I loved Jeff. He kept lobbing me softballs that I had been prepped to be able to answer.
“That sounds like one of those stats one of the women’s groups who protested would cite. From what I’ve read, that number is based on an anecdote of an anecdote, and may only be accurate for cases that go all the way through a trial and actually are decided by a jury. Other studies have concluded that anywhere between forty to fifty percent of initial rape allegations are found to be untrue. The two main reasons such false charges are leveled are either for revenge or for an alibi. The third most common reason appears to be financial.
“Not too long ago, Mark Sanchez had similar charges leveled against him, and it was found the woman in question told her mom he’d taken advantage of her. When all was said and done, he’d done everything in a textbook fashion—asking her several times if she was okay with what they were doing, if she wanted to stop, etc. Even then, the investigation was dropped only with the comment of ‘insufficient evidence’ as the finding. I want to thank our state’s attorney, Mr. Mason, for not letting me twist in the wind like that,” I said.
“So what reason do you think was behind your charges?” Jeff asked.
“Well, I know her dad isn’t happy with us. Another reason might be money.”
“Can you understand why you might get painted with the same brush so many athletes are in cases like this?”
I smiled.
“Yes and no. I agree there are many entitled jocks who act in a loathsome fashion. There’s a reason athletes are stereotyped; unfortunately many do act as if they’re God’s gift. What I don’t understand is why that should apply to me. If there were even a rumor I let things go to my head and thought I deserved to be treated as special, I’d have to answer to my mother, and none of you can scare me near as much as she can. If you don’t believe me, ask her,” I said, which caused Jim, Tracy, and Coach Hope all to laugh.
“As a father, I would not be worried about David forcing anyone to do anything,” Coach Hope said.
“You’d let him date your daughter?” Jeff asked.
Coach Hope leaned back for a second, obviously trying to put his thoughts into the right words. “My daughter thinks the world of David. They’re very close friends. She’s never said anything that makes me believe David isn’t one of the nicest boys she knows, and I have to agree with her.
“But even though I think the world of David, I would not want him to date my daughter precisely because of media stuff like this. David’s not average, even for a top athlete. He’s also a model and actor. I think my daughter deserves to have a normal childhood and not be hounded by the likes of you,” Coach Hope said, and then changed the subject. “Now, I think we’ve wasted enough time on the events from this week. Let’s focus on football.”
The discussion turned to football. One of the writers seemed to be more knowledgeable than was typical. He started asking technical questions that were more suited for something I would talk to Bud Mason about. Questions like on play xyz what was my secondary read. Coach Hope shut him down because this was information other schools would love to have. It was bad enough they got to watch our game films.
I was then set free to go terrorize the dance.
◊◊◊
I arrived at the dance just as the band was ready to play. I was glad to see that most everyone took dressing up seriously. The cheerleaders all came as witches this year. The defense all dressed as werewolves. Most of the offensive players were vampires. I had to laugh at Wolf because he came as a hobo. He had been a hobo ever since I could remember. It was his go-to costume. It was also inexpensive to pull off.
I found Brook. She was my twin, except she had been talked into wearing the contacts. I would have to get a picture of the two of us together.
“What are we supposed to be?” I asked.
“We’re demons,” she informed me.
“Come, my Demon Queen, and dance with me,” I said.
I was prepared to not allow another night like Homecoming. I planned to dance with my date, not watch as others did so. Once Brook had me on the dance floor, she didn’t let me off. I had a great time because Brook had some moves. I should have expected as much, because she was a cheerleader, after all. The only things that I didn’t like were that leather doesn’t breathe, and makeup sucks when you sweat. I was very glad I’d had my leather pants lined so I wouldn’t be stuck in them, which was possible because they were custom-made to be very fitted. That translates to ‘tight.’ It didn’t take long for me to lose my leather coat.
When the dance ended, I took Brook home. She understood that tomorrow was a big day for me.
Plus, I promised her I would take her to Mona’s and my party. All the girls tried to get details on what had been planned. Mona was our party queen and usually on top of the planning, but I’d taken it out of her hands. I just let it be known that everyone should plan to have a good time.
◊◊◊
Chapter 32 – Hell Hath No Fury Saturday October 31
The past week had worn on me. It had probably been one of the worst weeks of my life. Only a couple of other weeks might have challenged it. The avalanche and Lily almost losing her life jumped up as possible contenders. Then there were the two that had happened recently: Jeff drowning, and when I found Alan and Tami in bed together. Therefore, I guess you could easily put this in the top five, but with an asterisk since it wasn’t over yet.
I lengthened my stride as I ran and Duke looked up at me. I needed to run to organize my thoughts. I dreaded today. I was sure I was about to experience the ugliness that Pam’s father had become. It would take everything I had not to the throttle the bastard. He’d had the audacity to accuse me of domestic violence, and even the police suspected that he had laid hands on his own daughter. What sickened me was we had to go through this little opera of a meeting today.
It was a valuable life lesson that you really didn’t want to get to the point where you got lawyers involved. If for nothing else, the money I had already spent: Ms. Dixon alone had cost me nearly $30,000 this week just in billable hours. Add the services of my PR firm, hotels, travel expenses, food for reporters, and I was quickly into six figures, and the week wasn’t even done. Frank had warned me that a full-blown scandal would easily run me a half-million dollars. I wondered how others afforded something like this.
Frank had been tracking my Recognition and Q Scores. When he was first hired, my Recognition Score was a three. Since my recognition was so low, there was no way to get an accurate Q Score. Your Q score was your likability score. A good example was Jim Parsons, who played Dr. Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory. He had a Recognition Score of 45 and a Q Score of 33. Both were stratospheric numbers. After my week in the news every night, my Recognition Score had climbed to nine with a Q Score of seven. We would have to work to rehabilitate my image. Frank was ecstatic that people had started to recognize me. I guess what they said about even bad press is good for you was right. Of course, that same press had said that I had assaulted and raped my pregnant girlfriend.
I found my run didn’t have its normal calming effect. People would never look at me the same way ever again, and it was all due to one Cal Bell. The more I thought about everything he’d done, and the potential and actual damage he’d caused me, the madder I became. I normally got angry about something and quickly got over it. The repeated attacks this week made me realize that Cal didn’t intend to ever work things out. He was out to destroy me, and if I hadn’t had good support, he would have done just that.
I felt an inner fury I had never realized myself capable of. I felt sad when I realized Cal had pushed me to this point. This was a different kind of mad from what I experienced when I found Alan and Tami in bed together. That had been intense, but I had pushed past it. This was different; it reminded me of what I felt for Bill Rogers and what he had done to Tracy. I would never forgive him for his actions, but the difference was Bill hadn’t done them to me. Cal had attacked me directly. I felt the full brunt of his actions and doubted I would ever forgive him.