I pray that this won’t destroy her.
Justin:
“So when do you think you’re getting outta here?” I ask Ratchet as he lies in the hospital bed. I told you that patience is very hard for me.
Ratchet glares at me. “Don’t know, kid.”
“You look okay to me.”
“Not okay,” he grumbles.
“You look great, really, dude.”
“I feel like dog excrement!” he snaps.
“Maybe if you kept yourself busy,” I murmur, “you wouldn’t feel so crappy.”
“What?!” he snaps.
“Keeping busy is cool. You probably won’t need your painkillers anymore if you work on some of your cases like mine for example. Maybe you can investigate Lucette’s disappearance right from your bed. You’ve got your cell phone, don’t you? I can help you—just tell me what to do.”
“Get outta here, pinhead!”
“Ratchet, you don’t have to call me names,” I burst, hurt.
“You’re really pissing me off!” he snarls. “You’d better get outta here before I really explode!”
UH-OH!
I don’t need to stick around for him to detonate. Noooooooo! I hastily high-tail it out of there! Fast. Swift. Like a flash of light.
Whoosh!—it’s the only noise I make.
My heart is pounding, my palms are sweating, and my stomach is twisting. The fact that he called me a pinhead means that I pushed him a little too far.
But I couldn’t help it.
With each passing day I’m getting more and more desperate to find my wife.
Chapter 19
Lucette/Araceli:
Danila openly sobs as she watches herself on the tablet screen. Anelina, Emily, and I stay quiet. We don’t know what to say to our friend.
What do you say at destruction?
Emily clicks the mouse. “Enough of this,” she proclaims.
Anelina sighs deeply. “Sis, why didn’t you tell us?”
“We could’ve helped you,” I murmur.
“Help me?!” Danila bursts. “How?”
“I don’t know,” murmurs Anelina. “I’m sure we would’ve figured something out.”
“It helps to let it out with people who care about you,” I assert.
“I didn’t want the three of you to know how stupid I had acted!”
“But we’re your family,” explains Emily. I was so thrilled she was counting me as family. “You can count on us for anything.”
“Yeah,” agreed Anelina, “anything—including with understanding about getting drunk at a party.”
Danila sighs, “Including sympathy for making a giant fool of myself?”
“Especially that!” I burst. “You can trust us with everything!”
“Besides, don’t be so upset, sis,” Anelina interjects. “I’m sure everybody in school will get over seeing you slur through Let It Go.”
Emily nods. “Yeah, it’ll soon blow over.”
“You’ll be yesterday’s news in no time,” I assert.
Danila sighs deeply. “The drunken singing is not the worst thing that happened to me that night,” she mutters.
“What else happened?!” bursts Anelina.
Danila’s eyes water. “Something pretty awful.”
“Sis, explain to us what happened,” implores Anelina.
Danila hangs her head down. “Well, let me start from the beginning when I got invited to a party,” she murmurs. “A college bash.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?!” Anelina snaps.
Emily wiggles her index finger and shakes her head at Anelina.
“I wanted something just for myself!” blurts Danila.
Emily sighs. “It’s okay, Dani. We understand. Just tell us what happened.”
I nod my head. “Take all the time you need to tell us.”
“I felt like such big stuff when Chiffon Everett personally invited me to a college party, but she told me not to bring anyone with me,” Danila mutters, gulping.
“So that’s why you couldn’t tell us about it,” Anelina murmurs.
Danila nods solemnly as she continues her story. “I should’ve suspected something!—Chiffon Everett inviting me anywhere! But I was so excited that I ignored the warning signs in my stomach. When I got to the party, Chiffon and her clique were so nice to me for the first time ever. I thought I had hit the jackpot! Imagine, the most popular girl paying attention to me—me a nobody.”
“You’re not a nobody,” I burst, my mouth tight. “And believe me when I tell you that Chiffon isn’t really the somebody you think she is. She’s just some clueless girl who’s under the illusion that she’s better than everyone else.”
The Dynamic Trio eyes me with surprise at my passionate words. They just don’t know how much I mean what I just said, how much I know exactly what I’m talking about. I wish for the umpteenth time that I could tell them about my past, that I had been Chiffon in another life. But I can’t say a word. I have to keep quiet since my life depends on it.
“Wow,” murmurs Danila, “You really feel strongly about that.”
I nod. “You bet I do.”
“So, Dani, keep going,” Emily interjects.
“Yeah, sis, what happened next?”
Danila gulps loudly. “Chiffon and her Chiffon Jr. clique started drinking. They convinced me to join them.”
“I bet they did,” I blurt, fuming.
“They kept telling me to loosen up—to not be such a nerd,” Danila continues, her voice shaky. “That did it! I didn’t want my new popular friends to think badly of me, so I started drinking beer. After that, my drink kept magically filling. Pretty soon, I was flying high.”
“What happened next?” Emily murmurs gently.
“The rest I remember in bits and pieces, as if I was in a fog.”
“Tells us about those bits and pieces, sis,” Anelina utters.
“I remember that Chiffon suggested I sing a song, and I did it. When I realized people were laughing, I stopped. I ran to the restroom and threw up and then . . . and then . . .”
