by Shealy James
“No kissy kissy?”
“Nope. Just a peck on the cheek, which was fine with me. We were getting to know each other. He called me a couple of times this week, and today he asked me to go to some food festival on Saturday. It should be fun.”
“Yes. It will be. I’ll make sure you look hot. You will have that boy eating out of your hand.” I giggled at her excitement. She was back to herself, and she was so much more fun now.
The next day Parker acted like nothing happened. Fine with me. That wasn’t something I wanted to discuss. He said he had some things to do after our last class, so we went our separate ways. I didn’t see him for the rest of the night.
On Saturday, I ran early, alone like Parker predicted, and then Sarah helped me get ready. Colton arrived to pick me up at eleven, but before I could answer the door, Parker was there.
I heard Colton say, “Oh. Hey man. I’m looking for Maggie.”
“Who are you?” Parker said as I walked up to the door.
“Hey Colton. Sorry. This is my roommate Parker. Parker this is Colton.” I eyed him to tell him to behave.
“Ahh. Colton.” Parker said and walked away.
“Sorry about that. Ready to go?”
“Yeah. Let’s go.” When we were both seated in the car, he looked over and asked, “So you live with that guy?”
“Yeah, and my best friend Max, and my roommate from the dorm Sarah.”
“I see.” He started the car and backed out of the driveway without another word.
We went to the food festival and walked around tasting food from all the different restaurants in the Atlanta area. Not only was it filling, but it was also really fun. Almost everything was really good. We did a wine tasting and a beer tasting. I surprisingly liked the wine. I usually don’t like the wine at my parent’s club, but this wine was pretty good.
We were gone a few hours by the time he drove me home. He walked me to my door, and this time I offered for him to come in. He said that he had to meet his parents for dinner soon. We stood there for a second before he leaned in and kissed me. It was a rough kiss and a little awkward, but I’m sure he was just nervous about kissing me for the first time.
When he broke the kiss, he leaned his forehead against mine and said, “I wanted to kiss you last week and all day today. I couldn’t wait anymore.” I smiled. He gave me one last peck on the lips before he said goodbye. I stayed out on the porch as he drove away, and I waved when he honked.
When I walked in, Sarah was in the living room watching a movie. “Well? How’d it go?”
“Good. It was fun.”
“Kissing?”
“Sarah. Stop.” I felt my cheeks redden.
“That’s a yes. I knew when Garrett kissed you, and you can definitely tell now.”
“Oh shut up,” I said and threw a pillow at her.
Over the next few days, I hardly saw my roommates. I saw Parker in class and at practice, but he was almost never home. Usually we studied together, but he never showed up at the library and always sent short texts saying he had something else to do. Yeah. SomeONE else to do. I shoved my unkind thoughts away and focused on my studying.
Colton texted me a few times during the week, but the most recent was the one I was most excited about.
Colton: Dinner at my place Friday?
Me: Ok. What time?
Colton: Come over at 7. I’ll text you the address.
Me: Sounds good. See you then.
I told Sarah about it, and she insisted that a man cooking you dinner meant more than dinner. I thought she was being ridiculous since it was only our third date, and he was such a gentleman. Boy, was I wrong.
After a dinner of Cajun chicken pasta, he asked if I wanted to watch a movie.
“Sure. What movie?”
“My selection is pretty limited. I’m a horror film junkie.”
I usually don’t watch horror films, not since that sleepover when I was eleven, but I figured that if I got scared, he wouldn’t mind if I snuggled up to him. That was probably his motive anyway. Not long into the film, he was kissing me. He was really rough, almost forceful, but I just thought he was passionate.
His hands started to trace my body. He grabbed me and pulled me over his lap, so I was straddling him. I thought about stopping him, but he was so into it. I didn’t want to ruin it. His hands slid inside my shirt and rubbed up and down my back. He traced the back of my bra then brought his hands around to my front. He cupped my breasts and squeezed them tightly, too tightly, painfully. I still didn’t say anything. I kept kissing him, but it didn’t feel right.
