“Please,” she whispered. The one word was all it took. I still wanted to rip his head from his shoulders, but I was able to stop myself.
She tossed her ponytail haughtily behind her and glared at Tye. “I know that’s not how it happened and so do you. Kid yourself all you want to, but you’re a pervert, and if I’m right, a rapist, ever since high school. Maybe that’s the only way you can get fucked, by tricking or forcing a woman.”
She sniffed and walked away from him.
Tye glared at her. When he opened his mouth to retort, Valor’s growl ripped from my chest. Tye snapped his jaw shut and looked at me in surprise. “Stay away from her,” I said in a voice quiet enough that she wouldn’t hear it.
He swallowed audibly. The sound of his heart beating a rapid pace filled my ears. He was terrified of me but would probably never show it.
With one last step toward him, I grabbed the tools and followed Kara back out the door, loading our stuff into the truck.
“Come on,” she sighed. “Let’s go get lunch.”
We’d begun to enjoy getting lunch from the diner or grocery store and sitting on the back of her truck under a copse of trees in the parking lot of the local park. Usually, enough of a breeze would kick up to keep us pretty cool as we ate and talked. And sometimes made out.
“I haven’t asked,” I said after we finished eating. “I didn’t want to pry. But what is your history with that guy?”
Kara sighed and kicked her feet back and forth over the edge of the tailgate. “After you kicked his ass, I thought about telling you, but it’s so embarrassing. I hated to do it.”
I doubted there was anything she could tell me that would make me like her less. “Hey,” I said gently. “Come on. It’s me. I think we’re friends enough by now that you can talk to me, right?”
She ducked her head and nodded. “Yeah, I just hate it.” I kept my hand on her thigh as she continued. “In high school, I was small, and I didn’t hit puberty until I was almost seventeen. And even then…” She sat up and indicated her small breasts.
“Hey,” I protested. “I love them!”
She giggled and put her hand on mine but wouldn’t look at me. “Tye was the popular guy. Quarterback, valedictorian, rich family, the whole package. Every girl had a crush on him. And I was the shy, quiet girl, always hiding in the back of the class, always wearing all black.”
Suspicions of what was coming with the story began to grow in my gut. I had a sneaking suspicion I knew what had happened and it made my stomach queasy.
“They—his football buddies—made a bet that Tye could get into my pants, and I was stupid and gullible, and it worked. The next day, my panties were hanging from the flagpole, and Tye…”
She brushed tears away as I tried not to tighten my fingers around her leg. I didn’t want to hurt her, but I was so angry I didn’t know if I could contain myself.
You must agree that we have to hurt him.
If only it was that easy. “I should’ve killed him when I had the chance.” They were my words but in Valor’s voice. We were in accord for once, and if Tye had been standing in front of us, we wouldn’t have been able to stop ourselves.
My stomach churned as she continued her story. “Cynthia was almost as bad as Tye afterward. She wanted him, and she basically was the female version of him. Captain of the cheerleading squad and all that. She wasn’t smart like Tye, though, and he couldn’t stand her. That was one thing he’d told me when he was working on me that I think was true. He’d liked our conversations because they were intelligent.”
The look of disgust on her face made me even angrier. She wasn’t just hurt by this, even all these years later. She was ashamed, grossed out.
“What he did,” I said in a low voice, “that was rape.”
She shook her head. “I was willing, at the time.”
“No!” I jumped to the ground and took her hands, tapping her chin so she’d look at me. “He got you to sleep with him under false pretenses. In my book, that’s rape. I’m so sorry.”
I wrapped my arms around her and held her close, wishing with all my heart I had the sort of magic that would let me go back in time and change this for her. She had so much pain and carried it so close to her all the time. My problems seemed laughable compared to what she’d been through.
“You’re squishing me,” Kara whispered.
I channeled my rage deep inside, curled in a ball to work off later, and forced myself to chuckle and loosen my grip. “Come on. We’ve still got a few places to hit before we’re done.”
She sighed and hopped off the tailgate. “Yep.”
After a moment’s hesitation, she held out the keys to her precious truck. “Wanna drive?”
My jaw dropped and I restrained myself from snatching the keys away in my excitement. “Have you ever let anyone drive your truck?”
Kara’s beautiful green eyes squinted as she considered my question. “Just my dad.”
“Then hell yes!” I exclaimed. The horror at the story she’d told me sat heavy in my gut. I knew I’d have to deal with it somehow or else hunt Tye down and teach him another lesson.
But for Kara’s sake, I kept the rest of the day light. I pretended to have a hard time driving the truck, made jokes, and generally made myself a spirit-lifter. I made her laugh several times, which was a definite improvement.
Now I knew why she hated snobs so much. And I was so glad I’d changed and was continuing to change so that I could be someone that
