Thirty Happens (7 page)

chapter nine.

“
I
’m telling you, we’re going to go all the way again this year.”

Brian punctuated this statement with a fist in the air.

I rolled my eyes at him and shook my head while looking over at Lynnie.

“Seriously, how many years have you said those very words at the beginning of the baseball season only to have your hopes and dreams dashed by July.”

We were walking to the T, shivering in the cold that persisted even though it was late Spring in Massachusetts. Despite my hoodie and long sleeved t-shirt underneath, I was freezing. I kept reminding myself that in only a couple of weeks we would start complaining about how hot it was. Gotta love it. They always say in New England, if you don’t like the weather, just wait five minutes. Still, though, it was pretty damn chilly.

“The Red Sox are going to win it this year, I can feel it in my bones. We brought it home in 2004 and last year, too.”

Keep in mind, prior to ‘04, the Red Sox hadn’t won the pennant since 1918. Every year, men and women across the area got their hopes up only to have them crushed to smithereens within a couple of months.

This shit was real, this was how an entire region acted starting every March or April, depending on whether they bothered with the training camps. People in other states probably think we all are crazy that we legitimately believe that there is a Curse. Well, we do. There is. End of story. And even though we won the World Series twice in the last four years, it didn’t matter. When our team was losing, it was the curse all over again.

“Brian, don’t you think it’s a little early to get excited? I mean, it’s only April, the season just started.”

Lynnie placed her hand on his arm and looked into his eyes with concern. Hmm, maybe a little too much tenderness and a lot too much concern. Was something there? Had I somehow missed a romance blossoming between my two friends in the past few months? I would definitely be keeping an eye on this situation. Nothing would make me happier than to see my two closest friends together.

“Lynnie, we were awesome last year and we are taking it this year. Back to back titles, baby! Look at the team, Dice-K on the mound, Big Papi, Varitek, Ramirez, Youk all hitting homers… I mean, this has
got
to be our dream team. I’m telling you, we are bringing that banner home again this year.”

“Okay, okay, Mr. Fenway. Two in a row, I got you. Listen, I’ve got to bail, two papers to finish, a test to study for and I have to prep for a meeting on Monday with Jenkins.”

I group hugged them both and jumped on the green line back towards the dorms.

I loved Boston. I loved the feel of the city. Even the areas that weren’t maybe all that safe, the grit and grime held a raw truth of the city, its people, its history. Graffiti, despite the fact that it defaced the historic areas that liberally littered the area, told a story of the neighborhoods and the people within it.

There was no doubt about it. I was a city girl through and through, and this was where I was supposed to be.

“Lechmere Station, this stop is Lechmere. Please stand back doors open on the right.”

The crackling announcement came over the loudspeaker in the railcar. I reached into my purse and pull out my pink pepper spray canister and moved it into my hoodie pocket. The Cambridge neighborhood where the dorm was located wasn’t a bad area in the city, but it didn’t matter. There were a lot of poorly lit areas leading up to the campus and you could never be too sure.

I jumped out of the train and started the half mile walk to the dorm at a brisk pace. I tried not to be paranoid, but there are certain things you do to protect yourself. You walk quickly, keep your eyes trained forward and your chin held high. Oh, and if you have keys, keep them in your hand in case you need to use them to gouge someone’s eyes out.

Brrrr.

I pulled my headphones out of my purse and slid them over my head. People had started wearing these earbud thingies for a few years now, but I couldn’t figure out how to keep them from popping out of my ears, so old fashioned headphones it was. I pressed the play button on my Mp3 player and kept walking. I rubbed my hands up and down my arms in an effort to get warm.

I was thinking about the internship, and the hopes I had that it would become a full time job straight from college. Well, college was over in about a month, and I hadn’t even written a single word.

Jenkins told me not to worry, that my story would come to me and I needed to relax and let the process happen. Relax. That’s like telling me to be patient, right? I was never all that good at patient.

I finally reached my college campus and relaxed my posture a bit. This was a nice, quiet, liberal arts college. Yeah, it was in a city, but the campus had safety statistics going back decades and had nothing worthwhile of note.

I felt completely safe here.

I turned the music up another notch or two, completely losing myself in some classic Aerosmith. Hey, no judging. I totally get that this stuff was released a couple decades ago, but in Massachusetts, it’s still a current hit, always will be. We’re quirky that way up here.

Love in an elevator

Livin’ it up while I’m goin’ down

Love in an elevator

Lovin’ it up till I hit the –

Umph.

I felt a squeezing vice on my right arm, squeezing tight enough to not just bruise but possibly crush my bones.

Warm, sticky breath rushed by my right ear as my attacker laughed a raspy, hard laugh that grated against the small hairs around my ear and on my neck and made me shudder in revulsion and fear.

“So the bitch finally closed her legs and came home, did she?”

The sing-song lilt made it hard for me to peg who had me pinned tight against them. It was obviously male, but for some reason, I felt like I knew this person.

There was something eerily familiar.

I tried to push fear down and take in my surroundings. I tried to pay attention to what was happening so I could remember it.

I reached for my pepper spray with my right hand but it had moved over to the left side of the pocket in the front. Whoever this guy was, he had my arm held so tight I couldn’t move it.

“What do you want? I don’t have much money, but you can have all of it.
Please
, just let me go.”

His laughter taunted me.

He whipped around and slammed me against a car that was parked on the curb. He did this with such force that when my back hit the car, my head snapped backward, connecting with the edge of the roof of the car.

