Collateral Damage (From the Damage)

by Jasmine Denton

  “I didn’t think she’d run. She promised me she would talk to the cops in the morning,” Daphne explained, knowing that did nothing to help with the rules she’d broken.

  “But you didn’t take her keys?” Brett kept his blue eyes locked on hers as he rattled off a list of protocol, “Or check to see if she had drugs? Or a knife, or a gun?” Watching as Daphne shook her head ‘no’ to each question, he sighed. “Daphne, did you do anything you were supposed to do?”

  “I talked to her,” she said. “I listened to her. She was ready for a change, she said she knew she couldn’t go back home.”

  “Just because she was ready for a change doesn’t mean it will be a good one. Who knows what’s going on in her head right now, or how threatened by her dad she is? She could hurt him, or herself, or worse. Daphne, even if this ends well—and chances are it won’t—do you have any idea what it’ll do to your career?”

  “I care more about what it’ll do to Kay,” she snapped. “Are you going to help me find her or not?”

  ***

  Meagan

  ***

  Balancing herself on one crutch, Meagan opened her locker and handed Kelly a copy of her English textbook and the Great Gatsby. “I might need the notebook, too, huh?” Meagan asked Kelly, as she looked at the mess her locker had become, searching for the notebook. “It’s usually more organized than this.”

  “You should see mine,” Kelly said with a chuckle. “Isn’t your English notebook green?”

  “Yeah.”

  “It’s right here.” Kelly reached over and pulled it out from under a thick text book and put it on top of the rest.

  “Great, thanks,” she said, shutting the locker door just in time to see Lena approaching. Her hair was pulled up into a cute messy ponytail with her bangs swooping down to cover her eye. She stopped by Kelly and gave them both a shy smile. “Hey guys.”

  Meagan and Kelly waited for the rest—the signature catty dig from Lena. Kelly placed her hand on her hip and cocked it to the side, watching Lena with a cold-eyed look, ready to step in and defend Meagan if needed.

  “I was hoping we could talk,” Lena added, turning her focus to Meagan. “In private.”

  “Why so you can lead me into some kind of humiliating trap?” Meagan asked. “No thanks.”

  Lena sighed, like she deserved the cold shoulder. With a steadying breath, as if gathering up her courage, she tucked her bangs behind her ear, shocking both the girls with a purple bruise on her cheekbone. “Please,” she said, locking eye contact with Meagan.

  Meagan felt a tug at her gut. She’d always feared Seth would hurt Lena, even tried to warn her, but she’d naively and passionately stood by her boyfriend. Studying the bruise, which she had obviously covered with a lot of makeup. she wondered how bad it really looked. Finally, she nodded. “Okay.” Turning to Kelly, she said, “Would you mind taking those to the classroom for me?”

  Kelly shot Lena a sympathetic, but skeptical look. “Considering how Lena’s treated you before,” she said to Meagan, “I think I should come with you.”

  “Fine,” Lena said, raising her eyebrows to meet the challenge. “Kelly can come to.”

  The three of them headed to the nearest girl’s bathroom, and Lena stopped to hold the door open for her. It unnerved her a little, she kept expecting Lena’s posse to pop out and start taunting her.

  “What happened to your face?” Meagan asked, keeping her guard up as she entered the bathroom.

  Lena waited until the door swung shut behind her, then she planted herself in front of it. But was that to keep others from coming in, or to stop Meagan from leaving? Kelly stood off to the side.

  “I overheard Seth confessing what he did to you,” Lena said. “He didn’t like it when I confronted him about it.”

  “So he hit you?” Meagan asked.

  “You don’t seem surprised.”

  Meagan shrugged and hopped over to the sink, then leaned against it, turning to Lena. “Look at my leg,” she said, knocking on her cast with her knuckles. “No. I’m not surprised.”

  Lena stared at her former best friend, with so much sympathy and remorse on her face that Meagan was taken back. “Meagan,” she said softly, like she just wanted to reach out and hug her. Tears clouded her eyes, making her voice quiver as she said, “I’m so sorry I didn’t believe you.”

