“Where are you going?” One of them, I didn’t know or care which, asked as I left them standing there.
“Don’ feel good,” I threw out, hoping they would leave me alone if they thought I was going to be sick any minute, which honestly wasn’t all that far from the truth. I groaned internally when I felt as much as heard them following after me.
“Let us take care of you.” That one was Leland. I knew it was and it made the bile rise in my throat. I wanted to say, like you took care of me last time? Instead I just kept walking with the intention of shutting myself inside the bathroom again until they went away. Unfortunately, when I reached it, someone else was already inside, and from the sounds of vomiting coming through the door, they were going to be in there a while.
“Hey, there’s another bathroom upstairs,” Derek said. I looked at him carefully, trying to read his intentions. “Look, I’m just trying to make sure you’re okay. I’ll show you where the bathroom is and then we’ll leave you alone if that’s what you want.”
“Fine,” I mumbled and let them guide me upstairs, through one of the bedrooms and into the en suite. I shut and locked the door behind me, sliding down it until I was sitting on the floor. I tipped my head back, letting it rest against the hard door. I don’t know how long I sat there, but eventually Derek knocked.
“You okay in there?”
I quickly stood, a little too quickly, and moved away from the door, clutching at the sink for balance.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said. “You guys can go.” But they didn’t. When I emerged a few minutes later, Derek was sitting on the bed facing me with what looked like a glass of water in his hand, and Leland was leaning against the closed bedroom door with his arms folded. Derek stood and took a couple steps toward me, taking my arm and tugging me toward the bed.
“Why don’t you lie down for a bit.”
“No, I’m fine.” I pulled my arm out of his grip and turned toward the door, but Leland’s large chest was suddenly right there, blocking my way. He put his hands on my shoulders, trying to push me down onto the bed.
“Really, you should lie down. You don’t look well and you’re barely able to stand upright.”
“That’s because I’m drunk,” I retorted, “and it’s none of your business. I don’t want to lie down.”
“You need to drink this so you don’t get dehydrated.” Derek tried to hand me the glass of water.
“I’m not thirsty.”
“It will help. It will make you feel so much better.”
“I said I’m not thirsty.”
Irritated, he set the glass of water on the nightstand. Leland’s hands still gripped my shoulders, almost too tightly, and he started massaging them roughly. Then Derek came up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist, pressing his face into my hair, and then whispered, “Shh. It’s okay. We’ve got you. Just let us take care of you.”
What the hell were they playing at?
“Get off of me!” I shouted and ripped myself out from between them. “What is wrong with you two?”
“We’re just trying to help you relax. You’re overreacting. I think you’re drunker than you realize. Just have a seat for a minute and drink some water. We just don’t want to see you get sick.”
“What is with the fucking water? If I want water I will get it myself.”
“Come on Mia, relax. We’ll help you feel so much better.” Leland said taking a step closer to me and then another. “You know you had fun last time. Don’t try to act like you don’t want this. We know you want us again.”
I froze.
Us. Again.
Both of them.
Oh God, I thought I was going to be sick. Derek wasn’t just in the room last time.
I shook my head vigorously. “No.”
“Yes. You know it’s true.” Another step and he had me backed into the wall. “You can shake your head all you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that you loved it when you were with both of us. You wanted our hands all over your greedy little body. You moaned like a slut while we shared you.” He leaned in close, dropping his voice, breathing right in my face. “You fucking loved it.”
My skin was crawling and my breathing was erratic as I choked back sobs that I knew would make me look weak. “No,” I whispered again.
“Stop trying to deny it, Mia.” Now Derek was there, right beside Leland, helping him to keep me backed against the wall.
“You wanted it then and you want it again, you little slut.”
“No, I didn’t. I don’t,” I tried to say forcefully.
“Yes you did. You begged for us. You pleaded for us both to take you.” Leland traced a disgusting finger along my clavicle and I shuddered.
“No!” I shoved his hand away. “I didn’t want it. You’re wrong. You’re lying. You –” I gasped. “What did you do to me? You gave me something. Oh God, the water.” My eyes shot to the glass on the nightstand. Leland gave me a drink that night. I remembered. I didn’t finish it. I dumped it when he wasn’t paying attention, but I was sure now that he had put something in it.
“We didn’t have to give you shit you little whore,” Leland sneered, but I knew he was lying. I knew it with every fiber of my being. I hadn’t wanted him that night. I couldn’t understand that next morning why I’d done it, but now it made sense. The assholes drugged me.
“You bastards,” I spit out. I shoved against his chest, but he just laughed.
“Just drink the fucking water, Mia.” He grinned.
“Fuck you!” I screamed and swung my hand out, slapping him right across the face.
“Already did, you bitch!” He tried to grab my wrist, but I pulled it back and swung again, this time with a closed fist, and struck him right in the nose.
“Don’t ever touch me again.” He was moaning over his nose and I think Derek was shocked that I’d fought back. I used the moment to run from the room and out of the house, stopping only long enough to steal a bottle of Tequila on my way out the door.
