Author’s Note on Content:
This book contains intense scenes depicting sexual assault and drug abuse.
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, New York
First published in the United States of America by Razorbill,
an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2020
Copyright © 2020 by Hayley Krischer
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Names: Krischer, Hayley, author.
Title: Something happened to Ali Greenleaf / Hayley Krischer. Description: New York : Razorbill, 2020. | Audience: Ages 14+. | Summary: Told from two viewpoints, Blythe promises to fix things after her best friend rapes naive Ali at a party, drawing her into the ruthless popular crowd while Ali is still reeling. Includes a list of resources for victims of assault. Identifiers: LCCN 2020020354 | ISBN 9780593114117 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780593114124 (ebook)
Subjects: CYAC: Rape—Fiction. | Friendship—Fiction. | High schools—Fiction. | Schools—Fiction. Classification: LCC PZ7.1.K748 Som 2020 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020020354
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any
responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
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To Jake and Elke
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Author’s Note on Content
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Resources
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
About the Author
If there was somebody who would’ve said, listen, I don’t know what’s going on, but this thing happened to me. And if you are experiencing it, you’re not alone. You’re not nasty. You’re not bad, and it’s not your fault. If there was somebody who would’ve just interjected that, I think it would’ve changed the trajectory of my life.
1
BLYTHE
Some nights it seems like the world has its arms wide open, that the future sizzles with possibility. White streetlights glare in your eyes like disco balls as you whiz down the road. Stars glitter in the black sky. Your favorite song bursts out, and the bass shimmies the car under you as you and your friends chant along.
This is not one of those nights.
We get to Sophie Miller’s house and right away my boyfriend, Devon, and his best friend, Sean, leave me alone inside so they can smoke cigars with the rest of the soccer team. “Cigars are for old men,” I say to Dev as he kisses me.
“I promise to chew some gum before we make out,” he says. Another kiss and he’s off.
Sean, the beatific Sean Nessel, is the reason we’re here. Sean has a thing for a junior girl—Ali Greenleaf. She’s tonight’s focus. “She stares at me a lot,” he said earlier, back at Dev’s house. “Who doesn’t stare at you a lot, Nessel?” I wanted to say, but it would have come out awkward.
Sean and Dev are still close—I hear them and the other guys roaring about their win yesterday. State Champs, all because of Sean’s winning goal. In the school paper since day one. Front page every day. Like they don’t get enough attention since the football team disbanded last year. Now the football moms and the entire town have put all their attention on the soccer boys. Their groveling attention. Outside, the guys are chanting a primal call. DE-FEAT. DE-FEAT. It makes me uncomfortable, all that male animalistic bonding with their claps and their stomps. Everyone at the party is tuned in to it; you can tell by their heads turned toward the windows where the sounds are coming from. Even when they’re not in the room, the boys’ growls take over.
My crew of girls—we’re known as the Core Four: me, Donnie Alperstein, Suki Fields, and Cate Sandoval—should be here by now, but they’re not. People aren’t used to seeing me alone. I bury my head in my phone and text Cate.
Where are you
Be there in 2
“Oh my God, Blythe Jensen!” A girl I don’t know hops in front of me. This happens a lot. When people get drunk, they introduce themselves to me. I nod politely.
“We’re in chemistry together,” she says.
“Where’s the keg?”
She stumbles over directions. She’s actually describing to me where the keg is. So I stop her before it gets too irritating.
“You would be so useful if you could just find the keg and get me a beer,” I say.
“Oh! Sure!”
Ali Greenleaf, the girl Sean wants to hook up with tonight, walks in the door about a minute later. She’s with Cherie Mizner, Raj Patel, and another girl, who I think is Cherie’s sister. Ali is a scrawny chicken. A goose neck. A pasty-faced pumpkin. Full lips. Like a baby. Her hair with a loose curl. Bangs, which aren’t easy to pull off. She has nice hair. Some cute freckles. Wearing a bunch of bracelets up her arm. I like the bracelets. I’ll give her that.
Chemistry Girl is standing right in front of me again, twitching. She says “thank you” when she hands me the beer.
But I want to watch