His hands slid down to the waistband of my jeans. He rubbed across it a couple times and dropped his hands to my butt and pulled me closer on his lap. I could feel his erection now. He was pushing my hips down onto his lap. This was starting to feel really wrong.
“I want you,” he whispered against my lips that were now swollen and sore from the forceful kissing. He pushed me against his hardness again and brought his hand around to the button of my jeans.
That was all it took. I hopped off his lap. “I can’t do this. I don’t do this.”
He looked angry now. “Then what the fuck are you doing here?”
I jumped back at his tone. “I thought…”
“You thought what? That you would come over to my house, and I would wine and dine you? You really are naïve aren’t you? Sweet Maggie is really a fucking cock tease, you stupid bitch. Get the fuck out.”
I grabbed my purse and ran out of there as fast as I could. I made it onto the highway before the tears overtook me. I was crying so hard I had to pull over into a gas station. I didn’t know what to do, but I knew I shouldn’t sit there alone. Max would freak out, and Parker was definitely out of the question. My dad would never let me leave the house again. I thought about my sisters, but they would somehow make this my fault. It probably was my fault. Oh, Sarah. She knew, and I didn’t believe her.
Fortunately, Sarah is not an ‘I told you so’ kind of person, so I called her. I told her what happened through my sobs, and she just said, “Where are you? I’m on my way.”
She and Becca showed up, and Sarah jumped in my car making me climb over to the passenger seat. She waved at Becca then let me sit there and bawl. She hugged me and tried to sooth me by petting my hair. When I was all cried out, I leaned back in my seat while trying to wipe off my face.
“I know you don’t want to talk about it anymore, but I want to make sure, nothing happened, right? He didn’t…umm…penetrate?”
“What? No.” I laughed at her word. “Penetrate? Gross word choice. No though. I stopped it before that. He freaked out and started yelling.”
“Ok. Just checking. You ready to go home?”
“Yes. I hope everyone is either out or in bed when we get there.”
Luckily Max and Parker were out, and Becca had gone back to her place. I went up to my room to take a hot shower. I wanted to get any trace of Colton off of me. I fell into an exhausted sleep soon after climbing in bed. Crying really takes it out of you, and I so wasn’t used to that. I had forgotten how awful crying could be.
When I woke up in the morning, I felt wretched and humiliated. I decided that I wanted some time alone, so I decided to head home. My mother would be busy with her friends, and Daddy would be working, so it was the perfect place to be alone. I woke Sarah up to tell her.
When her door creaked open, she immediately sat up in her bed. “You ok?”
“Yeah. I want to go home for the rest of the weekend.”
“Ok. Do you want me to go with you?”
“No. The drive will give me time to think.”
She looked unconvinced, but said, “Ok. Be safe. Call me if you need anything, and call me to let me know you made it there safely.”
“K. Thanks for everything Sarah.”
“Of course. You know I’m here for ya, girl.” She lay back down on her fluffy pink pillows as I closed her door without a sound.
&nb
sp; I grabbed my purse and headed home. I didn’t need to bring anything because I still had clothes and stuff there, so I climbed in my car and started driving. The three-hour drive was not helpful. I kept thinking of what could have happened last night, how I was lucky that he let me leave.
When I pulled into the driveway at home, Daddy was sitting on the front porch on his phone. As soon as he saw me, he hung up. “Hey kid. Whatcha doin’ home?”
I immediately burst into tears. He ran out to grab me as I fell into his arms. “What happened, Maggie? What’s going on?”
He picked me up and carried me inside. Surprisingly, my mother came to see what was going on. “Margaret? What…Oh my God! What’s wrong? Why is she crying Jim?”
I kept sobbing and hanging on to my dad’s neck. He walked me to the couch and made me sit down while my mother walked into the house ahead of us and headed into the kitchen. Our housekeeper, Eliza, came into the living room brought tissues over and sat next to me holding me tightly in her warm arms. I don’t think my mother has ever held me like this. In fact, it was no surprise at all that Eliza was the one holding me while my mother disappeared into another room.
