Breath of Scandal(34)
Neal sat up straighter, shaking his head as though puzzled by Lamar's concern. "Like I told you last night, we aren't going to get into trouble. Don't you listen to Me when I tell you something, Lamar? We didn't do anything wrong."
Lamar glanced at Hutch. Hutch wasn't as complacent about the situation as Neal was, but he wouldn't speak up at the risk of appearing cowardty and getting on Neal's bad side. Lamar was on his own.
Lamar grabbed his diminishing bravery with both hands and held on. "Some people might see it different, Neal." "What people?"
"People who hear about it."
"Who's gonna tell? Jade?" He snorted. "Hardly." Hutch said, "She told my daddy."
"She told your daddy?" Lamar repeated in a high, squeaky voice. His knees gave out beneath him and he dropped to the floor with a thud. "What'd he do?"
"Not a goddamn thing!" Neal, obviously annoyed, stood up and tore another can of beer from the six-pack. When he opened it, the foamy head bubbled over his hand. As he shook off the suds, he said, "You two really piss me off, you know? If you go around looking and acting guilty of something, everybody'll think you are."
"Maybe we are." Neal's eyes cut to Lamar. Lamar felt like an insect being pinned to a piece of Styrofoam, but he had to get this off his chest or burst. "No matter what you say, Neal, I don't think Jade wanted us to ... you know. "
"Are you nuts?" The words rushed from Hutch's mouth as though they'd been building up from internal pressure.
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"Of course she didn't want us to, you idiot. She fought Re a hellcat. We raped her, pure and simple."
"Oh, Jesus." Lamar slumped to one side. His bowels felt watery. He feared he might mess himself. He thought he might vomit again. But if he disgraced himself, so what? He was going to die anyway the minute his mother got wind of the crime.
"Shut up!" Neal hissed. "Both of you, just shut up." His straight, white teeth were clenched and bared. "Listen, you dumb f*cks, girls pull this bullshit all the time. She put up token resistance, sure. Do you think she wants us telliRg everybody that she was willingly gang-banged? Before we could advertise to all the other guys how easy she was, she had to pull this crap to make us look bad first. Don't you see that?"
Hutch looked desperate enough to grasp at any straw, no matter how flimsy. Lamar too wanted to believe Neal, but every time Neal began to sound logical, Lamar remembered the strength with which Jade had fought and how terrified she had looked when he and Hutch held her down for Neal.
Hutch wiped his perspiring forehead with the back of his hand. His skin was the color of putty speckled with rusty paint. "We probably shouldn't have left her there."
"She made it back to town okay, didn't she?" "How'd she get back?" Lamar asked.
Neal filled him in on what he knew and all that had transpired at the courthouse that morning. "I got the impression that Donna Dee knew," Lamar remarked when Neal was finished.
"Donna Dee vouched for us," Neal said. "She knew damn well that Jade knew what she was in for when she got into the car with three half-drunk randy bucks. Maybe we should have invited Donna Dee to our little party, too. " He grinned and smacked his lips. "Although I can't see her being as good as her friend Jade. I've never had * that swext before. "
Lamar lowered his eyes to his hands, which lay limply in his lap. He had a compelling urge to wash them. "Donna Dee was pissed at Jade for screwing you," Neal
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Sandra Brown
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said to Hutch. "You could almost see the steam coming out of her ears. She's really got the hots for you. Why don't you be kind, Hutch? Give her a sampling of what you gave Jade. "
Hutch's large hands balled into fists. His face regained its color. In fact, it turned beet red. Hutch's temper was reputably short around everybody except Neal, but there was a first time for everything. Lamar held his breath with fearful expectation.
Evidently Hutch thought better of antagonizing Neal any further. His hot color subsided and he relaxed his fists - "I'm going home now." He stomped across the room. Before he reached the door, Neal blocked his path.
"I'd be real disappointed if my two best friends turned out to be squeamish chickenshits." He included Lamar in the warning look he gave Hutch. "Jade stirred up a hornets' nest this morning, but it's all over now. My old man called a while ago and said she had notified Fritz that she's decided against pressing charges. That's as good as an admission that she was asking for it." When neither responded, he said, "Well, isn't it?"
The two boys glanced at each other indecisively. Finally, Lamar mumbled, "Whatever you say, Neal."
"Okay then, relax, will you?"
Hutch said, "Daddy's put me on a curfew for the next couple of weeks. See y'all later."
After he left, Neal raised his hands high above his head and stretched, yawning expansively. "My old man yanked me out of bed before sunrise this morning. I've been lazy all day." He picked up his beer and drank the rest of it in one swallow. "You want to go shoot some baskets or something?"