  Meagan wasn’t prepared for the feeling of satisfaction hearing the apology gave her. But it felt like someone had popped a balloon or something, filling her with a sense of relief “I’m sorry he hit you.”

  Lena shook her head and wiped away tears. Then she walked over, planting herself in front of the mirror and took a look at her face. With a small sigh, she dug inside her handbag and came out with a comb. As she began to style her bangs to cover the bruise again, she vowed, “He’s going to pay. For all of it.”

  “Good luck with that,” Meagan said. She wished Lena had just shut up, because the more she spoke, the more Meagan remembered that it wasn’t just Seth who had made her life miserable. It’d been all of them…everyone she’d considered a friend. There was no apology for that, she noticed, bitterness taking over her relief.

  “I’m going to make sure of it,” Lena said, turning to Meagan. “For you. For me. For any other girl he might’ve done this to.”

  Meagan sat up straight. “You think there are others?”

  “You think there’s not?” Lena replied. “Seth’s an egotistical jackass. Even while we were dating I would’ve admitted that. If he hurt you and got away with it, there was nothing stopping him from doing it again.”

  “What’s your plan?” Kelly asked, finally speaking up.

  She teased her hair and grinned wickedly. “Total social destruction. With your help, he’ll be undateable, unplayable, even the Color Guard won’t talk to him.”

  Meagan chuckled bitterly and stood up, propping the crutch under her arm. “I’ve been on the receiving end of that before, and you can count me out.”

  “What? Are you serious?” Lena turned, watching as Meagan moved toward the door. “After what he did to you? Don’t you want revenge?”

  “No,” Meagan said, pausing to look at Lena. “I don’t. I never have. What I want is justice. And this, your little plan here, isn’t it.”

  “It’s something,” Lena said.

  “No, Lena, you know what would’ve been something? If you had believed me, and not him. If you hadn’t kicked me off the cheerleading squad and spread rumors about me and spray painted ‘whore’ on my locker.” She reached over and pulled open the door, then turned her back to it to hold it open while she said, “I’m glad you’ve had your eyes opened about Seth, but maybe you should take this newfound insight and look in the mirror.”

  ***

  Alex

  ***

  Daphne had just called to see if Alex had heard from Kay, but once he knew what was going on, he couldn’t help but try to look for her, even if it meant ditching the rest of his classes. He hadn’t talked to Kay since last night when her dad was about to go off, and he’d been worried ever since.

  Since he’d exhausted all other resources in his search for Kay, Alex walked into the video game store, looking for Zander. He spotted him in the back, putting the rental games back in their places.

  “Hey,” Alex said, walking up to him.

  Zander glanced over at him, chewing loudly on a piece of gum as he placed a zombie game on the shelf. “Kind of hard to play a video game with one hand.”

  Alex glanced down at his cast. “That’s not why I’m here,” he said. “I wanted to talk to you about Kay. Have you seen her?”

  “Not since…” he trailed off, thinking. “The night of your accident. Why?”

  “The accident?” Alex repeated. It’d been weeks ago, and Kay hadn’t mentioned a falling out with Zander. Come to think of it, she hadn’t mentioned him at all. Was that part of the reason she took off? “What happened?”

  He shrugged, blowing a bubble and poppi
ng it. “She kissed me. I told her I had a girlfriend. She’s avoided me ever since. You know how she is.”

  Alex narrowed his eyes into a glare, scoffing in disbelief. “How she is?”

  “Her dad’s a jerk, so she goes to other guys. Any guy, for anything whether its support or to lose herself for a couple hours. This time, I just happened to be there. And apparently, so did you. I’ve seen her wearing your jacket.”

  “Yeah,” Alex nodded, stepping forward. “I know how she is. She’s beaten into silence, scared to speak out, terrified to let someone close just in case they decide to hurt her, too. She can’t turn to her Mom, her Dad’s the one hurting her and her best friend…well, he just sat by and watched for seven years.”

