His grip on my hair tightened, causing pain to shoot to my scalp. “Liar. You’re meeting up with your stepbrother. The one you dumped me for.”
“I didn’t-” I began, only to be cut off when he started shaking me.
“Shut up!” he yelled. “I’ll win you back. I’ll show you how much I love you.”
When he started fumbling around at the waist of his football pants, I realized his intentions.
Hell, freaking, no.
With his grip on my hair and his weight on me, I couldn’t manage to get away, but my arms were free. I started hitting and punching him wherever I could, with no real skill, but with the determination of a girl who refused to be violated by some bastard who couldn’t take no for an answer.
“Stop! Stop!” he demanded, jerking me around.
When I didn’t stop, he grabbed onto one of my hands and bent it backwards. Trying to ignore the building pain in my wrist, I kept hitting him with my free hand. He was now straddling my waist, but using what strength I had in my legs, I tried to lift my hips and buck him off me.
The creep was heavy.
I swung my fist at his face. He dodged my wild punch and bent my hand back farther. The shock of hearing one or more bones in my wrist breaking temporarily ended my struggles. Tears streamed out of my eyes as I cradled my broken wrist with my unharmed hand. The searing pain was intense.
I gasped out, “Please let me up!”
Josh only got angrier. “Look what you made me do! I didn’t want to hurt you!”
Could have fooled me.
He was still laying on me and my renewed struggles weren’t nearly as energetic as before. God, it hurt. I’d never broken a bone in my life. I hadn’t imagined how badly it would hurt.
“Please, Josh, I need to go to a hospital.” Trying to think through the pain, I asked, “Will you drive me?”
He was quiet for a moment and I hoped this craziness was about to end. But then he said, “Not yet. Later. When you love me back.”
So . . . never? Maybe I could fake it. “I do love you, Josh. I always have.” Despite the tears and pain, I thought it sounded pretty convincing.
Josh groaned, smashing his lips against mine. Guess he bought it. I forced myself to kiss him back before turning my face to the side and whimpering, “It hurts so bad.”
No faking there.
“Can we please go now, Josh?”
But it was as if he hadn’t even heard me because he was fumbling with his pants again. In his messed up head, he thought I’d want to have sex with him, broken wrist and all.
As he reared back onto his knees to unzip, I took my chance and brought one of my own knees up into his crotch. I kneed him with a force that had him bent over in pain. He groaned, cupping himself. I scooted away from him on my back and managed to get up off the ground.
I heard, “Bitch!” right before a hand grabbed my shoulder and threw me back onto the ground.
The back of my head smacked against the hard surface, making me dizzy. Thankfully, my wrist hadn’t taken any impact. When the momentary dizziness faded, I saw a fist flying towards my face at the same time I heard him yell, “You lied!”
His fist met my cheek and pain radiated over my face. I was lucky the blow hadn’t knocked me out. I wasn’t so lucky the second time when he punched my jaw as I felt excruciating pain and passed out.
I was unsure how long I’d been out but when I woke up, I realized two things. Josh was still there with me, hovering menacingly, and I was pretty sure he’d broken my jaw. I tasted blood in my mouth and my vision was still fuzzy.
Trying not to cry, because I needed to focus on the situation, I figured my best chance at that point was to pretend to be incapacitated. It probably wasn’t far from the truth. I closed my eyes, pretending to pass out again.
A foot nudged my hip. “Quit faking, Gianna. I know you’re awake.”
From behind my closed lids, I could tell when he shone the flashlight on my face. I opened my eyes, but couldn’t see his face with the bright light shining on mine. I tried moving my mouth to say something, but the pain prevented speech.
“You bitch!” He moved to stand over me, straddling my calves. Crouching down to sit on me, he said in a strange voice, “You know what your problem is, Gianna?”
Helpless, I laid there unmoving.
“You’re a cold bitch. I bet you never even gave it up to Caleb, huh?” He barked out a laugh. “Well, let’s find out.”
