur to Sam. I can tell he disapproves, and the truth is I don't want to be anywhere but his arms, but he places me gently on my feet anyway.  

Sam wordlessly firms his palm on the small of my back for support, and I'm grateful for the contact. When we reach the entrance to the alley, I'm relieved to see that only Carl, Dave, Tina, and Andrew remain. I look only at Carl, too mortified to see the others' faces right now. She is stricken with worry. She immediately grabs me and hugs me fiercely.

"My
God
, Rory! What happened? Where did you go? What' going on? Where's Tuck?! No one will tell me anything!" she rants. I say nothing, do nothing, but hug her back.

"Call the cops, tell them you need to report an assault. Then stay here with the girls, and make sure one of you lets me know as soon as you hear a siren, okay?" Sam instructs Andrew and Dave before he looks to Carl. "You got her?" he asks carefully. I feel her nod against my shoulder.

He starts to leave, to go back to the alley, and I pull out of Carl's embrace.

"Wait! Where are you goin'?" I ask desperately. Sam looks as if he's the one in pain when he meets my eyes.

"Please just stay here with Carl. Okay, baby?
Please.
"

I nod, and Sam stalks purposefully back into the alley. I know Carl wants to ask more questions, but she won't in front of anyone else, so she just asks after Tuck again.

"I don't know!" I cry. "He came after me! And then Sam saved me, and then Tuck was there, and now they're all there, and I don't know what's happening!" I'm frustrated, I feel like I have no control, and all I really want is to be back in Sam's arms, to apologize for our earlier fight, to beg him to forgive me.

The sirens sound and the rest of the night is a blur of activity.

Robin is arrested in front of everyone, but because of the beating he took from Sam, and probably Tuck too, he's taken away in an ambulance instead of a police car.

I get treated for my scrapes and scratches in the back of another ambulance while I relay the events of the evening to a female detective. Someone scrapes under my fingernails, takes photos, and asks me technical questions about the attack and I'm glad no one I know is close enough to hear me. Andy took Tina back to the hotel at Sam's insistence, Tuck and Carl talk to a second detective, and although Sam stands with them, he doesn't take his eyes off of me.

When I'm released from the ambulance with an appointment to go into the local precinct tomorrow afternoon, the detective who questioned me moves on to Sam, so I follow her, hanging back with Carl and Tuck who have finished making their statements.

I listen to Sam explain how when he saw my friends had entered the bar, he'd asked after me, but no one knew where I'd gone - they'd thought I was right behind them. He went outside to look for me, but when he saw me in Robin's arms, he didn't recognize him, and he just thought I'd met a guy. He says he returned to the bar, but after a minute or so, he realized that it didn't make sense - that something was wrong - so he gestured to Tucker to follow him outside, and started back to where he'd seen me and continued in the direction of the hotel.

"How did you realize something was wrong?" Detective Mora asks.  

Sam chews on the inside of his cheek and frowns. "Rory would never just go off with some random guy. I should've realized it right away, but I was just- distracted, I guess," Sam murmurs.

"Distracted by what?" Mora asks, and I can't help but recall the pretty redhead he had his arm around earlier. Sam hesitates before answering.

"Jealousy."

Detective Mora nods in understanding and suddenly I'm utterly riveted by Sam's account of what happened. I'm vaguely aware of Carl taking the direction of Sam's statement as her cue to lead Tuck a little further down the sidewalk, so they are no longer listening, but I don't move. I'm not even sure if Sam knows I'm there, hanging on his every word.

"I see. But how did you know Miss Pine didn't just decide to engage with a stranger? Plenty of young girls use spring break as an excuse to engage in activities that would otherwise be out of character for them."  

Sam chews his bottom lip, but his eye contact with the detective doesn't waver. "Not Rory," he says simply.

"How can you be certain?" Mora presses him.

"Because I know her. She has a history that... affected her... in certain ways. And one of those ways is that she doesn't like being touched, not even by her friends for the most part, and definitely not by strangers." Of course, Detective Mora already knows this from my own statement and the medical history I gave to the EMT. Sam closes his eyes for a moment and shakes his head. "But honestly, even if that wasn't the case, she still wouldn't do that, spring break or not," he adds definitively, and my heart twists in my chest at his faith in me.

"Okay, let's rewind a bit. When you exited the bar for the second time, what did you do?" Mora asks.

"Like I said, I looked for Rory where I'd last seen her, but she wasn't there. I just shouted at Tuck to find her and took off across the street in that direction and then started toward the hotel since it's just down there," he points in the direction of our hotel, "but I heard her scream and I... I panicked, I couldn't find her-"

"You heard her scream? How did you know it was Miss Pine?" the detective cuts him off.

Sam's brow furrows, he rakes his fingers through his hair and his stress is palpable. "I... I don't know, I know her voice, I guess... and I already thought she was in trouble... and I was pretty sure she'd said 'Sam'-"

"Which would be you," she interrupts again.

Sam nods. "Yeah."

"So then what did you do?"

Sam takes a calming breath, it would seem he needs it. Then, he starts to explain how he thought my scream had come from behind him so he turned back in the direction he'd come from, but no one was there. Tuck had followed him out, and apparently the rest of our group had realized something was up and had followed as well because Sam noticed them across the street, standing around outside the bar in consternation.

"What were your other friends doing at this time?" Mora asks.

Sam shrugs. "I don't know, I just barely noticed they'd come outside, I was busy," he says irritably.

"Busy looking for Miss Pine?"

Sam scowls in exasperation, clearly annoyed by the detective's thoroughness, at her stating the obvious. I can't say I blame him.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Caplan, but I need to ensure that I understand the details correctly. It's my job," she says apologetically. Sam sighs in acceptance.

"Yes, I was looking for Rory. I pointed down the street, in the opposite direction, for Tuck to run ahead of me, and I ran after him. But then I noticed the alley and I just... stopped, and I heard them and it was dark, but I could make out figures, and-"