I think I was two blocks away before I stopped running.
Oh God.
Oh God.
I thought I was going to be sick for so many reasons. I was sucking in harsh, ragged breaths. Panic was clawing its way out of my insides. I took a long pull from the bottle of tequila, trying to fight it back, trying to stop the barrage of ugly thoughts reigning down on me.
Slut.
Whore.
Rape.
The last one nearly took my legs out from under me as the pain caused me to stumble.
The only way to shut them up was to pour more alcohol on them.
I continued to struggle the remaining blocks back to campus, intermittently taking swigs from the bottle. With every drink, the despair and anger grew.
How could I be so stupid and naïve?
Did I deserve it? Did I ask for it?
NO! NO! NO!
How dare they think they can just put their hands on me.
I’m not a slut.
I’M NOT A SLUT.
He doesn’t know me. He doesn’t know anything about me. They do not get to tell me who I am.
They violated me in the worst way. I did nothing to deserve that.
I felt so helpless and devastated and angry and . . . and I didn’t even know, but it just bubbled out of me in a loud, anguished cry. “AAAGGHHHH!”
“Excuse me Miss, I’m going to need you to stop right there.”
Oh shit.
I froze at the deep male voice that carried authority. I turned to see one of the campus cops standing about ten feet away from me, with a hard frown on his round face. I took a step away from him.
“I said you need to stop, Miss. You can’t have open bottles on campus and I need to see your student ID.”
Crap.
He started walking toward me and all I could think about was how much trouble I was going to be in. I couldn’t take anymore tonight, so I took another step away.
“Stop!” He yelled again, m
ore forcefully, but I just panicked and hurled my bottle in his direction, not trying to hit him, just distract him so I could take off. It shattered a few feet in front of him and I bolted. He had to be in his mid to late thirties, and was a little overweight, like he’d been doing the job a while and gone soft, so I knew I had the advantage. At least I would have if I wasn’t so drunk.
My steps were clumsy and unsteady, but still I propelled myself forward, hearing the heavy thud of his boots on the ground behind me. I turned quickly like I was trying to juke him out, but ended up almost tripping, still I kept going. The only problem was, I couldn’t’ tell which way I was going. I was so panicked, and dizzy, and the adrenaline was pumping so hard that I didn’t know which way would take me back to my dorm. I think I was running around in circles on the path with a very angry cop behind me, still shouting at me to stop. I didn’t, I kept running in circles even when the flashing blue and red lights appeared.
Shit. He must have radioed in for assistance.
I could hear chubby panting behind me, trying to keep up, and even thought there was nothing funny about my situation, I couldn’t help but giggle.
I took another turn on the path that I was pretty sure would take me toward my dorm, but it didn’t and I tried to circle back and ran right smack dab in to the chest of another cop who stepped out in front of me. I bounced off him and landed flat on my ass in the grass, which I guess was better than the cement pathway. He stared down at me with amusement in his eyes. At least someone was getting entertainment out of my life falling apart. Then he looked up at my pursuer.
“You okay there Gerry? Why don’t you go take a rest before you have a damn heart attack. We’ll take the bad guy from here.”
He reached down and picked me up by my arm. His partner came up beside him and they started asking me questions. I think I answered them, but really the only thing running through my mind was, Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit.
Chubby chimed in between breaths when he had something to add and then the next thing I knew they were leading me toward the back of their cop car. I became so panicked that the nausea overtook me and I hunched over and hurled right on the grass outside the car. They jumped back to avoid the splatter and then opened the door, ducking my head down as they shoved me in the back.
At least they didn’t cuff me.
But holy shit, I was being arrested. I was going to jail. Tears started pouring down my face and pretty soon I was sobbing in the back of a police car on my way to jail. They were wretched, ugly cries. Cries of anger, shame, frustration and every other emotion in me that I couldn’t even name. Over and over I kept asking myself how I got here. The unfairness of life and the poor decisions I’d slumped on top of it were too overwhelming. I couldn’t calm down, no matter how much the officers tried to get me to.
When they walked me inside the station, I caught my reflection in one of the windows and couldn’t believe that the girl I was seeing was me. It was safe to say that this was the lowest I’d ever been.
The only good news was that they weren’t actually arresting me or charging me with anything. After my ugly crying jag, I think they felt a little sorry for me. They took me to a bathroom to clean myself up and pull myself together. Then they informed me that they were going to dump me in a cell while they wrote up the paperwork, and then I could call someone to come get me. The bad news was that I was going to be getting a major fine, the report would be filed with the school as well, and I didn’t know who to call. Sadie and Ace were still in Connecticut. I didn’t have anyone else.
Well there was one person, but I really didn’t want to have to call him.
