If I Was Your Girl(55)

I heard the absurdly celebratory Star Wars theme from deep in my purse and looked at my phone. Dad was calling—had called a bunch of times. Word must have already spread around town. I looked up from my purse and saw that a truck had pulled onto the shoulder a few feet away. I blinked against the glare of the headlights and held up a hand to shield my eyes.

“Hey beautiful,” Parker said as he pulled forward, his truck tires crunching the gravel like bone. The cab was pitch black for a moment while my eyes adjusted, but then I could just barely make out his face in the darkness. “Need a ride?”

“I’m fine,” I said, trying to speed up. His truck kept up with me easily and after thirty seconds of a near-normal walking pace I had to hiss in pain and stop to rub my throbbing ankle.

“I see you limpin’, bro,” he said, the last word hitting me like a punch in the stomach. I squared my shoulders and limped at a more tolerable pace.

“Please don’t call me that,” I said.

“Why not?” he said. I noticed his voice sounded strange. “Ain’t you Grant’s little boyfriend? And since I’m Grant’s friend, that makes us bros.”

“I’m not his boyfriend,” I said, turning and glaring at his silhouette.

“Right, right,” Parker said, “’cause he dumped you, I heard.”

“No,” I said, my stomach churning from shame and anger and pain. “I was never his boyfriend.”

“Well, what were you then?” he said. “’Cause you’re not a girl.”

“Whatever, Parker,” I said through clenched teeth. The hairs on the back of my neck were standing on end and I felt the metallic edge of panic in my blood, but I kept walking.

“Aw, I didn’t mean that,” Parker said. “I mean, sure, technically, no, you sure as hell ain’t a girl, but you look like one at least.”

“Okay,” I said, swallowing and glancing at him again. I thought I saw a flash of reflected light from his eyes in the darkness. He laughed, suddenly and loudly, making me jump and catch my breath.

“Relax!” he said. “I’m just f*ckin’ with you. Now, hop in and lemme give you a ride.”

“Parker, please,” I said, “just keep driving. I don’t want a ride.”

“Oh, you want a ride,” Parker said, and as my eyes readjusted to the darkness I saw he was smiling wide but his nostrils were flared and his eyebrows were knotting together. “You just don’t want a ride from me.”

“I want to be left alone,” I said.

Another text from Dad bathed the inside of my bag in a blue glow for a moment and I remembered my phone. I pulled it out of my purse and tried to unlock it when the truck’s engine suddenly died and Parker jumped out. His huge hand clamped over my wrist. I looked up at him, wide-eyed, and slowly dropped my phone back into my purse.

“That’s better,” he said, letting go of my wrist. “Like hell you wanna be left alone. If you wanted to be left alone you’d’ve stayed a boy.”

“What are you doing?” I said.

“Walkin’ with you,” he said, easily keeping pace with me, his shoulders hunched forward and his hands in his pockets. I smelled something sour and sterile wafting off him and realized he had been drinking. “It’s dangerous out here. Don’t worry though, I’ll keep you safe.”

“Okay,” I said, wrapping my arms around myself and looking off into the darkness between the trees. His shadow stretched out past mine. I remembered Mom telling me how frightening men were, all men really, how helpless it often felt to be a woman among men, and for the first time I understood what she meant.

I reached into my bag again, my fingers curled around my phone, when the punch came. Something thudded against the side of my skull as the dark around me turned red and all the night sounds of the road were replaced by a ringing in my right ear. I stumbled like a drunk away from the road until I scraped my bare shoulder against a tree and clung to it. Parker was on me before I could fully grasp what had happened, his face inches from mine and his forearm braced against my throat, cutting off just enough of my oxygen that I started to gag and see stars.

“No,” Parker hissed, “that’s not how this works. You made me look like a dickhead for months, and now you don’t got Grant to look out for you. You don’t get to play hard to get anymore.” I could barely hear him, and his features were blacked out by the bright headlights of his truck. I tried to speak but all that came out was a gagging sound. “You coulda had this the easy way. Now, let’s see how close you are to the real thing.”

The sensation of his huge hands pulling up the hem of my dress brought me just far enough from my stupor to act. I let out a screaming croak and clawed at his face as I drove my knee into his crotch as hard as I could. He coughed loudly and went limp. I was still woozy and disoriented, but some animal part of my brain forced me to act. I lurched into the darkness and the underbrush, keeping one eye over my shoulder as I ran into the woods.

Parker stomped after me, snapping branches and growling my name. The dots in my eyes and the ringing in my ears made it impossible to figure out how near or far he was, but after a few minutes I heard the crunch of gravel again and the sweep of a new set of headlights followed by the sound of slamming car doors and female voices ahead.