“What, sis?!” Anelina bursts, concerned.
“Alfredo had to rescue me!”
Justin:
There’s nothing left for me to do but wait! Yeah, it sucks. That Ratchet better get well soon, or I don’t know what I’ll do!
Don’t know!
Chapter 20
Lucette/Araceli:
“Alfredo?!” Emily and I burst in unison.
“What does he have to do with this?!” questions Anelina.
Danila takes a deep breath. “Luckily, very luckily, he was there.”
“Why was he there?” asks Emily.
Anelina groans furiously. “And why didn’t he talk some sense into you about the drinking?!”
“He got there while I was in the bathroom. Actually neither one of us knew the other was at the party. It turns out that a girl there had called him to get her out of there. She had also been drinking too much—I wasn’t he only one Chiffon and her hangers-on were goading to drink. This girl called the most reliable and nice guy she knew.”
Emily nods. “Smart move calling Alfredo.”
“Yeah, really smart and it ended up saving me,” Danila declares.
“How did Alfredo save you, sis?” questions Anelina. “You’ve got to tell us.”
Danila nods and takes in a deep breath. “The group of us with Chiffon were in a bedroom of the house. The bathroom I was in was in the room, so I could hear outside of it. I could listen to what was going on with Chiffon. I guess she thought I was so drunk that I couldn’t put together what she was saying. She started telling everyone to get me even more smashed because I was such a funny seventeen-year-old drunk. Some college guy who had joined us started saying that once I passed out he could take off my clothes, have sex with me, and take pictures to post on the internet. Wouldn’t my fellow high school students find it hilarious? Everyone thought this was really funny! Mean
while, I was freaking out wondering how to get myself out of this.”
“OMG, sis!” cries Anelina.
“Alfredo stepped into the bedroom for the girl who had called him but because the door had been open, he had heard everything. He was furious!—angrier than I had ever seen him! He asked them if they thought rape was funny. Everyone got quiet! It was as if someone pressed the mute button on the remote. But then Chiffon started snickering.”
“Snickering?” questions Emily.
“Yeah, she started making fun of Alfredo.”
I groan with repulsion. “What did she say?”
Danila’s face twisted in disgust. “She asked why anyone would listen to such a nerd. Then she ordered him to leave the party.”
“What did Alfredo do?” questions Emily. We were all wondering that question.
“He knocked on the bathroom door and asked if he could take me home. Chiffon had a fit, demanding that he mind his own business. He told her that taking obscene pictures of a minor was illegal and so was rape. Either he took me home or called the police. What did she choose?”
“What did she say?” questions Emily.
Danila chuckles, scoffing. “She didn’t say anything—she just furiously stomped her foot.”
Emily’s eyebrows rose. “Stomped her foot?!”
“Yeah, it was so loud it even reverberated to the bathroom.”
“Princess Chiffon acting like a spoiled baby,” guffaws Anelina, “Funny!”
“When I stepped out of the bathroom you should’ve seen Alfredo’s face,” Danila says, chuckling.
“What do you mean?” asks Anelina.
“He freaked out to know the girl in the bathroom was me,” explains Danila.
I gasped. “He didn’t know it was you?”
Danila shook her head. “He hadn’t known who was in the bathroom—just that whoever it was needed help.”
“Wow, Alfredo!” I blurt. “What a guy!”
“Yeah, he’s awesome!” Danila gushes. “He took the other girl and me home. Of course he scolded me for falling for Chiffon’s hater tricks.”
“You deserved that scolding!” snaps Anelina. “You almost got raped!”
“Yeah, I’ve been really freaked out about it,” Danila murmurs.
“You should’ve told us about it, sis!” bursts Anelina with emotion.
“It was very hard for me to talk about,” Danila explains, gulping, “Alfredo’s so awesome, though. I asked him not to tell anybody and he didn’t.” Her eyes turn dream-like. “He’s really something.”
Justin:
COMPLICATIONS!
CRAP!
Ratchet has health complications and has to go back to surgery. I’m getting so sick of waiting for him. So frustrated!
I WISH THE SICKO, WEIRDO CROAKS SO I CAN HIRE ANOTHER DETECTIVE!!!
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!
Chapter 21
Lucette/Araceli:
The whole story of the college party has completely freaked me out. Danila’s horror experience has left me in shambles. It’s taken me back to my own nightmares, and I can barely stand the anguish.
Rape.
Justin used to make me have sex with him whether I wanted to or not. It was rape! When a guy, even a boyfriend or a husband, takes you by force then that’s what it is. There’s no two ways about it.
I just can’t believe that my friend was about to get raped—and others were going to let it happen without doing anything to help! I’m so disgusted.
Back when Justin used to verbally abuse me and pound me, sometimes so loud that the whole apartment seemed to shake, I’d wonder why none of the neighbors ever did anything. Why they never called the police. I’m sure they heard what was happening, but they chose to do nothing. If they were scared of Justin, they could’ve left an anonymous tip to the police, couldn’t they have?
