She closes her eyes and nods. “Yep. She was acting weird for a couple of days, and I was in her closet looking for a shirt of mine that went missing. I heard her enter her room on the phone. She was crying. Told Shane that she had been bleeding for two days and it wouldn’t stop. He asked what the fuck was he supposed to do about it?” She laughs. “That was when I realized a girl’s virginity didn’t mean anything. Which is crazy, right? We’re told it’s supposed to be special. You’re supposed to give it to someone you love.” Her drunk laughter grows. “Such bullshit.”
I shift in my seat because I didn’t make anything about her first time special. “What was the second?” I ask, fully taking advantage of her intoxicated state.
“When my sister drugged me and didn’t care if I got raped.”
What?“When the fuck did this happen?” I growl.
“You were there.” She gives me a smile, and that’s how I know she drank too much. Because nothing about what she is about to tell me could be anything worth smiling about. Her eyes are still closed. “The beach party. You handed me a bottle of vodka. That was actually my first drink. Anyway, Cole took it from me, and I wanted to leave. So I went over to tell David I was going to wait in the car, but he told Becky to make me a drink. After that, I ran into Eli, and I left with him. He took me to the cemetery. But then I started feeling weird, and I couldn’t open my eyes. He tasted my drink and said I had been drugged.” My hands tighten on the steering wheel. “How was I supposed to know it didn’t taste right? I hadn’t had a drink before that night. Anyway, he had to carry me to his car. Then he took me to his house where I got sick. The next morning, my sister showed up to get me, and when he confronted her about it, she said she and Maxwell did it. He called her a bitch and said that he could have raped me. That’s when we learned that was their plan all along. That bitch knew I was a virgin. She didn’t fucking care.”
I come to a red light and clear my throat. “Demi …”
“That’s one of the reasons I slept with you.”
I look over at her, and her head falls toward me, and her pretty blue eyes look up into mine. The same ones I watched the life slowly drain out of while I choked her earlier. I hate that I hurt her. Now that I know the truth of how much shit she has been through. It seems someone is always wanting to hurt her.
“I know I lied to you. Tricked you. We set you up. But …” She licks her lips. “I wanted you to take it, Deke. Don’t think for one second that I didn’t want you.”
I hate how much I like the sound of that. But I find myself saying, “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
I reach out and cup her face. For wanting to kill you. For fucking you? My list just seems to keep growing, but I pick. “Your first time should have been different …”
She snorts. “I didn’t want different. And I don’t regret it.” She closes her eyes.
I watch her lips part slightly and her chest rise and fall slowly. She’s so drunk, she won’t be with me much longer. But I still have questions. “If Eli knew what she did to you, then why did he fuck her?”
“I lied about that too the other night. On the back porch.”
“What?”
“He never slept with her.” She yawns, and I know I’m losing her.
“Demi?”
“Hmm?”
“What do you mean he never slept with her?” Cole told me that they were sleeping together. He wouldn’t lie to me.
“He faked it.”
“How do you fake fucking someone?” I growl.
“He set her up. For you … just like I set you up.” She’s beginning to mumble her words.
“You’re not making any sense, princess.”
She digs into the pocket of her jeans and produces her cell phone. She goes to hand it to me but drops it to the floor. “It’s all on our FB chat,” she manages to say before she passes out on me.
DEMI
Sophomore year
“This is a horrible idea,” I say, grabbing Eli’s arm.
“It’ll be fine.”
“Please don’t go,” I beg him.
