“Tori?” He sounds exasperated now.
“Uh, yeah, I just drank too much last night.”
“Why was the door locked? Is Stacey still here? Are you sure that’s all you did?”
“Ah, no, she’s not. She must have locked it behind her when she left. Just let me shower and I’ll come downstairs,” I tell him, trying to sound normal but wanting him to go away.
“Uh, okay.” He sounds confused. I’ve never not let him into my room before, but there’s no way he can see it looking like it is. Not only is the strap-on still on the floor, but I also noticed that my sheets have bloodstains on them. “I’ll make you a coffee. I thought you wanted to get school supplies today. I wanted to come with you and get a few things for college.”
“Shit, I forgot. Yeah, okay, let’s do that. Give me half an hour.” I shut the door, much to his surprise. Leaning against it, I heave out a sigh and shudder again. I’m not sure how I’m going to make it through shopping without breaking down and telling him everything. If I told him that I think Stacey raped me, he’d kill her—literally. I need proof first before going down that road.
Stepping away from the door, I spy the bowl of party favors from the other night. I grab one of the joints and my phone off the bedside table before heading out onto my balcony and lighting one up. I drag in the skunky smoke before letting it out again. The afternoon sun is hot on my skin and helps warm me up a little.
Opening my message app, I shoot Stacey a text.
Tori:Where are you?
Tori:I need to talk to you.
I take another drag while I wait for her to reply. Her phone is never far from her hand, so it shouldn’t take long.
My emotions are all over the place as I take another shaky drag, the pot finally taking effect. I stop shaking, and my body relaxes minutely.
Tori:Stacey, what the fuck? Answer me.
I’m starting to get pissed off now. No matter what I toss around in my mind, I can’t come up with any other reason for my condition except that Stacey didn’t take my no for an answer, and she somehow knocked me out and raped me with the fucking dildo.
Anger starts to seethe through my body as my hands clench, snapping the joint, and the cherry drops to the floor of the balcony.
Tossing the rest of the joint in the ashtray, I storm back inside. I open my desk drawer and pull out the date rape drug test kit that Gio had given me at the beginning of summer. He said I could never be too careful, and if Stacey and I went to any parties, I should take a strip or two. I had thrown it in my desk and forgotten about it because we never went to any parties apart from Gio’s. Pulling out a strip, I head over to the bottle Stacey had given me last night and tip it to the side so I can swipe the strip through the small amount of liquid still left in the bottom. I take a deep breath, knowing that the next few moments could change everything, and pull the strip out. I hold it out and watch as the control line fills in pink. Holding my breath, I wait for the other side to fill in pink as well and tell me what I suspect my friend did is wrong, but nope, that square stays clear, telling me I have a positive result for Rohypnol. I’m not sure how long I stand there staring at the strip. Fucking hell, I thought she slipped us ecstasy, and while I wasn’t too upset about that, now I know better. The strip crumbles as I clench my hand into a fist and scream in anger.
How could she do that to me? I dideverythingfor her. I followed along with all her stupid schemes, no questions asked, because she was my best friend. I thought I meant as much to her as she meant to me, and now she can’t even be bothered to answer me or explain what happened. What was the point? Why would she do something like that? She took away something that I can never get back, and yeah, it might seem stupid in this day and age to believe your virginity is a gift, but call me old-fashioned, because that was how I felt, and she destroyed it for her own selfish needs.
I grit my teeth and straighten my spine as my fury and anger turn cold. Well, Stacey better watch the fuck out. Just because I’m usually quiet and happy to follow along doesn’t mean that I’m meek or pathetic. She really fucked with the wrong person, and I’m going to make that bitch pay.
Picking up the dildo, I look around the room. There’s a knocked over bottle of lube at the end of the bed mixed with the blankets, so I pick that up also and put both items on the counter in the bathroom. Stripping the bloodstained sheet off my bed, I dump it onto the floor with the blankets. Everything can go in the washer. I take off the shirt I covered myself with when Gio knocked and add it to the pile along with the panties.
Back in the bathroom, I flush the toilet from before and wash the vomit out of the sink. Snapping the lid closed on the lube, I run that under the tap to clean the bottle before pulling the dildo out and washing both it and the harness. I leave them to dry on the counter and turn the faucet on in the shower. While I wait for it to heat up, I think about confronting Stacey and what I’m going to say to her. Through my cold fury, there’s still a sliver of doubt, but there’s no way we can ever go back to being friends again, even if she says she was doing me a favor. There’s no way I’ll ever trust her. Maybe I just need to take a deep breath and wait to see what she has to say.
I step into the shower, and it finishes doing what the joint had started. Once I’ve washed my body and hair and stepped out to dry myself, I feel so much better. Things are also much clearer. I will confront her and hear what she has to say. How I deal with her depends on what she will say, though I can’t imagine she has a good reason for doing what she did. Although, in her mind, she might see it that way. Her parents have completely warped the way she looks at the world, hence being in that situation in the first place. But why she would think taking away my choice was the answer, I have no idea. Maybe it’s because her parents have made so many decisions for her all her life. Choice is not really a word in their house. Everything we did last night was her attempt to make herself attractive to men. I realize that now in my mostly sober state. In her mind, being good in bed is essential to that, and maybe she felt like I needed those skills too, but I kind of hoped she wanted to explore what we had as well.
I know she wasn’t doing it because she wanted our relationship to change. She didn’t want to be my girlfriend. She wouldn’t have drugged me in the first place if that was the case. No, Stacey selfishly took what she wanted with no fucks left to give about how it might affect anyone else.
Well, Stacey is going to learn that she is not the center of the universe and her actions have consequences. She better pray that the price she will pay is not more than she can handle.
ChapterSeven
Shopping with Gio is exhausting. Keeping up the pre-rape Tori act is hard, especially when all I really want to do is burn down the world in my anger. I want to confront her before I say anything to Gio though, mainly because I know Gio’s reaction won’t be good. If she doesn’t wind up dead, she may very well wish she was, and I kind of want to be the one who dishes out the revenge if any is needed.
My emotions are all over the place. Anger and fury are followed by doubt and denial, and then it goes full circle, returning to anger again. I can’t concentrate, and I’m sure I don’t buy anything I actually need.
At one stage, Gio questions me again. “Seriously, Tori, what the fuck is wrong with you? Are you high? You haven’t stopped chewing on your nails the whole time we’ve been here.”
“Just a little. Hair of the dog and all that, right?” Not wanting to stop and look at him, I keep walking, and he grabs my arm.
“What’s gotten into you? I didn’t think you liked to indulge like that unless we were at a party. That’s not the Tori I know.”
I rip my arm away from him. “Like you can talk. You’re a much different person from who you were a year ago too. People change,” I sneer, hoping to take the focus off me and put it on him. I watch as his eyes shutter and a wall goes up, having the effect I wanted it to.
