“When I finished the first one, he brought me two more and had me chug one. I was starting to feel a little funny, so he led me to a bedroom and had me lie down. Everything was fine until he started kissing me. At first, it was nice because he was gentle and I was enjoying it. Then he started pawing at my breasts. It hurt when he squeezed them.”
She stopped again. I just held her while doing the Dawson quiet bit.
“I tried to tell him I wasn’t that kind of girl. He told me that if I wasn’t, why was I in a bedroom with him? I was confused, and the next thing I knew I was naked. I tried to fight him off, but he just forced my legs apart and ... well, you can guess.
“I was so ashamed. He just left me there. People kept peeking into the room. I hurried up and got dressed before anything else happened. When I came out, Justin was nowhere to be found. Luckily Emma was there with Neil and they gave me a ride home.”
I kept holding her. I knew Emma and Piper had taken care of business, but I could see another beatdown in his near future. Maybe he and Mitch could have a two-for-one and I could get my suspension out of the way.
“David, would you make love to me?” Piper asked.
“No, Baby, you need me to be your friend, not your lover. You said it yourself: you’re not that kind of girl,” I said, and she tried to interrupt me. “Hang on, and listen to me. When you’re ready, and I mean ready, I’d be honored to receive the gift of your virginity. But I wouldn’t be the kind of friend I think you need if I took advantage of you when you were feeling vulnerable.”
“But I already lost my virginity,” she said.
“No, you were raped. No one can take your virginity. It’s your gift to give.”
She broke down in tears. I held her until she cried herself out. I took her to my room and had her lay down. I went out to the living room and called Tracy.
“I need your help,” I told her.
“What’s wrong?”
“Justin raped her. I think she needs to talk to someone other than me.”
I knew Tracy knew what she was going through. I hoped it wouldn’t bring back bad memories for her.
“I’ll be right there.”
I went back into the bedroom, and she still wanted me to hold her. I wrapped her up, and that was how Tracy found us. They kicked me out, and I went into the house. I talked to Mom and Dad about it. Mom went up to my apartment, leaving us to try to talk about everything except what was on our minds.
Twenty minutes later, Piper’s mom and dad were at the door. I took them to my apartment. Tracy and Mom led me back into the house to give Piper and her parents time to talk. I put on a pan of apple cider with a cinnamon stick to make hot cider. We heard a knock on the door, and it was Emma. I guess they’d left her in the car. Mom and Tracy took her to the office and told her what was going on.
Once everyone had some cider, we waited for Piper and her parents. Emma was a mess because her sister hadn’t told her about the rape. She’d only been told they’d slept together. Tracy told her that Piper was ashamed and hadn’t told anyone. Emma also blamed herself for not giving Piper my warning. I left that to Tracy and my mom. I’d had enough of crying girls for one night. I thought I’d better be careful, or I’d end up with a house full of daughters one day as payback.
When Piper finally came down, I found myself sandwiched between two crying sisters.
“David often has that effect on girls,” Mom quipped.
That made everyone laugh, which had the desired effect to stop both sisters from crying. Piper and her family left soon afterward. Tracy and I went up to my room. I was not expecting her to jump me.
“I was so wrong about her needing you to sleep with her. Thank you for doing the right thing, and thank you for telling your mom. She’s amazing,” Tracy said as she undressed me. “Thank you for telling Piper what you did about her virginity. She took real comfort in that.”
Tracy reminded me once again that we were good together in bed. It was exactly what I needed, and allowed us both to work off the nervous energy that had built up over the last couple of hours. I was able to get to sleep without a problem.
Wednesday November 5
DURING MY RUN BEFORE school, I was trying to come to grips with the question of: ‘Was it really rape?’ I’m sure many teenagers have been in that situation before, with the same results. Boy takes a girl to a party. They end up in a bedroom after a few drinks. Things get heated. When it comes time for the deed, she says ‘no,’ but his hormone dial is already at 11 on a scale of 1 to 10.
Many of these couples continue to date after that night. Piper may have dated Justin if he hadn’t been such a pig about it and told everyone how good she was in bed. So, was it really rape? Did she mean ‘no’ as in ‘I’m not sure,’ or ‘no’ as in ‘NO.’ I kept coming back to ‘no means no.’ I remembered how I felt violated when the freshmen had groped me. Being touched sexually without your consent was not pleasant.
By the time I got to school, I was convinced that he’d raped her. It made me wonder how many girls are raped but never report it, out of shame. I don’t think Piper would have said anything if I hadn’t asked her over to my place last night. I was also a little surprised she hadn’t already told Emma. Twins tell each other everything. Then again, I’ve never been raped, so what would I know about sharing that kind of information? Maybe I was just there when she needed to tell someone.
By lunch, the rumors were flying. Emma had not reacted well to the news that Justin had molested her sister. I needed to find out what had really happened this morning before school. I knew there was an ambulance, and that the police were involved. We’d all been directed in through the side door of the school. I grabbed my lunch and went to our table.
I noticed none of the guys were there, and both Piper and Emma were missing. Kylie was picked to fill me in.
“I don’t know why, but Emma went crazy this morning, and attacked Justin. Justin smacked her pretty good and was screaming that he didn’t do it, whatever it was. That was when Neil, Nick, Wayne and Ray jumped on him. Actually, I think Nick and Ray were trying to keep Neil and Wayne from killing him. They hurt Justin bad enough that they had to take him away in an ambulance,” Kylie said.
“Did they get suspended?” I asked.
“I think it’s worse than that. They were all put in police cars and taken away,” Faith said.
“Where’s Piper?” I asked.
“She didn’t come to school today,” Kylie said.
What a mess. I was glad I hadn’t been there this morning, or I’d have been right in the middle of it. This just got worse at every turn.
Then the talk turned to why Emma might have started the fight. I decided to steer the conversation away from the truth.
“What makes the most sense is that Justin must have said something again,” I shared.
They all seemed to agree.
I’D BEEN DISTRACTED all day until Tim put me on my ass in practice. He was grinning like an idiot as he held his hand out to help me up.
“Asshole,” I told him.
“Get your head out of your rectum and play football,” Tim shot back.
I let him help me up. It hadn’t really been Tim’s fault. We were running pass plays, and Tim was supposed to rush me. I was to either throw the pass or dump it, but I’d juked in front of him instead. He had nowhere to go but to run me over. I rotated out to let the freshman quarterback have his turn.
Mike was rotated out as the JV quarterback ran the drill on his side.