Free Catch My Fall by Ella Fox Page B

pool, all the while trying to get her to fully wake up.  Realizing that she must’ve continued to drink after I passed out, I turn her onto her side so that she’s facing the pool and I shove my fingers down her throat. 
    Once, twice, and on the third pass, she begins to vomit.
    It takes me twenty minutes to get her under enough control that I can dress her, and then myself.  I half drag, half carry her to her car, dumping her onto the passenger seat before I slide into the driver seat. 
    I don’t know what to do and I don’t know where to go.  We can’t go home in the condition that we’re both in, and I’m not fit to drive far.  I pulled out of the driveway and drove a few blocks away before pulling over and turning the car off. 
    “Talk to me,” I begged.  “Tell me that you’re okay.”
    Shaking her head, she burst into tears, great wracking sobs that shook her frame with hurricane force.
    “I was out of it but I saw things,” she cried.  “I felt things.  I think they were both inside of me.  How did that happen?”
    I’ve been thinking about it practically nonstop and as fuzzy as I am, I believe that I know the answer. 
    I gulped down the bile rising up in my throat before whispering, “I think… I think they drugged us… and… I think that they did things to us.  We need to call the police.”
    She screamed, an animal sound of distress and agony before she started slamming her fists against the dashboard and yelling, “No, no, no, no, no!”
    “Stop it Macy!  You’re going to hurt yourself!”
    She cried and cried, and then cried some more.  I held her tightly and rocked back and forth with her, the two of us sobbing together. Pulling back, she took my face in her hands.
    “Did they rape you?”
    Shaking my head I whispered, “Not that way, they only used my mouth.”
    Looking me in the eye she said, “They raped me, and I can still feel them inside of me.  I think that other things happened too.  Bad things.  Things I don’t want to remember.  I kept coming to and hearing them talking.  Did they p ut us in the pool or did we want to go in?”
    “They must’ve put us in the pool, although I don’t know why.”
    Closing her eyes, she sat back and leaned against the headrest.
    “Then I didn’t dream any of what I remember.  They put us in the pool to wash away the evidence.  They scrubbed at us both for a long, long time.  Even if we go to the police now, no one will believe us.  It’s Brady fucking Howard and Chad Winthorp for fuck ’s sake.  Mia… I think they took pictures.  A lot of pictures.”
    Closing my eyes I realize that she is right. 
    Flash.
    Flash.
    Flash.
    “Mia! Mia, wake up! Wake up, wake up, wake up!”
    I sat straight up, clutching at my chest as my heart pounded, my eyes taking in the fact that I was in my dorm room and Darby was standing over me.  I was tangled in sheets soaked with sweat and I was shaking like a leaf.  Looking at Darby, I could tell she knew something was really wrong with me and , just like that, I lost it.
    She held onto me as I cried, and she stayed with me until I fell into an exhausted sleep an hour or so later.
    I love her for not pushing me to tell her what was wrong right then and there, because I don’t think that I could’ve said the words.
     

Chapter Eight
     
    Darby was gone by the time I woke up this morning and I felt relieved that I’d been granted a reprieve of at least another few hours before I would have to explain to her what was going on with me.  She left me a note telling me she’d see me during the break in between our morning classes, and she also reminded me that she was going out with her mom to dinner and a movie tonight.  Apparently they have a mother-daughter date every fourth Friday, and have done so for years.  I think it’s adorable, but I’m also a little bit bummed out because I won’t be able to go to Tristan’s if they’re having people over tonight.
    After I was happy