Daddy left the room saying he would be right back. My sobs started to slow down, and Eliza watched me with concerned eyes. “Do you want to tell me what’s wrong?”
“A boy…he tried to…” I started having trouble breathing.
“Oh no, darlin’. Did he…did he touch you?”
“No. I ran away. He told me that he wanted…and that I was stupid for thinking anything else.”
“Oh my God.” She took me back in her arms. “Don’t worry darlin’. We’ll fix this.” She rocked me and rubbed my back. I felt safe in Eliza’s arms, and with her holding me like this, I knew everything would be ok.
Chapter 12
Parker
This morning I woke up, and Maggie wasn’t here. Her bedroom door was open and her bed was perfectly made like always. Ugh. She probably spent the night with Colton. There goes my beautiful, innocent, perfect Maggie. My Maggie. Yeah right.
Max, Becca, and I were in the kitchen for a late breakfast. He was attempting to make pancakes for Becca, and I was laughing at his attempts to flip pancakes. His phone started ringing, and I saw it was Jim Miller.
“Hey Max. It’s Maggie’s dad.” Becca told Max as she took him his phone
“Answer it and put it on speaker.” She hit answer on his phone, tapped speaker and held it out to him. “Hey Jim. What’s going on?”
A very angry Mr. Miller was practically roaring into the phone, “MAXWELL, WHY IS MY DAUGHTER SITTING IN MY FAMILY ROOM CRYING HER EYES OUT? She hasn’t cried like this since she was six years old. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?”
Max looked panicked. “Jim. I…I don’t know. When did Maggie get there? Is she ok? What did she say? I have no idea what’s going on. I didn’t even know she had left.”
Mr. Miller started speaking again, but this time he was speaking in a quiet, menacing tone. “Maxwell, so help me God, if I have to drive up there and kill that roommate of yours with my bare hands for touching my daughter, you know I’ll.”
Max looked at me. I shook my head vigorously and held my hands up. I didn’t touch her. I didn’t do anything to her that I know of.
“He didn’t do anything, Jim. Let me see if Sarah knows anything, and I’ll call you back. I’m on my way down there. I’ll be there this afternoon.”
“I think you have done enough, Max. I can take care of my daughter. Call me back.”
The phone went dead. Max looked at me, “Holy shit. Did you do something? Maggie does not cry, and she certainly doesn’t go to her parents when she is upset. She comes to me. What the fuck happened?”
“It wasn’t me. I hardly saw her this week. I was working on a project.” Shit! What happened to Maggie? My brain was going crazy with possibilities.
We both looked over at Becca who had her head face down on her hands on the table. “Becca? Do you know something?” Max asked suspiciously.
“Umm…I drove Sarah to go pick her up last night. Sarah and I were hanging out doing our nails and watching rom coms, and Maggie called. Sarah asked me to drive her somewhere, but when we got there, she climbed in the driver’s seat of Maggie’s car, and I went home. I don’t know what happened, but she was supposed to be on a date.”
Both Max and I turned and raced up the stairs. I made it to Sarah’s door first and flung it open.
“Hey!” She was in her bathroom with the door open curling her hair. Fortunately for all of us, she was fully dressed.
“What the hell happened to Maggie?” I shouted at her.
“What? How do you guys know something happened?” Her eyes darted back and forth between Max and me. We must have looked crazy running into her room like that, but right then I didn’t care. I was worried about Maggie.
Max jumped in, also yelling, “Her dad called freaking out. He was yelling that she was home and really upset. Maggie doesn’t get upset, and she certainly doesn’t cry to her parents.”
“Oh God. I knew she wasn’t ok.” She said and put the curling iron down. “Colton tried to get in her pants. Nothing happened, but I think it scared her. He yelled at her, said some terrible things, and the told her to ‘get the fuck out.’ She tried to come home, but she was crying, so she called me to come get her. She said she was okay this morning, but she wanted to go home to get away.”
