himself off of the couch and walks to the front door, grabbing cash off the table in the process. I hear the sound of a door opening and Colton talking to the delivery man.
“Sup, Colton? How’s summer going?” I tense when I recognize the voice. Adam is at the door. David glances down at me, wondering what is wrong.
“Pretty good so far. We’ve only been out of school for a day, man. Not much has happened yet.”
“True.” Adam gives the pizzas over to Colton and continues, “So I heard this rumor that you were seen leaving the school with that freaky girl, Ryan.”
“Don’t call her that and her name is Ryanne.”
“So it is true. Seriously, dude? You remember what I said about her right? If you want a hook-up, I know some girls. You don’t need all that baggage. She’s not even that good looking.
I hear the sound of a punch being thrown and someone grunting in pain. David jumps off the couch and rushes towards the front door. I follow shortly after. Standing in the doorway, I can see Colton and Adam swinging punches at each other, trying to get a hit in. Adam has blood dripping from his nose, while Colton appears uninjured.
David runs up and grabs Colton from behind and pushes him behind him. Pointing at Adam, he says, “You need to leave.” David turns around and starts pushing Colton towards the door. Both boys stare at Adam as they walk away.
Adam lingers in the driveway. Slowly, his eyes travel over their heads to the doorway, widening a little in surprise when he sees me standing there. His eyes run down the length of my body, before returning to my face. With a scowl, he says, “She’s not even worth it.” Colton tries to walk back to him again, but David puts his arm out stopping him.
“Don’t.” It’s David that makes a move this time. He deftly walks up to Adam and punches him square in the jaw. Adam spins around before falling to the ground, where he remains writhing in pain. David turns around, leaving him there, and walks into the house, grabbing my upper arm and pulling me after him. Colton follows suit and loudly slams the front door. Once in the living room, David lets go of me and starts pacing. “You just attract trouble don’t you?” He tries joking, but his anger is still visible.
Colton walks up to me and says, “I’m so sorry, Ryanne. Don’t listen to anything he said.”
I wave him off, “I’ve heard worse.”
“What’s his problem with you anyways?” I pale at his question. Seeing my response, he asks softly, “Ryanne, what did he do to you?”
I lean against the doorframe and look across the room at the window. It is starting to rain. “I’ve never told anyone this before, but I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors,” I pause, collecting my thoughts. “It happened right after school ended last year. I was walking home from the park, when I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around and he was right there. I just continued walking, trying to ignore him. He’d never been nice to me—always had some sort of cruel or derogatory comment to say. He ran in front of me and then suddenly stopped, causing me to run into him. I apologized and tried to walk around him, but he moved to block my step.
“I looked up at him and asked him to move and he said no. Then, he pushed me back into a large tree and pressed his body against mine, telling me that if I screamed, he would hit me until I shut up. He stepped on both of my feet, so that I couldn’t try to run away.” I start blinking rapidly, trying to keep the tears at bay.
“I tried pushing against him, but he didn’t budge; I wasn’t strong enough. I yelled for help once, but he slapped me across the face. He hit me so hard that my vision blacked out momentarily. I wanted to cry, but I didn’t want him to see me cry. He put both his hands on my waist and one went up under my shirt and the other crept under my shorts.”
David stops me, “You don’t have to continue, Ryanne.”
“Yes, I do. I need to get this out. I didn’t know what to do, so I tried yelling out again, but he punched me in stomach. I couldn’t breathe. Then he tried to kiss me. Long story short,