We walk into a building. I don’t know where I’m at, but it looks vaguely familiar. “Where am I?” I ask quietly.
“You were in the equipment shed by the baseball field. We were about to start warming up when I found you,” he says.
“Woah. Who is she?” another man asks. He sounds older.
“Her name is Alice. Can I put her in your office? We found her in the equipment shed tied to one of the fucking shelves. Billy is calling the cops.”
“Was she…” he trails off.
“Yeah. Her legs are covered in blood. We put Andrew’s T-shirt on her because she didn’t have anything on. I don’t know if we were supposed to do that, but I didn’t want her exposed.”
“I need to call Kaylee,” I mumble.
“Is she your friend?” he asks as he sits me in a chair. I am unsteady so he pulls the chair up and sits close so he can keep his hands on me. Every time he tries to let go of me, I almost fall.
“Yeah,” I whisper.
“My name is Matt,” the southern man says. “Call your friend.” He put his phone in my hand, and I stared at it for a second trying to remember Kaylee’s number.
“Do you know who did this to you? Do you remember anything?” The other man asks.
“Uhm… yeah. I was at a party with Kaylee. Uhm… my boyfriends had to study so we went without them. Fisher Adams… he uh… he tried to drug me once before I started dating my boyfriends, but luckily, they were paying attention more than me. I thought… I thought he gave up,” I say as I start to cry again. “I can’t remember her fucking number.”
“Who are your boyfriends?” he asks.
“Brett Sinclair and Zeke Cassidy,” I say.
“Oh shit. I have both of their numbers. Do you want to call one of them?” he asks.
“Is today Saturday?” I ask.
“Yeah. It's about six at night” Matt says.
“Fuck. That party last night. How do I not remember being stuck in a fucking shed all day?” I ask. “They are probably losing their mind. Call either of them. They are always together.”
“Do you want me to tell him?” he asks,and I nod.
He takes his phone and tops around for a second before putting it to his ear. “Hey man… yeah, it’s Matt. Listen… The guys and I were about to start practice and we went to the equipment shed and we found y’all’s girl, Alice… No, Billy called the cops. I’m sitting with her in the coach's office… no, she’s not okay.” He looks at me with sorrow on his face, but I nod. I don’t know if I have the words to say it out loud. My body hurts and I’m so fucking thirsty, I could drink a lake. “No, she said Fisher Adams drugged her. She hasn’t specifically said it, but her legs are covered in blood, and we found her tied to the leg of the shelf in the equipment shed. I’m pretty sure she’s dehydrated if she’s been here all day. No, we put a shirt on her because she didn’t have anything on… she was asking for Kaylee but couldn’t remember her number… okay. We are here… I’ll tell her… no problem, man.”
“Are they mad?” I ask after a second.
“Not at you. They have no reason to be mad at you,” he says. “That was Zeke. He said they filed a missing persons report this morning. Just him and Brett are coming. He said he loves you” I nod and stare at my hands.
“I remember it,” I say “At the end, he… choked me. I passed out, I guess.”
“I’m sorry he did that,” he says.
“I’m glad I remember,” I say. “None of the other girls remember him raping them… but I do.”
The coach opens the door right as Zeke and Brett race in. They both crush me with a hug, and I fall apart again. “I’m sorry,” I sob. “I was paying attention. I promise I was.”
“No no. Baby, you didn’t do anything wrong, Alice. You have nothing to apologize for, okay?” Zeke says tearfully, cupping my face.
“Everything happened so fast. I was just trying to find Kaylee,” I add.
“She saw him take you. She just didn’t get to you fast enough before he drove off. Fucking campus police is useless so we went to the city. We finally got a detective to listen, and we were able to file a report.” He takes my hands into his and brushes his thumbs over where I have deep indentations in my wrists from where I was bound.
“I’m sorry, Alice. We should have been there,” Brett says.