I leaned into her, pressing my lips against her forehead as she mumbled something about still being asleep. Then she rolled onto her side, thereby letting go and giving me her back. Laughing quietly to myself, I got out of bed and headed to the bathroom, jumping in the shower for a quick rinse.
At least, it was supposed to be a quick rinse. I might’ve thought a bit too much about Kelsey and how she looked last night, her legs spread wide for me, which meant I had to take care of it. Didn’t want to wake her, after all.
Once that was done, I got out, running the towel over my hair and my body, walking into the room butt-ass naked. Kelsey was up, though she didn’t look too happy about it. She was sitting up, blinking slowly, yawning. The covers were bunched around her waist, her chest bare for me to see. It was a beautiful sight.
“My turn,” she said, practically falling out of bed as she grabbed her bag and went into the bathroom. By the time she rejoined me, I was partially clothed, wearing jeans and nothing more. I laid atop the sheets, my phone plugged into its charger, the cord pulled taut.
It didn’t look like she even brushed her hair, but I didn’t care. Whether she was wet or not, whether that hair had been brushed or not, Kelsey was still a goddess. A goddess of chaos, but a goddess nonetheless.
“You want to go get breakfast somewhere, or do you want to watch a movie?” I was being facetious, of course. There was no movie, unless you counted Dean’s recent antics, in which case…yeah, it was kind of like a movie.
Kelsey had changed her clothes, unfortunately not topless like me. She crawled onto the bed beside me, saying, “Movie. We’ve been slacking off.”
I didn’t know if that was true—dealing with family shit was always hard, especially when you didn’t want to face the drama—but I kept that thought to myself, simply going to the app and clicking on its menu. Kelsey got herself comfortable beside me, curling against me like a cat.
We had a lot to catch up on. I chose the camera whose angle overlooked most of the room, the one on his bookcase, facing the bed and the door. Kelsey and I made ourselves comfortable on the bed, though I did get up and put the Do Not Disturb sign in the hall on our door handle, to stop the hotel maid from coming in.
Dean was gone for most of the time, and when he was there, he was doing shit on his laptop. Only once did he bring a girl in and fuck her—that part we fast-forwarded, because unlike Dean, Kelsey and I weren’t creeps. Honestly, it surprised me. Just one girl. It was almost like he was trying to be good.
Trying, being the operative word there. Trying and failing.
The same night Dean had the girl, right after he kicked her out—rudely, if the look on her face was any indication—he came towards the camera, disappearing in the corner, near the closet. A blind spot of this particular camera.
I was just going to let it continue to fast forward, but Kelsey muttered, “He’s been over there for a while. Maybe you should switch cameras and see what he’s doing?”
I really hoped he didn’t have his own camera hiding in his closet or something. That would put a damper on things. It meant he’d have seen me set up my own cameras. With my gut hardening, I exited out of this camera’s screen and went to the one I’d hidden on the floor, near the bedpost.
I immediately jumped to the time Dean had first gone missing from the first camera’s gaze, slowing it down to real-time as we watched him open his closet doors.
“Pause it,” Kelsey said, and I instantly did.
His closet, from what we could see, looked like any other closet, full of clothes and other shit…but in the corner sat something I found a bit odd. Something that a nineteen-year-old college student didn’t usually have in his room.
Kelsey’s eyes narrowed as she gazed at my phone screen. “Is that…a safe?”
“I think so,” I muttered. It looked to be about a foot tall and a foot wide, a small safe, and I instantly wondered what could possibly be in there. Whatever it was, it had to be something good. Or, in Dean’s case, bad.
Kelsey then said what we were both thinking: “We need to get into that safe.”
We then spent the rest of our time scanning this same camera’s footage to see if Dean ever opened it. If he came at it from the right angle, we’d know its combination. And, thank fucking God, it was a safe with a number pad and not one of those old-fashioned locks where you had to twist and turn the knob to unlock it.
And, what would you know, right before he left for Thanksgiving break, Dean bent to open the safe…at the perfect angle, too. I was pretty sure both Kelsey and I instantly memorized the code he used.
What was inside it? A flash drive, nothing else, and it was that same flash drive I assumed he packed and took with him over break, not wanting to leave it there.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Kelsey asked, propping herself up to look at me.
My eyes met her mischievous expression, and I found myself nodding. “We need to get into that safe.” Hopefully Dean would bring it back with him.
Fingers crossed.
Chapter Twenty – Kelsey
I really didn’t like going to the hospital, and it wasn’t because I had to either walk or pay to take the bus from campus. The reason I didn’t like going to the hospital was because each and every time I laid eyes on Mel, my whole body ached with regret. When I walked into her room and found her still unconscious, now hooked up to a feeding tube, my heart weighed a thousand pounds.
I still blamed myself for this, partially. Mostly I blamed Dean, but frankly I wasn’t a good friend to her. I should’ve been better to her, proved to her that I’d be there for her. If she didn’t feel so alone, maybe she never would’ve tried to kill herself a second time.
It was a lot of weight to pile onto my shoulders, but I couldn’t help it.
