Many Chance Summer

Subway

"Is she coming?" I ask Carolyn and Anya.

"Yeah, she said she would," Anya says. Carolyn and Anya look worried.

"Guys, relax." I try. "We're just gonna talk civil with her. She has to hear it. She has to. If not...God know what the hell will happen to her."

Diana pops into my mind again. Susanne said she looked like me so I imagine her with my half kinky, half straight hair, full lips, slim nose, light brown eyes, and few freckles dotting her forehead.

"We know it's just..." Carolyn starts, toying with her coffee. "We've tried to tell her to ed things, but she won't listen to us. She gets mad like its our fault or like we're lying to her."

"Yeah-why would we do that? We love her, we're worried." Anya cuts in.

I start to get nervous. What was I thinking? What will I say.

"Has Taylor been treating her like this for long?" I ask them, trying to evaluate the importance of this meeting.

They look at each other.

"The first time I ever saw him be aggressive towards her was, like..." Anya thinks. "Two, three weeks ago?"

Carolyn shrugs.

"He could've done stuff before then and we just didn't know."

"True."

"Does she have any bruises or scratches?"

"Hm...no, but now that I think about it she did have that one mysterious bruise on her side Ray hurt whenever she move, remember?"

Carolyn nods.

"Yeah. She had never had anything like that before, not even from lacrosse or field hockey so we new that wasn't an accident," she elaborates.

"Plus, she doesn't get into I fights with people. Not physical ones."

"Even if she did, she wouldn't have lied about it to us like she did with that bruise."

"How did she say she got it?"

"She said she fell." Anya rolls her eyes. "But that's bullshit."

"Oh, shit. Here she is." I follow Carolyn's eyes behind me to the door of the coffee house. There Paige is. Holding Taylor's hand.

"Hey, girls!" She greets happily.

"Hey..." We say, not really excited to see Taylor here. I remember his hand on my arm an his words to me at the party. I remember how scared I was and how bad I just wanted to escape.

"Oh, hey." Taylor recognizes me. "You're that girl from the party last week, right?"

"I guess." I shrug, not wanting to talk to him.

"Look, I know what I did. I remember. And I am so sorry."

I look at him but I can tell it's all for show. It's all so that he can keep dragging Paige along with him. I've watched way too many ID shows.

"Yeah," Paige says. "Last night, he was telling me over the phone that he felt really bad and I'm like why and he said he was rough handling you and saying shit he didn't mean. I'm like duh, you were drunk-"

"I did something bad and I know it hurt your feelings. So I apologize. What kind of guy would I be if I didn't?"

He raises his shoulders, a small smile on his face.