Whispering Rock (Virgin River #3)(20)

Mel went to the kitchen, had a sip of her diet cola and ran this over in her mind. Maybe Brenda was just mad at her mother for finding out. Maybe the boy had taken off. Maybe a lot of things, she thought. She reminded herself to stick to the facts for now.

She gave Brenda a few minutes, knowing better than to stretch this out for too long. Brenda didn’t need to settle her nerves; she needed to get this over with.

“Have you had a pelvic before?” Mel asked her.

“No,” she said shortly. “Just do it.”

“Sure thing,” Mel said. “But let me get your blood pressure and listen to your heart first, if you don’t mind.”

“Whatever.”

“Brenda, excuse me, but are you angry with me?”

“I am angry in general,” she said.

Mel sat on her stool and looked up at the girl. “Because…?”

“Because this sucks.”

“Well, people make mistakes. You’re human…”

“Yeah? I could live with that if I knew I was making a mistake!”

“Okay, let’s back up a little. Want to tell me about it?”

“Why bother? Do it, okay? You’ll just think I’m as stupid as I already think I am.”

“Try me,” Mel said, crossing her legs, resting her arms on her knee.

“I went to a party. A kegger. I got drunk. I woke up sick. Puking sick. The guy I was with said he passed out and nothing happened. But obviously someone is lying if I’m pregnant.”

Mel couldn’t help herself—her mouth dropped open. “Brenda, you told your mother about this?”

“Not until two periods didn’t come, because how was I going to know? I did one of those home test things. I never thought it would be…positive….”

“Were you sore? In your vagina?”

“I was sore everywhere! Like I’d fallen down a flight of stairs! And so sick I wanted to die. My vagina was about the last thing on my mind!”

“When you woke up—you were dressed? Any evidence of rape?”

“Completely dressed. Right down to the vomit on my shirt. And in my hair,” she added with a shudder.

“And you were with friends? Anyone see anything?”

“I was with a couple of girlfriends and one useless guy. They were all as drunk as me. We’d never… It was like the first time for something like that. I’ve had maybe one or two beers, but I’ve never been to a kegger before. I’m obviously not much of a drinker.”

“Do you remember drinking a lot?” Mel asked.

“I don’t remember much of anything. A couple of the guys said I was totally shitty. Drunk out of my mind. And one of my girlfriends swears my date really did pass out right away.”

“Ever think there could have been a drug involved? Slipped into your beer?”

“What kind of drug?” she asked.

“What do you think happened?” Mel asked her.

“I think I got hammered and let some guy— Obviously I wasn’t in a position to make a good decision. Plus, these are my friends. Well, the girls I went with are my friends—they wouldn’t lie to me. I don’t hang out with the other ones who were there.”

“All of them were your friends?”

“Someone’s not—unless there was a guy there who also doesn’t remember.”

Mel leaned forward. It was in her mind to ask Brenda if she’d ever heard the term, whiskey dick. “An unfortunate reality for most males is that too much alcohol inhibits erection or ejaculation. Whoever did this remembers.”

“And is lying…”

“Well, somebody’s lying—and if you’re pregnant and can’t remember getting that way, it probably isn’t you. Brenda, you could have been raped.”

“Or—I could have been so stupid drunk I didn’t know what I was doing.”

“Same thing, in my mind,” Mel said with a shrug. “Have you talked to the police?”

“Yeah.” She laughed bitterly. “Right.”

Mel reached out a hand to touch her knee and Brenda flinched. Mel’s mind immediately flashed on Carra and she cringed inwardly. “You have DNA in you, Brenda. The person responsible can be revealed.”

“Uh-huh. That should be interesting.” She laughed again. “Real interesting.”

“Listen, Brenda…”

“I don’t want to know. Whoever it is will just say I wanted it. Why wouldn’t he? And I would never be able to say otherwise, since I don’t fricking know. Meanwhile not only the whole school, but the whole town would know Brenda is a whore. Brenda’s knocked up, Brenda would like everyone to believe she was drugged.” She laughed at Mel. “Who are we kidding? Huh?”

“Is that likely? Let me tell you something—girls who aren’t sexually active don’t usually have one occasion of getting drunk and waking up pregnant because they wanted it.” Brenda looked away. “Have you been sexually active? Not that it matters in this case.”

Her eyes came back and the anger had seeped away. “I had a boyfriend last year who… I really liked him a lot. But we didn’t go all the way.” She looked down. “I wouldn’t give it up. I wanted to be sure, wanted it to be special. You know?” Now there were tears in her eyes, but they vanished as quickly as they had come.