Free Saying Goodbye, Part One (Passports and Promises Book 1) by Abigail Drake

She just wanted to have a good time.”
    Fury replaced my initial shock. I got up and starting cleaning, moving around my room in a soothing clockwise pattern, starting at my door. Bethany didn’t say anything. I cleaned this way whenever I got upset, and she was used to it. It helped me to process what she’d just told me.
    “I knew this was going to happen. I knew it. The one night I wasn’t there…”
    I closed my eyes and took deep measured breaths. I wanted to scream, but held it back.
    Bethany came up behind me and put a hand on my arm. “There’s something you have to understand. This wasn’t her fault. I didn’t mean to infer that. She insisted on going to the party, but you can’t blame her for being raped.”
    “I get it. She was drunk.”
    “No, she wasn’t.”
    I frowned at her. “What do you mean?”
    “She never even finished her first beer.”
    “Then how?”
    “Zach slipped something into our drinks, Sam. He greeted us at the door, apologized for what happened last time, and offered to get us drinks. He was so…charming, and the line was long. I don’t know why I trusted him.”
    I stared at her, realizing the reason for her pallor. Whatever Zach had given her made her so ill that she still bore the effects of it this morning.
    “He drugged both of you? Are you sure?”
    “I had a blood test at the clinic this morning. It was the weirdest thing. One minute, we were dancing and drinking, and the next I was flat out on my back on a sofa and had no idea what had happen. I was lucky, though. Max found me and brought me up to his room. He took care of me.”
    “Max?”
    She nodded. “He protected me. I guess Zach and a few of the other guys came looking for me, but Max locked the door and pretended we weren’t there. It could have been so bad, Sam. I think Zach was really ticked off at you and at me for keeping him away from Gabriela at the last party. This was about…revenge.”
    I brushed her hair away from her forehead. She was clammy to the touch. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
    Something in her eyes told me she wouldn’t be okay for a long time, but she nodded, swallowing hard. “Gabriela is the one we need to worry about. Her parents came and took her to the hospital this morning. She was…pretty messed up.”
    Bethany’s phone buzzed and she looked at it. “It’s her. She’s downstairs.”
    We ran down the steps and froze when we saw her. On the outside, she didn’t look any different. I guess I’d expected bruises or something I could see that told me what she’d gone through, but I saw nothing. The only difference was her eyes. The brightness had dimmed. They were still the same beautiful dark brown, but without the usual joyful spark.
    Bethany and I pulled her into a fierce hug and then led her up to my room. She gingerly curled up on my bed, covering her eyes with one hand.
    “I can’t believe this happened. My parents…”
    Her shoulders shook as she sobbed.  We knelt on the floor next to the bed. I held her hand as Bethany brushed her soft, dark curls away from her face, murmuring soothing words to her. Gabriela wanted to talk, although her words proved difficult for us to hear.
    “I woke up in the middle of it, with Zach on top of me. There was nothing I could do.” She took a deep, shaky breath. “Afterwards, when I started crying, he laughed in my face.”
    “Oh, Gabriela…” I said, but couldn’t continue. Something inside her had changed last night. A part of her had died.
    “I wasn’t sure if he used a condom or not. I had to talk about this in front of my parents. It was so awful. And then they gave me the morning after pill. I didn’t know what else to do.”
    “What did the police say?” I asked.
    Gabriela stared at me, her eyes hollow and sad. “I’m not pressing charges, Sam. It was my fault.”
    I shook my head. “This is not your fault.”
    “I didn’t mean last night was my fault. But the events that led up to last night…I could