I was confused about his meaning at first, but soon came to understand. Despite broken bones, I struggled as hard as before.
Maybe harder.
When he broke my other wrist for hitting him again, I barely felt the new pain. It simply blended in with everything else that was hurting.
When he started hurting me with the large metal flashlight, I kicked out my legs, screaming through my clenched teeth at the pain caused by the invasion. Never did I give up or give in to his abuse.
Until my vision went fuzzy and I finally passed out for good.
In the last seconds of consciousness, I prayed I wouldn’t wake up again.
CALEB
“Really, you don’t have to wait around. I can tell Gianna you said hello,” I told Ian while giving him another look of disdain.
I was the boyfriend, not him. It was my job to wait around for Gianna after a game, not him. She wanted only me waiting for her, not him. Ian smiled, knowing how much his presence was irritating me. Deciding to try another tactic, I ignored him.
He refused to ignore me back. “What do you think is taking her so long? My guess is we’ve already seen all the other cheerleaders leave.”
Ian was right. Most, if not all, of the other cheerleaders had passed us in the parking lot on the way to their vehicles. Where the hell was she? Starting to feel anxious, I told Ian, “I’m going to go look for her. Maybe she thought we were supposed to meet somewhere else.”
I went walking off in the direction of the locker rooms.
“I’ll go with you,” Ian said casually, coming into step next to me. Of course he would. There was no getting rid of him.
We circled around the gym, yelled Gianna’s name through the girl’s locker room doors and checked the parking lot again, texting and calling her phone the entire time. No luck. Her phone was going straight to voicemail and she was nowhere in sight.
At that point, the place was starting to look deserted. Her Jeep was still in the parking lot, so she had to be around somewhere. Glancing sideways at Ian as we walked behind the bleachers, I tried to keep my cool.
“Uh, maybe she ran into the school to get something from her locker.”
He was looking pretty worried himself. As the panic built in me, I was strangely relieved he was here. Then again, just looking at him still annoyed the crap out of me.
We checked one of the back entrances to the main building, but the doors were locked. Usually on game nights some entrance was left unlocked, with so many students, parents and teachers still on campus on Friday nights.
As we rounded the corner of the building, someone ran into me. The dude pushed me away from him. I braced myself for a fight. “Hey, what the hell’s your problem, man?”
His hoarse voice replied, “Just get out of my way.”
The guy edged around me and a light posted high on the brick wall illuminated his face. Out of instinct, I was on him in seconds, grabbing him by the front of his jersey. “What are you still doing here, Josh?”
Josh was visibly shaken, his eyes looked wild, and it suddenly hit me. I slammed him against the side of the building. “Where is she?”
“God dammit,” I heard Ian mutter. With everything Gianna had told him, Ian had come to the same conclusion as me. Gianna was nowhere to be found and we’d just stumbled upon Josh.
Josh tried to push me away from him, but my grip on his jersey and my forearms pressing against him managed to keep in place. Ian stepped up beside us and got in Josh’s face. “Answer him, asshole. Where is Gianna
?”
After a moment and no answer, Ian pulled back his arm and punched Josh in the ear. Josh’s head whipped to the side. Thinking Ian had the right idea, I punched him in the gut.
He grunted in pain, cursing. Almost in a whisper, he said, “She got what she deserved.”
This time, it was my fist flying at his face. I was trying to think straight and not panic, because flashing through my mind was the time I caught Josh banging Gianna against a wall. Clenching my teeth, I asked Josh again, “Where?”
He must’ve realized how totally screwed he was and after a few moment’s hesitation, he spat out, “Cafeteria.”
Not letting go of his shirt, I dragged him in that direction, with Ian right on our heels. Josh let out a desperate sound. “I told you where she is, let me go. I have things to do.”
I didn’t bother responding. When the double doors came in sight, Ian jogged forward and opened one. Pushing Josh inside ahead of me, he stumbled. “She’s not here,” I said automatically when we entered the dark room.
