“Maybe not.” Sofia shrugs. “Carmen and I do look alike. But I didn’t realize who he was until later, when I heard his full name.” She hesitates, twisting the saucer of her coffee cup, and I’m impressed by her ability to drink a hot beverage when it’s this sweltering outside. “I could get in trouble for telling you this,” she finally says after looking around the caféto make sure no one is paying attention.
Felix and I keep our mouths shut, so we don’t spook her.
“Legally,” Sofia clarifies. “That was part of the deal. Though I guess maybe it doesn’t count, since I didn’t sign it.” She takes a thoughtful sip. “Too bad I’m not prelaw.”
“What deal?” Felix asks, like he can’t hold it in any longer.
“The settlement between Bradley’s family and the college.”
This time we’re stunned into silence.
“What happened?” I ask, once the shock waves from that bombshell have faded.
Sofia takes a deep breath, wrapping her hands around her cup. “There was a girl.”
I hate that there are so many stories that begin exactly like this. The first question that pops into my head is,How bad is this one going to get?
“Not Carmen?” Felix looks to Sofia for confirmation; she shakes her head.
“Someone from her dorm. They all went to a party together, as a group, and this guy kept trying to chat up one of Carmen’s friends.” Sofia gives us a significant look.
“This guy meaning Bradley,” I clarify.
“Correct. You know what he was like, with the cheesy lines and thinking he was all that. He wanted her to come dance with him, wouldn’t let it go, and I guess she felt bad shutting him down in front of everyone so finally she was like, ‘Okay, one dance.’ Only the dancing was in the basement, which maybe seemed a little sketch, but it was also a huge party. They could hear the music through the floor. Standard frat house scene.”
Felix and I nod like we know what that means.
“But as soon as they start dancing,” Sofia goes on, “he’s all over her. She keeps telling him to cut it out, and he laughs like they’re having a great time. So finally, she’s like, ‘Enough.’” Sofia makes a shoving gesture with both hands. “Meanwhile, Carmen is ready to take off, but because my sister is 100 percent the mom friend, she was like, Let’s go get her.’ That was their thing, you know? Never leave a woman behind—unless she confirms she’s cool with it. And they’d heard nothing.”
I realize I’m holding my breath and force an exhale. “Was she okay? The girl.”
Sofia nods. “Sorry. I should have said that up front. She’d had enough of this dickhead pawing at her and the nonconsensual grinding, so she took out her phone to get a picture of him. And he’s all, ‘What are you doing?’ so she told him straight up, ‘Putting you in the Creep File.’ Which is a real thing somebody on campus had started,” Sofia explains. “Like ‘Watch out for this guy, he stole forty bucks out of my wallet’ or ‘He still has a girlfriend back home’ or ‘He gave me crabs’ or ‘He doesn’t understand the word no.’”
And I thought high school dating was bleak. “Is that what college guys are like?”
“Only the bad ones,” Sofia says. “Hence the list.”
“What did he do?” Felix asks, more subdued than I’ve ever heard him. “When she told him that.”
“He was not happy.” It’s clear from her tone that this is a major understatement. “When Carmen got down there, he was in her friend’s face. ‘What the fuck? Do you even know who I am?’ Like somebody flipped the rage switch. Then he rips the phone out of her hand and throws it against the wall.”
“Shit,” Felix breathes.
“Carmen sees this go down, and she’s like, ‘You, call campus police. You, get contact info for everyone who saw that happen. Andyou, tell me that guy’s name.’” Sofia points like she’s the one barking orders. “Because of course Bradley ran away, which was actually his first good decision of the night. Carmen was ready to pepper-spray him. You do not fuck with my sister. She reminds me of your grandma.”
“I could see that,” I agree.
“What happened then?” Felix asks.
“Eventually the case worked its way through university bureaucracy and Bradley got kicked out of the fraternity. And he had to agree to an anger management program. Plus his family had to give Carmen’s friend a chunk of change, because of the property destruction. Harass a girl? That’s open to interpretation. Break her phone? They’ll nail you for that.”
It takes me a beat to absorb it all. Not just Sofia’s story, but her reason for telling us. “You think this girl—Carmen’s friend—could have wanted revenge?”
The head shaking starts before I finish my sentence. “Absolutely not,” Sofia says with a firmness that would make herolder sister proud. “I want to be crystal clear. I don’t think she was involved. At all.”
“But?” Felix prompts.
“But there might be other people out there who had a reason to hate him. If he acted like that once, who’s to say he didn’t do worse to someone else?”