I sat beside Mel for a while, staring at her unconscious form. Her parents had come by the hospital room, telling me they planned on packing up her things. It was official: Mel was dropping out of SCC, and if she bounced back from this, I didn’t think she’d come back. Her parents wouldn’t make that mistake again. Levi and I had until late next week to do what we had to do, which was another reason I had to get out of here soon.
I’d be needed at the rec, you see. I’d skipped my bio lab to visit her, and I’d take the bus from the stop down the street to the one right outside SCC’s rec center to watch Dean and the other Sigma Chi guys play basketball, keeping an eye on him while Levi went into his room and did what he had to do.
With any luck that flash drive would be there, and all the dirt we’d need would be on it.
“I know you probably can’t hear me,” I told Mel, only feeling comfortable to speak because the door to the room was shut, “but Levi and I have a plan for Dean. We’re going to take him down, and hopefully he’ll never have the chance to hurt anyone again.”
Mel said nothing, because she couldn’t speak.
“I know it’s too little, too late,” I went on. “And I’m sorry, Mel. I’m so sorry. If I could rewind time and be a better roommate, a better friend to you, I totally would.” My head turned down, and I stared at my lap. “I guess I just suck all around, huh?”
If Ash was here, she’d heartily agree. I needed to have a heart-to-heart with that one too, hopefully over winter break. But first I had to get through this thing with Dean and pass my exams. The latter seemed pretty freaking impossible, since class and studying had been the last things on my mind. At least I’d done most of my final papers, although Mel wasn’t around to critique them.
I’d make it. Maybe.
My eyes went to the clock hanging on the wall above the bathroom door, the bathroom which Mel couldn’t even use—yeah, didn’t want to go into specifics there. Ew. It was about time for me to head out, anyways. I wanted to get to the rec after Dean and his friends did. Plus, it had snowed outside a bit, so traffic might be slow.
“I have to go, but I promise, I’ll be back.” I got up, swearing to myself that even if her pare
nts moved her stuff out, I would always be back. I’d keep visiting her, bugging her, until she opened those eyes again, until she no longer blamed herself for what happened.
I lightly grabbed her hand, squeezing it once before leaving, heading out and into the hall. Within ten minutes, I was at the bus stop, freezing cold in my hoodie, my breath white puffs in the cold air outside. The bus pulled up ten minutes after that, and the driver gave me a look like I was crazy.
In a way, I kind of was. Still wholly against those puffy winter jackets that everyone seemed to be a fan of. I’d rather freeze my ass off, thanks.
I moved to the nearest open seat and pulled out my phone. Levi had texted me already, saying they’d gone to the rec.
Perfect. Now I just had to get there.
The bus was mostly quiet as it drove along. There were some other students here, but most were just other people using the public transportation. Everyone was on their own phones, minding their business. I suddenly wondered how many people had seen one of the videos Dean released.
Not the best time to lose myself in that thought, I told myself, forcing my brain to think about the matter at hand.
I was the only one who got up at the stop near the rec, shuffling out and back into the cold, the bus’s heat a distant memory as it drove off. I shivered to myself as I walked up the long sidewalk to the rec’s front doors. It’d been shoveled, but a thin layer of new snow sat on the concrete.
Snow. It was pretty for the first hour after it fell, but then it just got dirty, crunched-up and wet. And when that snow became so packed it turned to ice? Forget about it. A winter wonderland it was not when you slipped with every step you took.
The rec center was a new environment for me. Not only was it full of people who were in shape—and those people trying to get in shape—but it also smelled of sweat. Now, I didn’t know about you, but for me, the only sweat I liked to smell was Levi’s, and that was only because I was madly in love with the guy. Sweat in general was gross.
I also didn’t know where to go, so I was sure I looked like a fool as I wandered the rec trying to find the courts. The building was bigger inside than it looked; it seemed to sprawl in every direction, with weight rooms, a track for sprinting, and a bunch of other courts, including some rooms that were used for dancing.
Crazy. All these people being active like they enjoyed it. Personally, I didn’t see the appeal. The only physical activity I was down for involved Levi naked and on a bed. Or not in a bed. Levi naked anywhere would work.
After a while of wandering, I found the basketball courts. There were three of them side by side, and the leftmost one was the current one the Sigma Chi boys were using. Thank God, I didn’t have to actually go into the large room and watch; there were some windows from the hall, along with benches, so I was able to plop myself down and watch without being overly creepy about it. I fiddled around on my phone while watching so it looked like I was just waiting for someone to come out.
I texted Levi: I see him. It’s a go.
Kind of felt badass, like Levi and I were locked in some secret spy movie, trying to get ahead of the bad guys. In this case, guy. Just one guy…although, from what it sounded like, most of the guys from Sigma Chi were shitty dudes, and they all deserved some comeuppance.
Dean would get his first, though.
It was only five minutes later when Levi responded: It’s there.
My stomach hardened, and I couldn’t tell if I was nervous or anxious or what. The flash drive was back. Dean had brought it back like the fool he was. Since Levi and I hoped he’d bring it back, we planned on Levi taking it for a few minutes, using his own laptop to see what was on it—since Dean’s laptop was password-encoded. I prayed there was something on it we could use.
