A Song For Another Time - A Hikaru Hitachiin Story

Chapter Thirty Five - Empty Sounds and Endless Stories

Rose had never really had one of those moments when it felt like the world was spinning around her while she was sitting still — the kind of stop-motion moment where it felt like she was watching everything around her move in fast forward while she was nothing more than a statue on display bearing witness to the rotations of the Earth.

That was what it had felt like inside that sparsely decorated room in University Hall, after nearly two months of investigation, as Kyoya sparred with professionals lawyers during the university-led hearing regarding "Lance's behavior." Well, they said it was regarding such, but as Rose watched the "adults" debate and deliberate, she got the feeling that, really, she was the one that was on trial.

Lance hadn't phoned it in this time — going as far as walking into University Hall with an entire legal team and a promise to sue the university if the verdict didn't swing his way. They came armed with all her secrets in their back pockets and a carefully crafted narrative about the poor little orphan girl who only wanted her 15 seconds of fame and a large cheque of hush money.

She was a liar, they stated. A girl who bent reality to her will and kept her real age a secret from those around her. What other purpose was there for such a deed than to deceive for the thrill? She was a rule breaker, they accused. An underaged girl who willingly attended a college-aged party and accepted alcohol of her own volition. What other nefarious and illegal acts was she capable of — had she already committed? She was a temptress, they implied. A woman who gave consent with sweet words of affirmation and then took it away without notice. Why else would she have called the accused "sweet" or softly touched his arm? She had clearly led him on and cried wolf when he acted on it.

This was clearly a case of "lover's regret," the attorney's concluded — the lamentings of a girl too young to know she did wrong, too young to understand adult relationships, too young to be at college. That was all there was to this case. Nothing more. And they walked back to their seats with victory in their eyes.

The men and women in business suits were clever, Kyoya admitted when he took the stand. They were professional, well educated and just doing their job, he said, but they were hired by someone so utterly guilty of his crime that his legal team was reduced to half-baked accusations and cliché defenses. The entirety of their narrative was beside the point, though, because Lance was caught on camera — seen by several witnesses both on campus and at his party — of not only acts that broke the student code of conduct, but the laws of Boston, Massachusetts and the United States of America.

Were the cameras and evidence compiled guilty of lying — of being misleading — because it sure doesn't look like Rose Michaels was pinned against the wall of a school building of her own volition. The bruises on her face and scratches on her body, noted by the nurse who looked her over and filled in the police report, don't exactly scream consent. Should we then call into question the honesty of hospital workers and the police? If the accused's own best friend, who would have "defended him to the ends of the Earth," was willing to stand against him, then what did that say about the severity of the act? Is Caleb Winthrop, too, looking for hush money and his 15 minutes of fame?

Breathing was still hard when all the talking and questioning was over and all too suddenly it felt like everything had reversed for Rose. Now, she was spinning and the world was sitting still. The five people in charge of the investigation and deliberations had excused themselves to a secluded discussion elsewhere in the building and left her there, still in the same uncomfortable seat, to stew in the reality that her future was in the hands of a bunch of education professionals who were not really equipped to deal with these type of matters. What was, quite possibly, one of the most pivotal moments of her life was left to people whose interests weren't solely in ensuring her safety or even in justice, but instead also had to consider the likes of the university's reputation, the possibility of angering (and losing) a major donor to the institution and, on the other hand, how the Winthrop family would factor into this whole ordeal. Rose, individually, was probably the least of their concerns.