Chapter 14

Ryan went to work the next day with a vague remembrance of Jen calling him, annoyed that he'd stood her up.

He'd promised her he'd make it up to her, so it wasn't the end of the world, he reasoned with himself to get it out of his mind.

The sun was bright overhead in the morning sky as Ryan went to work. Break time he talked with this guy Chris, who was a senior at another school. He'd started working for Ryan's dad last summer, and had sort of become friends with him although they didn't hang out after work.

Chris told him about some party he went to the night before, mentioning that he may have to go to court.

"Why?" asked Ryan. Chris was full of shit.

"Oh, some chick got raped! I may be a witness!"

"Oh, yeah?" he asked.

"Yeah. We beat the hell out of the guy too."

"Good!"

"Yeah, it was out in the Oaks."

"Oh yeah? I think I heard of that party! My friends went."

"Well, there's hella parties around there," said Chris nonchalantly, as though Ryan wouldn't be cool enough to know of a party that Chris attended.

"Oh yeah, so what happened? Did the cops come?"

"I don't know, I left pretty soon after."

"Oh. That sucks," he said, hoping to wrap up the conversation.

He called Jen as soon as he got off work. He wasn't too tired and wanted to go out maybe.

"Hello?" she said.

"Hi, what's up?" he said.

She paused. "Oh, hi Ryan. Nothing much," she answered sweetly.

"I'm sorry about last night... " he began.

"What about it?"

"Don't you remember? I fell asleep and stood you up. Don't tell me you forgot--I thought you were pissed! Spent all day worrying about whether or not you'd talk to me tonight."

"I always talk to you Ryan," she said in a wounded tone.

"I know you do--I'm only kidding." Shit, he thought, she's still pissed at me.

She didn't say anything. He changed the subject.

"So, how was that party last night?" he asked.

"Fine."

"Did you get drunk?" he asked.

"I don't know," she said in an annoyed tone.

"God, just asking. Hey, did some girl get raped at the party?"

She paused. "What?"

"I heard from this guy Chris at work that some girl got raped at a party in the Oaks last night. Was that at the one you went to?"

"No."

"Oh. So, nothing exciting happened?" he asked, trying to make conversation.

"No, nothing exciting happened. Anyway, I left early, like, right after I talked to you."

"Oh. Bored huh?"

"Yeah, Ryan, I was just so bored without my boy," she laughed.

"Of course you were," he said, relieved that her mood seemed to be improving.

"Ryan?"

"Yeah?"

"I gotta go."

"Oh, why?"

"Because dinner's ready," she lied.

"Will you call me after dinner?"

"Yeah, maybe. Probably."

"Aright. I love you... "

"I love you too," she said quickly, and hung up.

She called him back later, wanting to tell him what had happened but at the same time wanting to forget about it. She knew it would be hard to do that if he knew. Not that many people at the party knew him, and she'd made Dana promise not to tell, so she figured he wouldn't find out. She supposed he'd get mad if he did, but would he get mad at her too for being so irresponsible? He'd want to know every detail probably. What if he felt weird that another guy had touched her? She'd just as soon forget about it. It wasn't like the jerk actually raped her. They'd both been drunk. She tried to forget about it.

Ryan wanted her to come over that night to hang out. Her mom offered to drive so she said she guessed she'd see him in awhile.

After they'd hung up Josh called him.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Oh, nothing," said Ryan.

"So, you pissed?"

"Pissed about what?" he asked.

"You know."

"No, I don't. What am I supposed to be pissed about?"

"Dude, you didn't hear? She didn't tell you?" Josh sounded surprised.

"What?!?" Ryan was getting annoyed.

"About what happened last night at the party. Why didn't you go, anyway?"

"Dude, if you don't tell me what the fuck happened I'm gonna kick your ass. Are you talking about Jen?"

"Yeah. Have you talked to her yet today?"

"Yeah! I just got off the phone with her. She's coming over."

"Oh... "

"Are you fucking with me? What happened?"

"Oh, man! Some guy like completely attacked her!"

"What? He hit her?" Ryan yelled.

"No... He liked, raped her. Or he tried to. I heard from Jared that she got away before he actually did it. But then I heard from this other guy that he did rape her."

Ryan was silent.

"Ryan?" asked Josh, gently.

"I'm gonna kill him," he said quietly. "I swear to God, I'm gonna fucking kill him!" he screamed.

"Dude, Jared said they beat the fuck out of him. His name's like Brett something."

"I can't believe this. Why the fuck didn't she tell me?" he demanded.

"I don't know. Maybe she thought you'd get mad."

"Oh, bullshit. What the hell?" he demanded. "What happened? Is she okay?"

"I don't know. I wasn't there."

Ryan paused, thinking. "Dude, I gotta go."

"Aright. God, I thought you knew... "

"Well, later."

"Later."

Ryan, trying to fight back tears, called Jen, his hands shaking. She'd already left. He sat on the edge of his bed, his head in his hands. What had happened? She must be going crazy inside, she must be hurting. She had sounded weird, he recalled. He'd thought it was just because she was mad at him. Maybe she was mad at him because he wasn't there. Did they take her to the hospital? He still didn't know whether or not she'd actually been raped. He called Dana.

"Hello?"

"Dana? It's Ryan."

"Oh, hi Ryan," she said. He didn't usually call her, and if he did, it was always concerning Jen. She had a feeling he'd found out about what happened.

"Dana, you need to tell me what happened."

She didn't say anything. She'd promised Jen she wouldn't tell. She racked her brain to think of a good lie.

"Dana! Tell me!" he said, sounding as if he'd been crying, or still was maybe.

Her heart melted, she'd thought Jen should have told him, and had told her so.

"Is she okay?" he demanded. "Why didn't she tell me?"

"Oh. Yeah, she's okay. She was pretty upset at first, she locked herself in the bathroom for like half an hour."

Shit, he thought. "Did you call the police--wait, did he actually rape her or not?"

"Oh, no!" she said. "He was about to, but she got him in the nuts finally and got out of the room."

He breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank God. What happened?"

"Oh, well. She passed out in this bedroom and he went in and locked the door. She woke up when he was trying to."

"Did he hurt her?"

"Oh, not really. He grabbed her arms and pinned her down and stuff but he didn't hit her or anything. She was lucky she got out, though. He was fully ready to rape her. He had like, well, when the door got opened she was pulling up her underwear--she was wearing her jean skirt--and he was pulling his pants up. She was totally crying."