Five Minutes

F*ck U

Since she'd made the post about Daniel, Veronica hadn't kept in good contact with any of her friends. After Colleen dropped her, she figured she needed another break to gather her cool. And with her disclosing the incident to her parents, the social communication hadn't been on the forefront of her mind.

Sallie had commented on her post and sent her a few messages. She must have known Veronica would vacillate and develop regret and worry.

The post was awesome. If you even think about taking it down I'm coming over to your place and smacking you upside the head.

They'd messaged each other a number of times over the last few days, the last comment being from Veronica agreeing to go out for drinks and adding that maybe she'll invite some of her other girlfriends along.

So then she gave Sam a call.

Veronica was sitting and watching television at the time. Ralston was at a studio meeting, in negotiations to direct a science fiction film, so she had the place to herself. His career had taken a tank since the video of him had been released, but surprisingly, he hadn't been dropped by his agent yet.

She made sure to turn the volume down low.

"Hey," Sam said, after picking up the call.

"Hey!" Veronica said. "Are you doing anything tomorrow?"

There was a pause on the other line. "Um, I'm not sure. I'll have to check."

"If you're free, want to go out for drinks?"

Another pause. Veronica hadn't thought much of the first one, but the second time, it made her tense up. Something was wrong. And her chest tightened when she realized that.

"I'm sorry, I can't."

"We can reschedule," Veronica assured her. "We can go next week instead."

"I don't think so," Sam replied.

She knew it wasn't right to reach conclusions but that was precisely what she did. "I guess you're too busy for the next few months, huh?" she asked. "This is about the post I made on Facebook, isn't it?"

"I don't know what you want me to say, Ronnie."

"What, so I told everyone that Daniel is a liar and suddenly you don't want to be my friend?"

"I don't know," Sam replied. "There's other crew members who said you and Daniel spent a lot of time together...and... one saw him come out of your hotel room."

"What are you trying to say?" She didn't know why she asked that. She knew the answer. And it wasn't good. But she didn't wait for the response. "Daniel came into my room and raped me, Sam. That's why I didn't want to work with him. That's why I tried to ignore his calls."

A third pause. "It sounds more like you two got drunk and slept together," Sam said. "Regret isn't rape. You can't make those kind of accusations. It's serious. You're messing with a person's life."

"Why would I lie about this?" She still couldn't grasp that. Sadly, no matter how many times she asked herself and others that question, she wasn't given a clear answer.  She thought these people knew her better than this. These people who were supposed to care about her and be there for her.

"Alana and Mel told me what happened. That you got drunk. You've never been great at holding your liquor. And you know that, Ronnie."

"So you think I deserved it?" Veronica asked.

"I'm not saying that," Sam replied. "I think you made a mistake and feel bad about it."

Tears were pouring down her face now. She sniffed before speaking again. "I would never cheat on Ralston."

"People do a lot of dumb things when they're drunk. Don't you remember all the stupid stuff you did when you used to get drunk at parties?"

Sam wasn't wrong. Veronica was a light weight and had partaken in behaviour she greatly dreaded the morning after. It was one of the reasons why she cut down on her alcohol intake. 

However, she had never fooled around with another man. She wouldn't do that to her husband. It wasn't just because she was married. She loved Ralston and it irritated her that anyone would doubt their faithfulness to each other.

"You sometimes blacked out. You could barely ever remember what happened," Sam continued.

"This is different," Veronica said. "I do remember what happened."

"I don't think it happened the way you remember it."

That was it. She couldn't keep talking to somebody who automatically assumed the worst of her. Veronica was done with her, just like she was done with Alana and Mel.

"Fine, you keep thinking that. I know what happened. I don't give a fuck if you believe it or not," Veronica said and hung up. It didn't matter to her if Sam had other comments to make. She didn't want to hear it.

She went through her contacts list and called Landry. She didn't know what Landry would say, but she needed to speak to every friend about it and see who to permanently shut out. She was sick of this.

Landry answered after several rings. "Hey." She sounded less subdued than Sam - she sounded happy to be hearing from Veronica. Was that good? Veronica didn't know anymore.  Maybe she needed to assume the worst instead of latching onto hope and she'd never be let down by anyone ever again.

"Hey," Veronica said, her voice nasally from crying.

"What's wrong?" Landry asked.

"Nothing."

"It doesn't sound like nothing."

"Can you come over?" Veronica asked. She was trying her best not to let her voice crack into a sob.

"Of course."