  Zander glared at him, stepping up. “I begged her to come forward, but she always refused.”

  “And in all that time you never once thought to do it for her?” Alex used his good arm to shove Zander back a couple paces. “Or was being her hero too much to lose?”

  “What’s your problem, Walker?” he demanded, catching his balance.

  “You are! You didn’t do anything. You just left her there. You’re just as bad as he is!” Alex finished ranting and finally noticed that everyone in the store was staring at him. After shooting onlookers a glare, he leveled his gaze with Zander’s, trying to keep his voice calm as he said, “Kay is missing.”

  Zander’s attitude finally turned to one of concern. “What?”

  “She had a blowout with her dad last night and went to Daphne for help. She convinced Daphne to wait till today before she called the police, but when Daphne woke up, Kay was gone.” He looked up. “Is there anywhere she would go? Think.”

  “Did you try the park?” Zander asked.

  “Of course I tried the park,” Alex snapped. Along with the diner, and the lake, and her school, and everywhere else he could think of.

  “I don’t know,” he said, “Maybe she went back home.”

  “We’ve looked there, too,” Alex said.

  “Then maybe she’s just driving around, I have no idea.”

  Alex stopped panicking for a second and looked at Zander, really studied him. He seemed overall calm, but a little frazzled. Not like someone who found out bad news about a best friend. “Why aren’t you more freaked out?”

  Zander’s gaze cut to meet Alex’s in question.

  “You know where she is.”

  He shook his head. “I told you I haven’t heard from her.”

  “Right.” Moving with his football speed, Alex slipped his hand in Zander’s pocket and grabbed his cell phone. It only took him a second to open the recent call list. “Then why has she called you three times this morning?”

  He sighed, shoving his hands in his pockets and turning to face Alex. “Okay. She called me this morning and told me what happened. But I don’t know where she is, I swear.”

  “Then what do you know?”

  “I know she’s scared. She’s hiding from her dad. He’s been calling her all morning.”

  “I can’t believe you’re hiding her again. That’s all you ever did was help cover for her dad.” Alex used Zander’s phone to call Kay, and held the phone to his ear while he counted the rings.

  “Why are you acting like this?” Zander turned to Alex, studying him. “It’s just another one of their fights.”

  He wished Zander would just leave him alone, let him talk to Kay. That’s all he needed, was to make sure she was alright. “It’s not just another—”

  “Hello?”

  Kay’s voice sounded strained and tearful, but hearing it filled Alex with an overwhelming sense of relief. It awakened the guilt he didn’t even know he was feeling, stirring emotions in him until his eyes teared, right here in the video game store. He hurried outside, waiting until the door was swinging shut behind him to speak. “Kay, it’s me.”

  “Alex?” She sounded confused and then she went quiet.

  “Don’t hang up, okay?” he begged, “I just want to talk.” He waited for her to respond, but she didn’t. She didn’t hang up, either, so he continued, “I’m so sorry, Kay. About all of it.”

  “You’re sorry? For what? You didn’t do anything.”

  “Your dad told you to stay home, but I just had to bring up the stupid road trip. And—”

  “Alex, he would’ve found some other reason to hit me. He always did,” she said, her voice shaking. “None of this is your fault.”

  “And it’s not yours, either,” he said.

  “I know,” she said quietly, with a sigh, but he didn’t think she believed it.

  “Then tell me where you’re at. I’ll take you to Daphne and we’ll all go to the police together.”

  “And then what? Where am I going to go? Into foster care like Ryder? Or to my mom’s? What’s going to happen to me? Nobody has an answer for that question, and I need…I need to know.”

  “I can’t answer that,” he said. “All I can tell you is that from what I’ve seen, I think you can handle anything that comes your way.”

  Her voice was barely above a whisper as she tearfully said, “I’m at the beach.”

  ***

  Kendall

  ***

  Standing on Seth’s porch, Kendall peeked inside the front window and searched for any sign of movement. Nervous and fretful, Kelly backed away from the window and whispered, “You’re sure the DVD said MVP?”