Josh turned around and made to leave. “She must have left.” Raising my arms, I pushed Josh a few feet back into the room.
Ian mumbled, “Where the hell are the lights?” right before the cafeteria was flooded in light.
It took a second or two for our eyes to adjust to the brightness. At my first good look at Josh, dread settled in my stomach. There was a small amount of blood smeared on the white material of his football pants.
He held up his hands in a placating gesture and I lost it when I saw the blood on the palm of his right hand. My eyes darted frantically around the cafeteria until they landed on the person lying on the floor about thirty feet away in a cheerleader uniform. At the same time I spotted her, Ian was already running towards her, calling out her name. She didn’t respond.
I shouted, “Call 911!” to Ian at the same time I lunged for Josh.
The next ten minutes were an unthinking haze of rage. The cops showed up first, one of them pulling me off Josh as his female partner leaned over Gianna’s lifeless figure. When the cop yanked me off Josh, he merely opened the way for Ian to take his turn. The sense of satisfaction that coursed through me as Ian slammed a metal folding chair into Josh and I heard the sound of ribs breaking did nothing to dull the rage.
At that point, the paramedics showed up with a gurney. The cop let go of me to tackle Ian and I ran to Gianna, praying silently. The paramedics demanded I stay out of their way, but I saw what was done to her.
It’d be burned in my memory forever.
The left side of her face was swollen and I overheard the paramedics I was hovering over caution each other to be careful of her broken wrists. I glanced over to where Ian was yelling and saw the male cop handcuffing him after pinning Ian onto his stomach on the floor.
My gaze went back down to Gianna and I wanted so badly to pick her up, cradle her, but I knew I had to let them do their job. I didn’t know what to do. There was nothing I could do. My eyes were wet with helpless tears.
When the female cop stepped in front of me with a pair of handcuffs and said, “I’m going to have to take you in,” I simply nodded my head absently. As she placed the handcuffs on me, a second set of paramedics showed up and began administering to Josh.
The female cop must have called for another ambulance while I was being pulled off Josh. I wanted to scream at them to leave him there to rot. He didn’t deserve any help. He deserved handcuffs or a bullet to the head.
More cops arrived and they sat Ian and me with our backs against a nearby wall. Ian answered the questions asked because I couldn’t be bothered. My eyes were glued to Gianna.
My girl was hurt and I couldn’t do one thing to make it better. I hadn’t protected her. I hadn’t been on time to save her.
When one of the cops dropped a bloody flashlight into an evidence bag, I wanted to scream.
As they wheeled Gianna on the gurney out of the cafeteria and I couldn’t follow, I did scream.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“There is always some madness in love. But there
is also always some reason in madness.”
-Friedrich Nietzsche
CALEB
“I should have hit him in the head with that chair,” Ian mused for the hundredth time.
“Shut the hell up,” I mumbled, keeping my forearm over my eyes as I lay on the bunk. I might be forced to share a cell with him, but that didn’t mean I had to look at his ugly mug.
“How many ribs do you think I broke, C?” Ian asked, pretending to be oblivious to my need for solitude.
“Do not nickname me. We are so not on a nickname basis,” I ground out between clenched teeth.
Somehow I’d wound up in hell. Had I missed the part where I died? Who’d decided it would be a good idea to throw us in a cell together? Last night, Ian and I had taken turns beating the crap out of Josh. What made the cops think we wouldn’t turn on each other? I’d imagined punching Ian in the face many times since we landed in here. Knowing us though, if we started fighting, we wouldn’t stop until we were out of here, or they separated us.
After the paramedics had taken Gianna and Josh to the hospital, the cops took me and Ian to the police station. They’d grilled us separately for hours, making us tell our story over and over. My dad had showed up with a lawyer, the same one my parents used for me before. Only a lawyer had shown up for Ian.
When there wasn’t a cop in my face, I was freaking out about Gianna.