Chapter 25
Chris
“Katrina, just go home and we’ll talk in the morning,” I told her, trying not to let my irritation seep into my words, but I was more than a little surprised to answer the midnight knock on the door and find her standing there. She’d come home from Mexico to try to change my mind again, but it was late and I wasn’t in the mood to deal with this.
“Can’t we just talk now?” she begged. “Just let me in and listen to what I have to say.”
“Katrina, I’m tired and –” My phone ringing in my pocket interrupted me. I didn’t know who would be calling this late unless it was important, so I slid it out of my pocket only to see an unfamiliar local number on the screen. “I need to answer this,” I told Katrina and then accepted the call. “Hello.”
“Chris?” The quiet voice trembled, but I still knew right away who it was, and immediately fear set in.
“Mia?” What had she gotten herself into this time? “Where are you? Are you okay?”
There was nothing but silence and I thought I’d lost the call, but when I looked at my phone, it showed that we were still connected. “Mia, are you there?”
“Yeah,” I heard her swallow. “I need you to come get me.”
“Where are you?” I asked slightly panicked, not knowing what kind of trouble she was in.
“The campus police department,” came her soft reply.
Shit, had she been hurt, or attacked?
“Just tell me you’re okay Mia, and then I’m on my way.”
“I’m okay, but –” I hung up before I heard what she’d been about to say.
“Katrina I have to go, right now. I’ll call you tomorrow,” I told her, running back inside to grab my keys. She was still standing outside the door when I came back out.
“What’s going on Chris? I heard you say it was Mia. Why do you have to go to her?”
“I don’t have time to do this right now,” I told her and hurried to my car. The entire drive to the station I was worrying over possible scenarios, even considering that she might have gotten herself into trouble by being at a party that got busted, but I had no idea just how much trouble she was in.
I was shocked when I burst inside the doors of the station, looking around for her, and then was informed by the officer who asked me who I was looking for, that he would go get her from her cell.
Her cell.
Fucking shit.
That was so much more than just getting busted at a party or picked up for being drunk.
I’d wasted all that worry and panic that she might have been hurt or scared, speeding to get here, to find out that she was here because she threw a damn bottle at a cop and then ran from him. I was pissed. In fact, I was way more than pissed.
For two days now I’d been thinking about her, wanting to see her, but not knowing if it was right, since things with Katrina were still so fresh. I’d signed into League the past two evenings in a row just waiting for her to pop up online, and then she finally did, but only briefly before she disappeared from the game. After she said her computer had gone offline, I’d wanted to keep texting her. I’d wanted to call her, to really talk to her. I’d almost hit send ten different times.
Now, I was having a hard time even looking at her as they went through the process of releasing her and she followed me out to my car with her head down. I was fuming, and she could tell because she looked like she was trying to shrink into her seat when we got in. She wouldn’t even glance in my direction, her eyes and head remained downcast on her lap.
It wasn’t until we were almost back to the house that I couldn’t hold it in any longer. “What the fuck were you thinking, Mia? It’s bad enough that you were walking around campus drunk at night with an open bottle of liquor, but throwing it at a cop and then running from him. How could you be so damn stupid?”
“I know,” she whispered.
“You know? You fucking know? Obviously you don’t or you wouldn’t have done it. You’re lucky they’re not charging you, Mia. What the hell were you doing out there anyway?”
“Walking home.”
“From where?” She was silent. “From where, Mia?”
“A party. That’s what college kids do on weekends in case you’ve forgotten.”
I blew out an angry breath. “Dammit, Mia. Don’t give me that shit. You know you don
’t belong at those parties. I thought you learned last time, but obviously not. Why do you do it?”
“I’m sorry. I know it was stupid, but don’t act like you’re my father, lecturing me. If he doesn’t give a shit, then you shouldn’t either,” she yelled back. “I was just trying to get home. I didn’t want to be there. Leland and Derek, they wouldn’t leave me alone,” her voice broke, “and I was just trying to get away. I know I shouldn’t have been there, but I just had such shitty day, I just needed it to stop being so shitty. I panicked when that cop found me. I know it was wrong, but I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
“You never think clearly Mia. You should have never put yourself in a situation where you needed to get away from those guys, and even then, you could have called someone. You didn’t have to try walking home by yourself. Getting arrested is not the worst that could have happened to you, Mia!” I yelled right back.
“Who the hell was I supposed to call? I have no one,” she cried. “Sadie is still in Connecticut and I have no one else.” Her insistence that she had no one, that she obviously didn’t think of me as someone she could turn to, unless she had no other choice, only made me more furious.
“You could have called me!” I shouted as I turned onto Ace’s street.
“So you could make me feel worse than I already did? So I could listen to you lecture me again about how stupid my choices are? No thanks.”
I pulled the car into the driveway and threw the brake on. “Fine, then you won’t have to fucking listen to it anymore, not that you did anyway. I’m done, Mia. Go inside and sleep it off, but I won’t be here to clean up your vomit this time. I don’t need this shit, Mia.”
Saving Ever After (Ever After #4) Page 23