  “Positive.”

  “So why don’t we just call the police?”

  “You know my word isn’t enough to get a search warrant,” she said. “We have to get it ourselves, then we can give it to my dad. Now hide.” Without waiting, Kendall reached out and knocked on the door.

  Kelly ducked behind the rosebush and shot Kendall a threatening look.

  Seth opened the door a few seconds later. He looked at her with that knowing, superior smirk of his and leaned against the doorframe. “You always come running back.”

  She crossed her arms and looked up at him. “I’m not ‘running back’ to you. You skipped school today. I had to find you.”

  He raised his eyebrows suggestively. “Ready to pick up where we left off?”

  “I’m ready to tell you that you need some serious help.”

  “Help?” he repeated, stepping out onto the porch. “I’d say I’m beyond help by now.”

  “I don’t believe that,” she said, backing up as he came out of the house. “I know…I know you’ve done some horrible things…and there’s no excuse for it,” she held eye contact with him as she spoke. “But…what we went through…I think it explains it a little.”

  He started laughing at her. “Classic case of victim turned predator, huh? Is that how you justify what I did?”

  She turned as she started talking, both to lead him away from the house so Kelly could sneak inside and to prevent herself from looking at him. “Take a minute to remember how we met,” she said, her voice starting to crack. “I was at the playground and you offered to push my swing. You hard your charm turned on and…I was instantly crushing. Do you remember what happened next, Seth?”

  He was staring at her, his cold gaze softening. When he spoke, his voice was barely above a whisper. “I told you I saw a cat run into the woods, and convinced you to help me find it.”

  She nodded, a few carefully held back tears escaping with the movement. “And once we were alone…you chloroformed me.”

  He took a shaky breath, the weight of the memories looking like they would crush him.

  “You’d think I would hate you for that, but at the same time, I understand. He made you do it, and you were doing what you were told because you were scared. And he did this to you, over and over,” she said, her compassion for him growing until her heart ached. “He used you to lure the girls in. Used you as the male lead in his sick little movies. He turned you into a predator.” She shivered, squeezing her eyes shut as a few painful memories surfaced. “You lived through two years of that. Now I’m not an expert, but I’d say tha
t’s enough to really screw with someone’s head. Maybe you should go talk to somebody, tell them what happened, what you did—”

  Behind him, she saw Kelly slip into the house through the open door.

  “Don’t you see what you’re doing here?” he asked, laughing at her like she was the joke. “You found out who I really am, and you can’t take it. And in less than twenty-four hours, you’re back here, defending me and making up excuses for what I did.”

  “Because I know you’re a good person, you’ve just lost your way!”

  He locked gazes with her, looking at her with a set of cold, numbed eyes. “No,” he said, voice rising, a venomous look crossing his face. “You need to believe I’m a good person, so you can think you’re one too. I mean, if the rapist can be redeemed, then the slut can too, right?”

  His words stung, but she wouldn’t let them deter her. “Seth, if you don’t get help, I’m going to tell people what you did.”

  He shrugged. “Nobody’s going to believe you.”

  “My dad will. And he’ll talk to your dad, and eventually convince him and then they’re going to talk to Meagan and she’s going to be so ready to destroy you that she’ll sing like a canary. Who would blame her?” She took a step toward him, keeping her arms crossed. “It’ll be this long, messy, drawn out thing. Newspapers might get involved. And the whole school is going to talk about it. And then there’s the trial, and the judge…”

  He threw his hands up. “I get the picture. What’s the alternative?”

  “You come with me now, and we’ll go tell your dad what you did.”

  “He already knows,” he said, turning from her.

  Kendall hadn’t prepared herself for that one, and it took her a minute to respond. “He…he knows? You told him?”

  “I didn’t tell him…he found out, okay? So there goes your whole plan—”

  “Then we’ll go straight to a doctor—”

  Fed up, he lunged toward her, getting right in her face as he shouted, “Kendall, I said no!” She just stared at him, scoffing.

  “Well, those words don’t mean much to you, do they?”