Awakening (Covenant College #1) (14 page)

That was a good question. All my years with Will would lead me to believe he wasn’t capable of that. He was different at college, though. I had to admit that. Was he that different, though?

“I don’t think he knew she was drugged,” I finally said. “I can’t believe he’d condone that.”

Paris nodded quietly. “What are you going to say to him?”

“I don’t know,” I answered truthfully. “I feel like . . . I feel like we’re floundering but . . .
“ I
broke off. I didn’t know how to finish the sentence.

“But you don’t know if you want to throw four years away just because the first week of college hasn’t been what you suspected,” Paris supplied.

I blew out a sigh. Paris had hit the nail on the head there. “It’s so weird. We had a great summer. It was like the best summer ever. Now, though . . . I just don’t know.”

“Do you love him?”

“I don’t know. I keep saying that. I used to think I did, but now it’s just like we’re going through the motions.
Neither one of us wants to be the bad guy to end things.”

Paris was silent. She just let me talk.

“I don’t understand how things could go from good to bad so quickly.”

“Maybe they were never really that good.”

“What do you mean?”

“Maybe you just thought they were good because you were having so much fun. Maybe, because it was summer, you thought that going to concerts and kayaking and barbecues meant that your relationship was healthy when it wasn’t.”

I realized she wasn’t just talking about my relationship.

“Is that how you feel about Mike?”

“Yes.” Paris’ succinct answer took me by surprise.

“When are you going to break up with him?”

“Soon.”

“How soon.”

Paris met my eyes evenly.
“Very soon.
I just have to work up the courage.”

We lapsed into silence again. I admired Paris’ strength. I wasn’t sure I was at that point yet.

“We weren’t together for four years, though,” she offered. I could tell she was trying to give me a way out.

“How long were you together?”

“About nine months.”

“Still, that’s a long time.”

“It is. It’s not four years.”

“No, it’s not four years.”

“No one says you have to break up with him,” I knew Paris was trying to help. “Maybe you could suggest seeing other people and still seeing each other.”

I bit my lower lip in worry. “Maybe, but what’s the point of that?”

Paris looked at me seriously. “That you’re just not ready for him to be completely out of your life?”

“I don’t know. I feel like I’m ready to say goodbye but then, when I think about never waking up and seeing him next to me again, I feel like crying.”

Paris nodded sympathetically.

“Of course, I’ve also imagined smothering him in his sleep twice in the last week.”

Paris couldn’t help but laugh. “That would be a whole other way to go.”

I shrugged. “I’m not going to do anything until it feels right.”

“What if it never feels right?”

The question took me by surprise. Was that even possible?

We made the rest of the trip to the library in relative silence. We both had our own problems on our mind. As we approached the library I noticed that a small throng of people were grouped together off to the side – and they seemed excited.

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know.”

Paris and I both inched over to the group to see what had attracted everyone’s attention. I don’t know what I was expecting, but this wasn’t it.

“You are a worthless slut!”

In the middle of the group was a tall, willowy boy that would look innocent in any situation but the one he currently found himself in. His backwards baseball cap, Detroit Tigers T-shirt and baggy canvas pants belied a teenager. His angry words belied a raging man.

I looked to see who he was talking to and was surprised to see it was a tiny girl with mousy brown hair and doe-like eyes. She was shrinking away from the boy in fear.

“I told you I don’t know what happened,” her lower lip was quivering. “I don’t remember what happened.”

“Well, let me fill in the blanks for you,” the boy said. “You went to an Alpha Chi party and slept with half the brothers there.”

Paris and I raised our eyebrows at each other.

“I don’t remember that. I told you. I was drugged or something.” The girl was weeping at this point. She looked lost.

“That’s a little too convenient for my taste,” the boy said bitterly. “I can’t believe that after everything we’ve been through you’d go to a party and do . . . that!”

“I told you I don’t remember anything,” the girl pleaded. “Why won’t you believe me?”

“Because your roommates told me that you went to bed with two different guys.”

“Nice roommates,” I muttered under my breath to Paris. She merely nodded. She couldn’t tear her gaze away from the scene playing out in front of us.

“I told you, I think I was drugged,” the girl didn’t seem sure if she believed her own excuse. I believed her, though. That was the same party
Brittany
had went goofy at.

The boy grabbed the girl’s arm roughly and shook her. “I don’t believe you.”

Without even thinking, I pushed my way through the crowd and dragged the sobbing girl away from the boy. “Leave her alone.”

I looked the girl over to make sure he hadn’t hurt her. She seemed emotionally spent.

“Mind your own business, bitch.”

I turned to the boy with my own sense of rage. He seemed surprised by my reaction and took an involuntary step back. I didn’t blame him.

“It is my business when you start shaking your girlfriend like a rag doll.”

“She’s a slut.”

“Well, you’re stupid. Does that mean I can beat the shit out of you?”

“Like you could,” the boy was playing up to the group of friends that were standing behind him. He looked a little scared of me, though.

I turned my attention back to the girl. “Are you okay?”

She nodded mutely, but I could see her lower lip was starting to quiver again.
Great, more crying.

“Apologize to her,” I ordered the boy.

“No.”