“I’m gonna kill him.” I muttered as I ran down the stairs and out the front door towards my car. I heard my name behind me, but I couldn’t stop. I was going to kill the son of a bitch that hurt Maggie. No one should do that to any girl, but he definitely shouldn’t have done that to Maggie. His first mistake was showing up on our doorstep.
Max popped up in front of me. “Stop. You don’t know him or where he lives. Maggie is safe. Let’s figure something else out. First, help me figure out what to tell her dad.”
I rubbed my face with my hands. Max was right. I didn’t know where to go. The thought of that son of a bitch putting his hands on her was enough to make me want to knock his teeth into his skull. Knowing she didn’t want him to touch her made me want to kill the bastard. This was not going to be ok. We may not be able to kick his ass or press charges, but we could not let him get away with doing this to Maggie.
I walked back in the house when I calmed down. Max, Becca, and Sarah were all sitting at the kitchen table. They watched me approach. When I sat down, I leaned forward and rested my elbows on the table. I looked at Max, “What are we going to do?”
Sarah reiterated my need to deal with this prick. “If he did this to Maggie on their third date, he has probably done this to other girls. He may have even done worse. Maggie told him ‘no.’ She may be stronger than we all gave her credit for being.”
I shivered. I didn’t want Maggie to go back to being the scared doormat Max had described when they first came to school. She was afraid to make friends because people treated her so badly, and this was the kind of thing we had been trying to keep from her all along.
Max smirked. “I think I have an idea. First, we need to agree not to tell Maggie anything. She won’t like us getting involved, and she has been through enough. I’m tired of watching her trust people only to get hurt over and over again. She will somehow think this is all her fault.”
“What about her dad?” I asked.
“I’m going to have to tell him,” Max said. “Otherwise, he may get others involved, and it could get really ugly. He won’t tell her anything though. We need to keep our mouths shut. Agreed?” Everyone nodded in agreement even though we had no idea what we were agreeing to do. “Now, we need to get some information on him. Sarah, what do you know about him?” Max asked as he opened his laptop.
“His name is Colton, and he is in a frat at Tech. Alpha something and another. If they have pictures online, I could probably pick him out.”
“I have seen him too,” I told them. “He also drives a black BMW 3 series. I saw
it when he came to pick her up last week. It has a Georgia plate with a Fulton County sticker, so he’s from here.”
Everyone stared at me. “What? I was curious about who she was going out with. It seems like I had good reason to be.” Sarah smiled coyly and gave me a look that I couldn’t quite place. “What?”
“Nothing. Nothing at all Parker,” she said and patted my arm, but she kept smiling like she had a secret.
“Ok. So, I have pulled up the school’s Greek website. You two have to look at each individual frat picture looking for him. I need his last name at least. It would be helpful to get a picture of him, so I can match it to his social network pages.”
“I don’t mind doing this, Max, but will you at least tell me what we are doing. What’s the plan?” Sarah asked.
Max smirked. “I’m thinking we should keep him from getting laid for a while.”
“We should write a public service message from him, like he wants people to go get tested for herpes or something,” Becca added.
Sarah laughed, “While I think this is a little immature, I like this better than letting Parker kick his ass. At least you can make it where it doesn’t come back to bite us, right Max?”
“Yeah. No one will ever be able to trace it. Once I change his password, I’ll use a school computer at the library that is left on for book searches. Anyone could have done this from a public computer. With his password changed, it will be days before he will be able to update his status. He will have to report his account to be deactivated since he won’t be able to log in.”
Apparently over the last few months, Max had become quite the little hacker. He had always been able to do crazy things with the computer, but he was more interested in building programs and doing useful things he had said. Now he had a reason to do something that I was sure was completely illegal and tested his skills. He chatted online with some people who had done things similar to what we were trying to do. I guess sometimes it pays to be good with computers if you’re a social outcast. There were tons of people who sent Max information about how to avoid getting caught, how to hack into Colton’s account, and how to get the word spread quickly. They even suggested some other ideas, but many of them were likely to be felonies, and we were not looking to get arrested.