I should’ve been more alert when it came to Josh. I should’ve known he wouldn’t let it go and he’d do something extreme. Looking back, the signs were there, but my head had been someplace else. Lost in Gianna, I’d stopped taking anything else seriously. Stupid mistake, and my beautiful girl had paid for it.
Before they were done interrogating us, I’d asked my dad to run down to the hospital and check on her. I’d also bitched to the cops until they finally let me know Josh had in fact been handcuffed to his bed at the hospital. I guess once they’d realized he was the one to brutalize her, it wouldn’t be such a great idea to have him free in the same hospital as her.
My dad wasn’t back by the time they’d moved us from the police station to the holding facility for juveniles. They were supposed to release us into our parents’ custody once our parents showed up. For Ian that might be awhile, since he was pretty sure his dad was out of the country.
I wasn’t worried about my dad showing up. My mom would have already been here, but she was in Phoenix again for an art show. If my dad hadn’t come back from the hospital yet, it was for a good reason. I just prayed he came back with good news about Gianna.
I should’ve probably been grateful Ian hadn’t shut his trap. Otherwise I’d probably be going crazier. I felt already as if I was on the edge. I wasn’t satisfied with the beating Josh got. The things he’d done to her. . . .
Some broken ribs and a busted up face didn’t even begin to cover what he deserved. He deserved to go to hell. Forget prison, straight to hell should be his destination.
I was also trying not to freak out about the fact I wasn’t with Gianna right now. Sure, her mom was down at the hospital and her dad was probably on a plane right now from Houston. But she needed me. And I badly needed to see her.
I’d heard the paramedics listing off her injuries, so I knew none of them were life threatening, but she must be in severe pain. And not just physically. I didn’t have any experience dealing with anyone who’d been sexually assaulted, but I could imagine the kind of comfort and patience she needed.
I’d do anything to make it better for her. It was tearing me apart, what she’d suffered. Desperation to get to her had me jumping up to pace the cell.
“Caleb Morrison,” a deep voice said from outside the cell. Automatically, I spun around, eager to get out.
“Yeah?”
“Your dad’s here to take you home,” the guard informed me while unlocking the bars.
“Thank God,” I let out on a breath.
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I was slipping out of the cell before the guard had a chance to swing it open all the way. It closed behind me with a clank and I turned my head back to give Ian a pitying look. “Sorry, man.”
He shrugged from where he lounged on the top bunk. “No worries, I’m sure my dad will show up sometime next week.”
Feeling uncomfortable, I gave him a quick, “Later,” and walked ahead of the guard down the corridor. As soon as I spotted my dad waiting for me, I was asking questions. “How is she? Has she asked for me? Is she awake?”
My dad seemed uneasy and wasn’t looking me in the eye. “Caleb, we’ll discuss this when we get home.”
“I’m not going home! I’m going to the hospital!” I practically yelled at him as we exited the building.
He stopped me in the parking lot with a hand on my shoulder. “Julie has given instructions that you aren’t allowed in Gianna’s hospital room.”
Shrugging off his hand, I walked faster to the car. “That’s bullshit! Take me to pick up my car at the school and I’ll drive there myself.”
My dad settled behind the wheel, letting out a sigh. “Fine, I’ll take you to the hospital, but don’t expect to get into her room. Her dad, Chris, is already there and Julie has given him an earful.”
Driving to the hospital, my dad filled me in on Gianna’s condition. Casts on both wrists, jaw wired shut and stitches down below. It was too much to bear, but I had to know. When he was done, I turned my head to look out the window so my dad wouldn’t see my wet eyes. Knowing I needed privacy at that moment, my dad gave me the silence I needed to digest it all.
The car came to a stop in the parking garage and I jumped out. I felt impatient as my dad got out and circled around the car. Not knowing her room number, I was forced to wait for him to take me to her.
“Caleb, she may not even be awake yet. They still had her sedated earlier this morning.”
“It’s been over twelve freaking hours since it happened and she’s probably wondering where the hell I am!” I shouted at him, needing to take my pain and frustration out on someone.