“You don’t hurt your girlfriend. And you most certainly don’t get away with it without at least apologizing.”

“I’m not apologizing for nothing.”

“Anything,” I snapped back.

“What?”

“If you’re going to be an asshole, at least do it with proper grammar.”

The boy stepped towards me, clenching his fists. I didn’t know if he was going to hit me. I wasn’t going to wait to find out, though. Without even thinking, I raised my right knee and slammed it into his groin.

The boy doubled over in pain – and every guy in the crowd had a sharp intake of breath at my actions. I wasn’t done though. While the boy was distracted I then grabbed the back of his head and slammed my knee up into his face – causing him to fall backwards onto the ground.

His friends looked like they wanted to come to his aid – but there was no rationale for five guys attacking a girl. Instead they knelt beside him, all the while casting wary glances in my direction.

I could feel everyone that had amassed in the little group looking at me. The boys were shooting me hateful glances as they gathered their friend and dragged him off. The girls were looking at me admiringly.

There was one other set of eyes, though, that I couldn’t read. I could feel them, though. I turned defiantly to see who was giving me the once-over. I pulled up short, though, when I realized it was Professor Blake.

We stared at each other for a full minute. I was practically daring him to admonish me. Instead he turned on his heel and walked away. About 100 yards out I saw him pause and turn back. The look in his eyes was thoughtful – not belligerent.

Sixteen

After leaving the library with the distraught girl, Paris and I tried grilling her for more information on the party. Well, actually I tried grilling her. She was sobbing so hard,
though,
we couldn’t understand a word she was saying.

What she was uttering sounded like a series of whale calls without the water to filter them.

Paris tried a different approach – cajoling the information out of her – but that didn’t work either. Instead, we ended up walking her back to her dorm. Unfortunately, she lived on the other side of campus in one of the
all girl
dorms.

On the walk back to Wharton Hall, Paris was thoughtful.

“Do you think they’re drugging girls for sex?”

“I don’t see why else they’d be drugging them,” I responded. “You have to admit, something weird was going on at that party.”

“Yeah,” Paris looked uncomfortable but she plowed on ahead anyway. “Do you think Will is involved?”

“I don’t know,” I answered truthfully. “It’s not like he’s not getting any, though, so I don’t know why he’d have to drug anyone.”

Paris nodded in silent agreement. “Still,” she mused. “He can’t be oblivious to what’s going on at that place.”

“No.”

“Are you going to ask him about it?”

“I guess I’m going to have to.”

When we got back to the dorm, we wandered through the nearly empty cafeteria before returning to our room. The cafeteria is left open at night for those that want to study. The pop machines and soft-service ice cream machine are also left on, and Paris and I both indulged with an ice cream cone.

We were at the machine when we heard some random giggling. When we turned around, we found
Brittany
flirting with several guys from our floor a few tables away.

We went over to the table to join them. When
Brittany
saw us, I couldn’t ignore the angry expression that flitted across her face momentarily. She was probably annoyed that we interrupted her mating session. The rest of the table inhabitants seemed happy to see us, though.

“Hey Zoe, Paris,” Rick No. 1 greeted us amiably. I noticed that
Brittany
had placed a possessive hand on his arm in an attempt to draw his attention back to her.

“Hey,” I greeted him with a wide smile. I could really care less about Rick No. 1 – or No. 2 for that matter – but I’m always up for irritating
Brittany
.

“Where have you guys been?”

Paris and I told everyone at the table about our night’s adventure. I noticed
Brittany
sit up straighter when we told our story.

“Do you think she was drugged like me?”

“We don’t know that you were drugged,” I reminded her. “We should have taken you to health services and had you tested. If we were thinking, that’s what we would have done. Now we’re just working on an assumption.”

“We could still go do it,” she offered.

“Most date rape drugs are out of your system pretty quickly,” I said.

“How do you know?” There was an accusatory tone to her voice that I found grating.

“I watch television.”

“Well, we could go anyway,” she turned to Rick No. 1 with what I’m assuming was her best seductive look. To me she looked like she was constipated. “Would you walk with us? I’m scared now to be out without a man I can trust.”

I snickered under my breath. Rick No. 1 smiled at my amusement, while
Brittany
shot me her best PMS glare.

“I think Zoe is right,” Rick said. “I think it would be a waste of time.”

“Oh,”
Brittany
said disappointedly. “We could go back and see if they try to drug me again?”

“That’s sounds like a stupid idea,” I interjected.

“Excuse me! Did you just call me stupid?”

“No, I said your idea was stupid.”

“How do you figure?”

“We can’t guarantee that we can control the situation this time like we managed to last time,” I said matter-of-factly.

Brittany
grudgingly agreed. “Yeah, it would suck if they managed to separate us.”

“And I would imagine that would be the first thing they’d try to do – even if they’d let us through the front door.”

“Why do you think they focused in on
Brittany
?” Rick No. 1 asked.

“That’s a good question,” I said. “I don’t know. There were a lot of girls there.”

“What if . . .,” Paris broke off, looking both thoughtful and reluctant to voice whatever idea she’d just had.

“What?”

“I don’t know, what if. . .
“ Paris
took a deep breath and steadied herself. “What if they’re targeting virgins?”