Nets and Lies(26)

When I got to my locker, I gasped. Scraped into the metal was the word, “WHORE”. Beneath it was “LIAR”.

Conversation silenced around me. Everyone stood stock still, waiting for my reaction. Tears stung my eyes. But I wouldn’t let them see me cry. I whirled on my heels and started back down the hall.

I barely made it in the bathroom before I started crying. I locked myself into the handicap stall and sobbed. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I was supposed to make him pay. I wasn’t supposed to get punished too! I mean, why were they doing this to me? Didn’t they know what he did to me? That he’d used me and just threw me aside?

The sound of the door opening silenced my tears. I stood up and wiped my eyes. When I heard the stall close next to me, I walked outside. I glanced at myself in the mirror and groaned. My face was all splotchy, and mascara stained my cheeks.

I bent over the sink and washed my face. As I patted it dry with a paper towel, the stall opened.

It was Melanie.

When she saw it was me, she gasped. She started for the door, but I stopped her.

She ducked her head and stared down at her shoes. “Let me go,” she protested in a whisper.

“I know what happened.”

She jerked her head up to stare at me. “You don’t know anything but lies! I mean, it’s one thing for you to pretend you were raped, but I don’t know why you needed to drag me into it!”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “If it’s nothing but lies, how come I found your panties in his futon cushions?”

Her body tensed, and I wanted to laugh at her. I mean, only Melanie could be “Miss Priss” and get uncomfortable with the mention of her underwear. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Your panties with the word “Captain” embroidered on them.”

The color drained from her face. She swayed back and forth, and for a minute, I thought she might pass out. Her body trembled all over like a leaf, and because of how green she looked, I fought the urge to back up just in case she hurled or something. But she also looked like she was concocting a reply in her mind. Then like in a truly bipolar moment, she shook her head. “I don’t care what you say. Maybe it was my underwear. Maybe it fell out of my bag after practice, did you think about that?”

When I saw she wasn’t going to throw up, I leaned forward. “He was playing us, Melanie. Don’t you see that?”

A sad expression crossed her face. “You really had an affair with him, didn’t you?”

“What if I did? What if I slept with him for three months before he tossed me aside? And what if I wanted to make him pay for hurting me? Maybe you ought to consider punishing him too!”

“But I wasn’t having an affair with him!” she protested, but her resolve deflated. Instead of the steely bitch she was just a second before, she seemed broken. Her lip quivered, and she appeared on the verge of tears. So maybe she wasn’t having an affair with him. It was kind of a long shot to begin with. I mean, why would she be interested in Coach T when she had Will aka Mr. Perfect all to herself?

But then a revelation came crashing down on me. The harshness of it was so fierce I was the one trembling instead of Melanie. My memory flashed back to her Monday night in the parking lot with her messed up hair and smeared makeup. They weren’t willingly hitting it in his office. He hadn’t turned me away that night because he had been with someone.

Oh, no, it was much worse than that.

I stared at her in disbelief. He had screwed her—the panties were proof of that. But it wasn’t by her consent…he had truly raped her.

I gasped. “Oh my God!” My mind shattered with the thoughts of what he had done. To his star…to his son’s girlfriend. It was too much. I slammed back against the sink and shook my head. “He raped you, didn’t he?”

Her eyes widened in horror. “NO!” she screamed.

I couldn’t believe she was in complete and total denial. “It’s true, isn’t it?”

Melanie head shook back and forth so fast she looked like someone twitching with Parkinson’s disease. “Stop saying that! He didn’t do anything to me!”

“I was waiting for him in the parking lot Monday night. I saw you leave the school after everybody else. I saw how you looked!”

“No, no, no! I’d been running and sweating at practice.”

I couldn’t believe she was still denying it. I would have wanted him to fry if he’d really raped me. Why would she want him to get away with it? “Why are you lying for him?”

“I’m not!”

I reached out and grabbed her arm. “You have to tell the truth, Melanie. You have to make him pay for what he’s done.”

She slung her arm away. “Stop it! He didn’t do anything to me. You’re just a spiteful slut who shouldn’t have been sleeping with a married man.”

Before I could respond, Lauren burst through the door. Her eyes narrowed at me. “What the hell are you doing? Isn’t it enough you gotta lie about Coach T, but now you’re harassing, Mel? Jesus, you’re pathetic!”

I jerked back like I had been slapped. “You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“Whatever.” She turned to Melanie. “Come on, Mel. Let’s go.”