My phone rang after a while, and I immediately picked up when I saw Levi’s name. “Yeah?” I asked, heart beating fast in my chest.
It was a while before Levi said, “I think we got him.” And then Levi explained to me just what was on that flash drive, what Dean had.
“Before you put it back, make sure you wipe your fingerprints off it,” I said, my eyes burning holes through the glass to the basketball court Sigma Chi was on. I spotted Dean making a shot from midway down the court, and the bastard nailed it easily. “Text me when it’s done. I’ll handle the rest.”
“What—”
“Trust me,” I said, saying nothing more before hanging up. I’d tell Levi once it was done. There were just some things out there that a fellow girl had to do, and this? I planned on enjoying this far too much.
I stayed a little while longer, leaving only after Levi told me the flash drive was back in the safe. I went back to the dorm, had to make a little pit stop before going to the place I needed to. The room was too empty without Mel, and it’d be strange to walk in next semester and see her stuff gone—or worse, share the space with someone else.
Levi was already taking care of that, though. He’d started to look for apartments close by we could share.
I took what I needed to, focusing on staying as calm as I could as I headed down the stairs and out the side door, back in the cold. As I walked to my destination, a place I knew where it was but had never stepped foot inside before, I kept reminding myself that I could do this. I could do this with no problems.
This was serious shit anyway, so really, it deserved a serious response. This harassment, this bullying, would not continue. I wouldn’t let it.
I stopped at the base of the sidewalk in front of the building that was my destination, puffing up my shoulders as I stared at the big block letters displayed above the sliding glass doors. Summit Police Department.
Oh, yeah. I was going hard. You knew what they said: go big or go home—and I was most definitely not going to go home.
My feet drew me to the doors, and I kicked off my shoes before going to the front desk, where an older man was working, glasses on his nose as he stared at a computer screen. I leaned on his desk, saying, “Hi. I, uh, I’m not sure how this works, but I need to talk to somebody.” When the man only turned his gaze to me, I added, “A cop, obviously. I’d like it to be a woman, if possible.”
Didn’t know why, but I felt like a woman officer would better understand how serious this whole situation was, whereas a man might just shrug it off as boys being boys.
No. This was worse than that. This was not a boys will be boys situation. This was a dick being a dick, and me trying to prove that sometimes being a dick didn’t pay.
“Let me see who’s available,” the man spoke, grabbing his phone and starting to dial some extensions. “Take a seat,” he added, pointing to the chairs across from him.
I gave him a smile, hoping I wasn’t too forward with my request to be seen by a female officer. It was almost ten minutes later when a young female cop walked out from the back, her blonde hair drawn in a low bun, tight, not a single hair out of place. The dark blue uniform was snug on her body, her badge shiny on her chest. I was guessing she didn’t see much street duty, that she got stuck with a lot of the paperwork of the department.
The woman gave me a smile. “Hey there. What can I help you with?”
I got up. “Do you…do you have an office or something?”
“Sure, come on back.” She gestured for me to follow her.
It wasn’t so much an office as it was a desk surrounded by a bunch of other desks. Two metal chairs sat opposite hers, though hers didn’t look too much more comfortable. We both sat down, and she asked if she could get me something to drink.
“No,” I said, feeling a bit nervous. “I just…I’ve never done this before, so…”
“Never done what before?”
“I wanted to talk to an officer, to see if something can be done.”
“Are you a student at SCC?” she asked, folding her hands along her desk. A computer sat to her left, paper trays to her right. It was a mess, and I was pretty sure it would only get messier once I told her everything I had to tell her.
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“I am,” I said. “It’s a long story though, but I need to know if you think there’s enough of a case to arrest someone, or at least press charges or something.”
Her expression suddenly grew serious, and she nodded once. “Start at the beginning, then.”
And so I did. I explained to her everything I could—minus the drama between Levi and me. I told her about me coming to SCC for the first time a few months back, everything that transpired between my roommate and her ex-boyfriend last year. How said ex-boyfriend kept trying to talk to her, stalking her, trying to get me to help reconcile him with her. I told the officer how I refused, and how he immediately released a sex video of me I did not consent to—and when I added in the fact that he’d spread a second video around campus, this one of my roommate who was currently fighting for her life in the hospital after being terrorized by him.
“She blocked him, but he got one of his fraternity brothers to send her the video,” I said, reaching into my pocket and pulling out Mel’s phone. “This is her phone.” I typed in her passcode, unlocking it, going into her text messages and clicking on the video to show her. Just from the angle of the video, you could tell it was from a hidden camera and not filmed purposefully.
The officer had to pause the video, setting the phone down slowly. “Wow. Are her parents aware of the extent of the bullying and the stalking?”
“I don’t know, maybe.”
“I’ll need you to make an official police report,” she told me, reaching for a drawer on her desk and pulling out a form. “And I’ll contact her parents and see if they want to pursue it as well.”
My heart was in my stomach as I added, “I think he has more videos. I think…I think he might have a whole lot more, with a lot of other girls.” The flash drive in his safe held tons of videos, videos of his fraternity brothers getting it on with different girls, those girls being filmed unknowingly.
Mistakes : A College Bully Romance Page 37