Unmasked

Chapter Eleven

"I brought back up."

I looked at Lou with somewhat teary eyes, and saw that she was holding up Oreos and other cookie/chocolate products that I knew I could devour in one sitting with the way I was feeling. And especially with the way I knew tonight was going to go with what we had to talk about. 

I smiled and immediately grabbed the Oreos from her hands and made my way to the couch, where it seemed that I had been all day. Even thinking about earlier today made me sad and want to crawl into a shell once more. 

Once I was on the couch, I faced her, bringing my legs onto the couch and crossing them. I had no idea how to even mentally prepare for the conversation I knew we were going to have. And honestly, I had zero energy to even think about how I was going to be able to process anything and everything she was about to tell me. I had been through quite the ringer myself, and I was so distracted by how I was feeling about the whole Wes thing... I was scared that I wasn't going to be able to fully take in Lou's story. 

"Are you okay?" Lou asked, bringing me out of my own head.

"We'll talk about me later. How are you?" 

"I'm okay, considering. I know that I need to tell you. You deserve to know." She said in that matter-of-fact tone she always used on me.

"I don't deserve anything--"

"Yes, you do!" She interrupted me, sitting down next to me.

I readjusted myself so that I was still crisscrossed on the couch, but I was facing her. We were basically mirroring one another. She extended her hand out and laid it on my knee. I clenched it in response. 

"So, the guy who hit you... His name was Robert. But, we all call him Rob. You don't know him because he doesn't go to our school. He's a college guy, and we've been talking for a while now."

This was news to me. Lou never really discussed her dating life, and I just always assumed she was never really serious with any of the guys she talked to. I had no idea she had been talking to someone for a while, let alone someone older and obviously more serious.

She went on.

"He's been pressuring sex for a couple of weeks now, and I really didn't think anything of it. I mean, you know how guys are! They joke and kid around about a lot of it. So, when he started kissing me and making passes last night, that's how I took it. Like a joke. And, that pissed him off. A lot."

I didn't know if I really wanted to hear the rest of this story. I didn't want to really know how far things went. I don't think I could take hearing if she had been hurt in any way by this guy. 

"Anyway, he tried unbuttoning my jeans and clawing at my shirt to take it off. Well, I pushed him off... I said I didn't want it."

She started tearing up at this point, and I knew then that from here on out, this would be hard for her to talk about. I tensed up automatically, preparing myself for the worst. 

"He... He pushed me on the bed. He held me down. I... I couldn't get up. I was helpless." She was crying to me, and all I could do was clutch her hand tightly. I was crying, too.

"He didn't rape me. I know that's what you're thinking. I don't know if he would have had we not been interrupted by some of his buddies knocking at the door. He just got up and left like nothing had happened. That's when I called you. But, God... It could have happened. I was pinned down and... he was so close to, to touching me."

"Shh, shh." I said, shaking my head and bringing her into me. I let her cry in my shoulder, and I just held her while she sobbed. I wanted to find this guy and do actual damage to him, but that was unlikely seeing as how I would probably never see him again. And, I didn't want to ask any more about him. I just wanted her to be okay, and if dredging up memories made her uncomfortable, I wasn't going to do that.