My eyes closed in pain as the darkness threatened to take me under, away from what was happening. I struggled to open them, only to realize I was staring at my dorm. I had almost made it home. I was steps from safety when this happened. I tried to mentally will one of my fellow dorm residents to come out of the door. For someone to look out the window. Something.

I tried to stand up, away from the car, only to find this guy’s hand at my neck, pinning me back down.

The rising bile in my throat threatened to spew all over him. I had to swallow a few times to keep everything down.

Suddenly my vision of my dorm was blocked. As my eyes readjusted, I was staring into dark eyes, their anger towards me terrifying. How did I know these eyes? I’d seen them before.

“Whores like you seem to like to give it away. It’s time for me to get mine. If your pussy is so tasty that you get the prize job, the one that everyone else actually put hard work and effort into, then I want my turn. Maybe it’s time to teach a slut a lesson.”

Oh my God.

No.

Not this.

I tried again to get to my pepper spray, but it was out of reach with me pinned to the car.

Suddenly, his name came to my mind.

“James?”

His lips pulled back from his teeth in a smile that would put the most fearsome horror movie villain to shame. I couldn’t control the chills of terror that ripped through my body.

Unfortunately, he felt that, too.

“Aw, look. The office tramp likes dick so much that she’s already turned on for me. I felt that shudder so I know you want it, too. Sluts like you always want it. You’re probably already wet for me.”

I opened my mouth to let out a blood-curdling scream only to feel a sharp sting on my face as the right side of my head hit the car once again. Tears filled my eyes as the skin on my left cheek throbbed in protest. His hand squeezed my neck sharply, cutting off my air.

“You make a sound, you die. Got it, bitch?”

His raspy whisper was the thing of nightmares. Nightmares that I was certain I would have for years to come. That was, if I survived this.

I started to close my eyes. To just let go and disappear in the pain. His grip on my throat tightened so it was easy to just disappear.

That’s what I would do. I would just disappear. Close my eyes and go away.

“Oh, no,
bitch
. You don’t get off that easily. I want you to be awake when I ram this dick in you so hard that you’re going to end up split in two.”

The grip on my throat released and I was gasping for air, a small treacherous tear made its way out of the corner of my eye and dropped down to the ground.

“Please.” The voice that came out of me was quiet, devastated, wounded and pitiful.

His laughter ripped through the chilly air.

“No need to beg, whore. I’m a sure thing. Obviously, so are you.”

I heard a loud ripping sound and the feeling of cold air.

That was when I realized that his hand was no longer squeezing either my throat or my arm. Rather, he had apparently ripped my old hoodie and the shirt beneath it down the middle and I was standing out in the chilled air, in front of my dorm and out in public with my shirt in tatters and a bruise forming on my cheek.

No.

This was
not
going to happen to me tonight.

I let out the start of a scream and managed to get some sound out before I felt the sting on his hand again and my head hitting the car. The darkness at the edges of my vision started to cloud my head again, and it took a few seconds to keep it at bay

Okay, now I was past scared and heading straight into pissed.

With my left arm free, I fished for my pepper spray, only to find it had fallen onto the pavement when he ripped my hoodie in half. I hung my head for a second.

What the hell was I going to do?

Suddenly, Sandra Bullock came to mind. I must be losing it. Why was I thinking about Sandra Bullock dressed as a pageant queen right now?

James was leering at me and grabbed forward to rip my bra in half. The released cups sprang back like elastic bands, stinging my skin.

He reached both hands and crudely grabbed my chest, roughly kneading my flesh.

“Yeah, bitch. I can tell that you’re liking this shit. Your tits are so tight. You’re such a whore that you want it right now. I can tell you can’t wait for me to rip those jeans off of you and fuck you right. I’ll show you what a real man feels like. You slut.”

James was so focused on my boobs that he didn’t realize I wasn’t pinned down anymore.

Think, Karyn. My brain was racing trying to figure itself out.
What was in that movie? Oh yeah, Sandra Bullock was an FBI or CIA agent or something. Wasn’t there a bit on self-defense it the movie? Yes, that’s right, there was… it was her talent portion. How did she teach all those pageant queens how to fend off attackers?

The images from the movie flashed through my brain.

I shot my fist forward hard into his side. Solar plexus. His quick gasp of air let me know that I’d hit my mark.

I slammed my boot down on top of his foot. That was as close to his instep that I could get.

He recovered too quickly for me to cock my arm back to jam his nose back toward to his brain. He had me pinned back down with one hand on my throat and I saw his fist coming towards my face.

This time, it was a closed fist that made contact with my upper cheek, sending my head sideways into the car. My head exploded with pain both from him and from the vehicle behind me. I tasted fresh blood in my mouth where my teeth sliced the inside of my cheek. Almost immediately I could feel my flesh swelling on both sides of my face and my legs went weak from the dizziness that was overtaking me.

I’d lost my chance. I wasn’t going to be able to stop this.

Why was no one around to help me?

It was then I realized that there was loud thumping music coming from the dorm. The weekend parties were in full swing. No one heard my attempt at a scream. Anyone wo might be looking out a dorm window probably thought I was some drunk co-ed getting my rocks off.

James popped off the button from my jeans as he tried to figure out the quickest way to get my jeans off of me. He grabbed the front with both hands, pulling them forward in an attempt to rip the zipper down, which pulled me forward.

I was knocked off balance and starting to fall when I instinctively grabbed his shoulders to stop myself.