With the Spin of a Bottle

Chapter One

Chapter One

Leena P.O.V.

"Come on, Mads. Look at your new room. I know it's nothing like your room back home and you'll have to get used to sharing a bathroom, but it's not so bad. It's way better than the dorms. I'm just glad that you're joining me this semester." I said cheerily, trying to get any kind of reaction out of my cousin.

The night of our high school graduation, the night of my first kiss and first party, was also the night that Madeline had lost her virginity. It was also the night that Maddie had lost all of the light inside of her. Chase had raped her. She'd said no, but he hadn't taken no for an answer. Here I had been at home, thinking what a horrible night I'd had, and my cousin had her innocence stolen. That's apparently what Chase and Maddie were arguing about when they'd dropped me off, that night. Chase wanted to do it, but Maddie wasn't ready. Instead of respecting her wishes to wait, Chase had driven them out of town and nobody had heard her desperate screams for help.

It had taken me two months to get Maddie to fess up about what happened. She wouldn't talk to anyone else about it. When she had finally told me, I begged her to go to the police, but Maddie hadn't wanted to draw attention to herself. I didn't agree with her decision, but I couldn't force her. I hated that Chase was getting away with what he'd done to her and I hated that she was refusing to tell anyone else about it. Her family had no idea why she'd become so withdrawn and not herself. Before that night, Maddie had been scheduled to start at Cosmetology school during the summer, but that hadn't happened and Maddie just kept falling deeper and deeper into depression. I finally convinced her parents that she needed a change of scenery. I'd helped her get enrolled at Northwestern and talked my dad into allowing me to get an apartment, instead of living in the dorms again, like I had during first semester. I'd just spent Christmas break trying to get Maddie excited about starting college, but I failed miserably.

Maddie looked around the place with cold eyes. Our other roommate, Josephine Tisdale, looked at me wide-eyed. Josie had been my assigned roommate in the dorms, during my first semester, and when I'd told her that I was moving out, she demanded to allow her to come along. So instead of a two bedroom apartment, like I'd planned, we were in a three bedroom. I'd explained everything to Josie, about what happened to Maddie, but I don't think she'd been fully prepared.

I was different than I was when I first started college and I had Josie to thank for that. The girl was a tiny little, redheaded pixie, with a temper that could rival all of my brother's put together. She'd scared me a little at first, but I quickly learned that her bark was way worse than her bite. I'd assumed that Josie was just the type of person to help me get Maddie to come back to the land of the living, but seeing the cold, almost dead look in my cousin's eyes I wasn't so sure. Maddie had digressed even more since the last time I saw her.

"Hey, Madeline. My name is Josephine Tisdale, but you can call me Josie. I'm your other roommate. I hope you don't mind that I kind of forced myself upon you guys. I promise not to be the most annoying roommate in the world." Josie said, forcing a chuckle.

Josie had been hell bent on joining a sorority when we first started school, but she quickly learned that those sorority bitches had zero sense of humor and with Josie's brazen personality, it hadn't been a good fit. That hadn't stopped Josie from hitting all of the parties she could and definitely hadn't stopped her attempts to get me to attend with her. I'd only gone to two, so far, and they weren't all that different than the one high school party I had attended. I'd steered clear of alcohol and I'd declined any invitation to get to know a boy better by visiting his bedroom upstairs. Half the boys who had propositioned me to see their bedroom hadn't even lived in the house the party was being held. Men were disgusting.