Wrecked(70)

“I know,” she repeats.

“So are we okay?”

Haley puts her head on his shoulder. “I don’t know what we are, but I think it’s all right.” She hears him laugh softly. “I hate to ask,” she says, “but you texted me to meet you. What did you want to talk about?”





. . .


Jenny finds herself outside. The sounds of the house seem far away. The cool air, the quiet, feel good.

She had thrown up. It just came, jolted, bucked, up into her mouth, and she knew it had to go somewhere. She saw the familiar red bin. Filled with bottles.

When it was over she felt so sorry. She had to clean it up. Had to find Tall Boy, tell him, apologize. So she went looking for him.

Now she is outside. She feels better. The bucking has stopped. The air is like fresh water. The dress, airy, lifts, caresses her legs in the breeze. She closes her eyes, breathes deeply.

“Hello.”

A boy, brown hair, holds a bottle. Smiles.

“Hello.”

. . .





32





Richard


For something fairly simple, setting this up had not been simple.

First, Richard and Haley tried photos. But digging up a decent picture of Exley wasn’t easy. He and Richard weren’t Facebook friends, so access to his photos was limited. The few they could see were crap, and Exley’s profile pics were all shots of his favorite bands.

“I really can’t tell,” said Eric, the guy from Haley’s dorm who had seen the “guy in a baseball cap.” Haley had asked him to meet with her and Richard. She didn’t explain why, and he seemed a little surprised when they shoved the open laptop in front of him.

“I mean, maybe,” he said, squinting at the blurry picture. “That could be a lot of guys.”

Richard sighed. Coordinating with Eric, who not only played a sport but had two labs, had taken days. In the meantime, Dean Hunt was tearing through the witness lists. Six, seven, sometimes as many as ten people were getting called in each day.

He felt like the window for speaking up was closing. But if he was going to narc on Dr. Feelgood to Dean Hunt, he needed to go on something more than gut instinct. He needed Eric to confirm Exley was the one outside Jenny’s room.

“Why do we need a picture?” Eric asked. “Dude eats lunch at Lower dining hall on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I could point him out to you.”

Richard and Haley looked at each other. “Yeah. Dumb and Dumber,” she commented.

So here Richard sits, over a greasy Reuben sandwich and cold fries, with Eric the Freshman. As they watch the doors for Exley, Eric attacks a slab of sausage pizza. The pizza at Lower is notoriously terrible.

“Haley won’t tell me why you’re so interested in this guy,” Eric says.

Richard tries not to watch him chew. “I’m not going to tell you, either.”

“That’s okay. I pretty much know. It has to do with her roommate who got raped, right?”

Richard levels an are--you--kidding--me? look at Eric. The kid doesn’t even blush. He takes another bite of pizza.

“Whatever. I’m just happy to help. Sucks, what happened to her. She’s a nice girl.”

Richard eyes him curiously. “How do you know what happened?”

Eric laughs. “C’mon, man. Everyone talks. Half the girls on her floor were called in to testify, plus there’s all that crap on The Board.”

“You believe The Board?” Richard laughs. His gaze returns to the door. Traffic is starting to pick up; it’s almost noon.

“On the upside,” Eric continues, “we have the morning off tomorrow.”

Richard nods. MacCallum has canceled tomorrow’s classes and replaced them with an assembly about consent. It would run three times so they could cycle every student through.

“You’re going, right?” Haley had asked him.

He’d been taken aback by the question. “Isn’t everybody going?”

“Ha,” Haley said, no trace of laughter in her voice. “My dorm is already planning a rager for the night before because people plan to sleep in the next day.”

Richard made a face. “People suck,” he declared.

She didn’t correct him on that count.

“Want to go together?” she asked.

He was surprised by the hesitance in her voice. He’d assumed they’d go together.

“Uh . . . yes,” he said. She looked relieved. Did she think he’d say no? It occurs to him he’s been preoccupied lately. Semi--obsessed with this Exley thing.

“So, are you going?” Eric asks him now.

“Yeah, somehow Haley convinced me to go to the first session with her. Bright and early.”

“Are you two dating?”

“Why do people keep asking that question?” Richard wonders out loud.

“She’s cute. People want to know if she’s unattached.”

Richard is about to comment on that remark when Exley enters the dining hall.

He’s with Jordan.

“Okay, slowly. Try to be cool. I know that’s difficult,” Richard says. “But the guy I’m wondering about has just walked in. Turn and tell me if he’s the one you spoke with.”