The next morning, they’d turn their faces away from me when they’d see all of my bruises—so purple and visible on my face and body. Justin would make me walk out to his car with him in the mornings to give him a kiss goodbye. Believe me, I hated doing it but unless I wanted more abuse, I’d have to do what he wanted.
The feeling of no one to count on was the worst! People sitting on the sides while something really horrible is happening to someone practically in front of them just doesn’t sit well with me at all. AT ALL!
There was only one time that someone actually stepped in to help me. It was in the parking lot of a grocery store. Justin’s mood turned dark when he couldn’t find a parking space. That’s the way it was with him. He’d go from cold to hot in only a few surprising seconds. Anyway, he started yelling at me for having had to go to the bathroom just before we left the apartment.
“You stupid freakin’ slut!” He always called me that when he was really upset. He’d reproach me that I had given myself to him like I had probably slept with so many others but he was wrong. He had been my first and only lover. “You cost us a parking space!” he continued his fit. “Why couldn’t you have gone to pee earlier?—instead of right when we were about to leave for the supermarket! Stupid, stupid slut!”
It was useless to try to explain to him that my pregnancy was messing up the normal functions of my body. I’d be fine one second and the next absolutely having to go to the bathroom. I couldn’t help it.
He wouldn’t listen to my explanations. He wouldn’t listen to my profuse apologies. All he’d do was rant and rave.
It was a really hot day, over one hundred degrees, and his car didn’t have a working AC, so we had the windows rolled down. People stared at him going crazy on me as we went round and round in the parking lot.
Finally, we found a parking space next to an empty handicap one. Relief flooded me as if someone had lifted a whole car off of me. I was sure his verbal abuse was about to turn physical, even when he rarely whacked me outside our apartment. He didn’t like people witnessing his violence. Once he had landed in jail when he had smacked his then girlfriend while they were at a concert.
“You’re really lucky we found this space, lucky Lucette,” he growled.
“I’m—”
SMACK! That’s all it had taken for him to backhand me. I guess he felt he was safe from prying eyes in his car. My right hand went to the throbbing right side of my agonizing face. All I had wanted to do was say I’m sorry to him, and he had whacked me. This was how I learned to stay quiet. Speaking while he was furious, even to apologize, just made everything worse.
“Why do you make me do that?” he whined. I really wanted to tell him off, but opening my mouth meant getting socked again. I had it very clear. “I love you so much!” he continued. “Why do you try me like that?”
It was a rhetorical question. He didn’t really want me to answer it. I knew that because once I had tried to answer it by telling him I wasn’t trying to annoy him—just explaining my side. He had beaten me so hard that I could barely walk the next day. It had been a miracle that I hadn’t lost the baby then.
Now, in front of the grocery store, I felt completely helpless. I rubbed the side of my burning face. He had hit me so hard that I was sure a nasty bruise was glaringly visible. You’d think that would make him consider his horrifying actions.
Wrong!
“Why, oh why, do you provoke me!” he snapped, continuing his tirade. “What’s wrong with you?! I just can’t be with you right now! You stay here and I’ll get the groceries!”
I started to sob the second he stepped into the store. What a total monster I married, I kept telling myself. This woman stopped in the handicap space next to mine and started speaking to me from her open window. “Are you okay?” she asked, kind concern dripping from her voice.
I stared back at her generous eyes, not being able to talk as more sobs overtook me. She leaned to the side as far as she could go and handed me tissues through the open windows from both cars. I gratefully took them and wiped my very wet face.
“I saw the whole thing!” sh
e burst, continuing. “The pig left the side of your face like a train wreck. I’ve already called the police! Who is that guy?!”
“My husband,” I warbled, hating having to admit my ties to the monster. I sure wish that I knew then what I know now—that Justin and I weren’t really married.
Her eyebrows shot up. “Your husband?!—but you’re only a baby! How can you be married?”
“I’m pregnant,” I stumbled out, trying to catch my breath.
She nodded as if she understood my predicament. “What’s your name?”
“Lucette,” I murmured.
“Lucette, I’m Lorenza.”
“Lorenza, you’re a very nice lady calling the police and stopping to see if I’m okay.”
Lorenza sighed deeply. “Listen, Lucette,” she murmured with authority in her voice, “I know you better than you think. I used to be in your same situation. My husband almost beat me to death many times.”
“What did you do?!” I rushed, coming alive. “Did you get away from him?”
“My parents and siblings convinced me to leave him, and they protected me from him. Then my brother gave him a beating I doubt he’s ever forgotten. He’s never bothered me since and even signed the divorce papers right away.”
I nodded sadly. “Lucky you, Lorenza.”
“Listen, Lucette, you have to get away from him. He’ll end up killing you. I can see it in his eyes!”
I nodded again. How could I even begin to explain that I didn’t have my parents’ support and even if I did, he had already threatened to kill everyone I knew including the both of us?
“Who’s this?!” Justin snapped, sneaking up to us. He stood in the middle of both cars. He must’ve seen us from the supermarket windows. He didn’t have our groceries, so he must’ve left everything inside to see what was happening outside.
“I’m Lorenza,” she growled at Justin, “and I came to see how this girl was after you slapped her!”
Justin’s face contorted. “Lady, my argument with my wife is none of your business!”