“That’s what you think of me, huh?” Rodney asked Sadie. “That I’m a rapist?"
Sadie was shaking her head. “Idon’t. Rod, no, I?—”
“But your friends do,” he said, wiping his face, wincing as he encountered his bruises, trying desperately to get back to his cocksure, whatever-dude attitude.
Meanwhile Jules’s world was full-on tilting because...
“How do you know?” Jules asked, even as Belle narrowed her eyes and demanded, “Who told you about the rapes?”
“I did the freaking math. I heard what happened to Caroline, and I know there’s been other girls and...Hobbit, Hobbit, don’t leave me Hobbit,” Rodney mocked Jules, soyeah, apparently the tearful recrimination part was over and he was back to his status quo as a raging asshole. “You’d never say shit like that unless you were in serious trouble. Like, when doyouask for help? Unless maybe you were, oh, I don’t know, slipped the same kind of fucking mickey that some asshole fuckhead gave my little sister? Jesus, she disappeared from the party, and I found her, in the woods and...” He looked back at Sadie as his face crumpled like a little boy’s as tears filled his eyes again. “Youseriouslythought it was me?”
Sadie was aghast. “Oh God,Meggie...? She’s just a freshman,” she told them.
“Shit,” Jules breathed. “When?”
“I don’t know, a few weeks ago,” Rodney said, wiping almost viciously at his eyes, as if he welcomed the pain. “At that stupid party at Greg Bateman’s. I thought it was funny—that she snuck out to go to a kegger—she’s always been so perfect, straight As, daddy’s little angel. I should’ve taken her home, but I didn’t want to, and then I looked up, and she was just... gone.”
“That was the weekend before me,” Shelly said and Rodney turned to look at her.
“Ah, shit,” he said. “Although of course.That’swhy you’re trying to find this fucker. Well, join the club, because I am, too. I’m gonna find him and I’m gonna fucking kill him.”
“Who beat you up, Rod?” Belle asked, her voice cold.
“My latest victim,” he said mocking, swinging swiftly back to his inner asshole, to glare at her in defiance. “That’s what you’re thinking, right? Youstillthink it’s me? That I’d rape my own sister?” He looked at Sadie. “Nice friends you’ve got—and you always bitch about mine.”
“If I was the rapist, and I got caught, I’d pretend to be hunting the rapist, too,” Belle argued.
“It’s a fair question,” Jules said, although he would’ve worded it more gently.You’re looking pretty battered there. Can we get you some ice? Who, uh, did this to you?Because although, unlike Belle, he believed Rodney was being honest—the boy’s emotion was just so raw—it would be remiss of them not to dig deeper, just in case Belle was right. “Youwereat every party where the girls were assaulted, plus you’re on a shortlist of people who had access to my soda on Friday night.”
Of course, now Rod was glaring at Jules, too. “Yeah, well, fuck you. I didn’t spike your fucking soda.”
“You sat there for a pretty long time,” Tom pointed out.
“Yeah, because I was hoping Sadie would show up, all right?” Rod said. “She’s always hanging out with Kevin and...” He looked directly at her, spoke directly to her. “You won’t talk to me at school, but I wanted to warn you. I didn’t want it to happen to you. So I sat down next to your stupid little friend.”
“Who you bully relentlessly,” Sadie pointed out.
“Because I fucking hate him!”
“Why?” Sadie said, frustrating ringing in her voice. “What has Kevin ever done to you?”
“He gets to hang out with you, every fucking day, and you won’t evenlookat me!”
“What?!” Sadie exploded. “You’rethe one who told me you couldn’t be friends with a girl!”
“Back in fourth grade!” Rodney shouted back. “I was a fucking idiot!”
“You’re obviously still a fucking idiot if you think it’s okay to take it out on Kevin!” Sadie shouted back.
“Yeah,” Rodney said, far more quietly now. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t say it to me, say it to him,” Sadie demanded.
Rodney aimed at Hobbit. “Sorry.”
Jules was looking at Hobbit, who looked up to meet and then hold his gaze. Jules could hear an echo of Rodney’s voice from that time in the boy’s locker room.Ke-vin! Oh, Kehhh-vin!Rodney had done this shit several times a week forhowmany years? And now he saidSorry, in that surly tone?
Fuckthatshit must’ve been written all over Jules’s face, because Hobbit smiled, just a little, at Jules before he turned back to Rodney.
