Chapter Ten
June
I was walking on air when Thomas dropped me off at home. This time, he walked me to my front door and we kissed for a long time. I was just about to invite him in when he said he had to go, kissed me one last time, then left.
I closed my eyes, savoring the moment for a long time before I opened the door. Angela was curled up on the couch, reading a book. When she saw me, she laughed.
“What?” I narrowed my eyes. “Do I have something on my dress?”
Angela shook her head and gave me a guilty smile. “You smell like sex. Look in the mirror,” she added.
Frowning, I turned to the mirror and gasped. My lips were pink and swollen and the rest of my face was flushed. My black hair was a mess and my forehead was damp with sweat. And my whole body felt different – almost like something had slipped inside of me and changed me forever when I was out with Thomas.
“Did you fuck him?”
“Angela!” I blushed. “No!”
“You look like you fucked him,” she said dryly.
“Well, I didn’t.” I sighed and flopped down on the couch, right on top of Angela’s feet. We tussled and laughed for a moment as she tucked her legs underneath her body.
“What happened? Why not?”
I shrugged. “He said I had too much wine. He said he wanted me to be more sober for the first time we had sex.”
Angela raised her eyebrows. “Wow, a gentleman,” she said. “You don’t really see those around anymore.”
“We made out in his car again,” I explained. “It was so hot.” I shivered. “It hurts, you know,” I added, blushing and making a quick gesture towards my crotch.
Angela hooted with laughter. “It’s like a female version of blue balls,” she said. She snickered with laughter. “I know. It does hurt. But it’ll go away.” She smirked. “Unless you want…to help yourself.”
“Oh, my god, ew, no!”
Angela shrieked with laughter. “Oh, June,” she said affectionately. “My little prude. Don’t ever change,” she added.
I glared at her. “Ha, ha,” I said sarcastically.
“So, I take it you had a good time?”
I sighed with happiness and flopped against the back of the couch. “It was the best night of my life,” I said dramatically. “He ordered so much wine, and seriously every tapa on the menu. I’m stuffed. Everything was so nice.”
“I bet,” Angela said. She yawned. “I’ve been trying to have a quiet night.”
I frowned. “What happened?” I glanced around. Our apartment, though not the greatest, wasn’t plagued with some of the common problems in New York City. We rarely had rats, and we weren’t close enough to the subway for it to be too loud…which was both a blessing and a curse, as I’d come to discover over freezing winter mornings of running to work.
“Someone sent up a bunch of messages,” Angela said in a neutral tone. “I assumed they were from Thomas, until I realized that you were already out with him.”
I blushed. “Maybe he did them for me to find when I got back? That kind of seems like something he’d do.”
Angela shook her head and gave me a wary look. “I wouldn’t get too excited,” she said. “They’re not flowers, if that’s what you’re asking.”
I frowned. Angela pointed to a bunch of small manila envelopes by the door.
“Whoever it was, actually used a courier service,” she said, turning her attention back down to her book and yawning once more. “I didn’t actually know that those were still around.”
“Oh, yeah,” I said. “Weird.”
Angela was clearly finished talking, so I took the envelopes and dumped them in my room, on my bed. Then I went into the bathroom and washed my face, taking a long, hot shower. I couldn’t even touch my own body without thinking of Thomas’s huge, sensual hands…and suddenly, I wished that he were inside that cramped stall with me, covered in soap and water and making love to me until I was blind with passion.
When I was sick of standing in the tepid water, I wrapped myself in a big fluffy towel and braided my hair. The messages were still waiting for me on my bed when I got back to my room, and I sat down, crossed my legs, and opened the first envelope.
“June – where are you? Call me. Andy.”
My stomach twisted into a knot and I frowned, tossing the note away. A slight pang of guilt hit me in the chest and I swallowed, trying to make it disappear.
“June – where the fuck did you go? We had a date, remember?”
“That’s not very nice,” I said under my breath, balling the message up and tossing it away. My slight feeling of sympathy for Andy vanished. What a jerk, I thought as my trembling fingers opened the third message. Thomas would never speak to me like that.
“June – are you fucking with me? Why the fuck would you do something like this? Are you a bitch? Are you trying to fuck with me?”
The bad feeling returned with alarming speed, but this time it wasn’t guilt. This time, I felt nothing more than shame and fear.
“Angela,” I called in a trembling voice.
Seconds later, Angela was standing at the door.
“June, what’s going on? What’s wrong?”
I pointed to the opened notes scattered around my bed. There were still four notes, unopened.
“They’re from Andy,” I said shakily.
Angela picked one of them up and read it. “What the fuck,” she murmured under her breath. “What an asshole! Where the hell does he get off talking to you like this?”
I shuddered. “I don’t know,” I admitted softly. “But I’m scared.”
Angela frowned. “Don’t be,” she said. “He’s probably just fucking with you.”
“I hope so,” I mumbled. “I really do.”
--
The rest of the weekend was quiet. It stormed all day on Sunday, so I curled up by the window and planned my lessons for the rest of the week. Thankfully, there was no word from Andy…but troublingly, there wasn’t word from Thomas, either.
Monday morning felt warmer than it had in weeks. I only wore a light sweater over my knit dress as I took the subway to P.S.151. I wasn’t looking forward to Andy. Angela and I had decided that if he confronted me, the best thing to do would be to lie. Say I was sick, that I forgot, anything. And then I had to be firm with him – I had to tell him that I wasn’t interested, or that I was dating someone else.
When I got to school, I went into the break room. Thankfully, Andy wasn’t there. Michelle and Ruth were, though.
“Hey guys,” I said, tucking my sandwich into a corner of the fridge. “How was your weekend?”
Michelle stared blankly at me before turning and leaving.
I turned to Ruth and frowned. “What’s up with her?”
Ruth flushed. “No clue,” she said. “Come on, we should get going.”
I nodded. “Okay, yeah.”
Thankfully, my class was well-behaved. Even Brett didn’t make a peep. He was very obedient that day, and I wondered what the principal had said to him…whatever it was had seemed to work. Brett was a model student all day, and I was so relieved when the last bell rang that I gave all the kids a piece of candy from the treat jar on my desk.
I couldn’t stop thinking about Thomas. During planning, I even spaced out and started doodling his name all over my notebook like a little kid. When I felt a hand clamp down on my shoulder, I shrieked.
“God, June, calm down,” Ruth said. She sounded exasperated. As she glanced down at my notebook, I grabbed it and tucked it out of sight, blushing furiously.
I narrowed my eyes. “Sorry,” I mumbled. “You just startled me. What’s wrong?”
Ruth cleared her throat nervously. “I…I wanted to speak with you about something.”
“Okay.” I swallowed. “That doesn’t sound good. What’s wrong?”
“Well…” Ruth trailed off, looking anxious. “I don’t know, June. Maybe I shouldn’t say anything.”
“What?” I stood up. My palms grew cold and damp and I wiped them on my skirt. “What’s going on?”
Ruth looked helpless. “Come with me,” she said. She led me down the hall and into the teacher’s lounge before pointing at the wall. “You might want to take that down,” she added. She pointed to a piece of paper tacked onto the wall.
I gasped. A piece of white copy paper was stuck to the wall, covered in crude drawings of a female stick figure with long black hair. Another stick figure – actually several of them, all male – were surrounding the female and laughing at her. I flushed hotly when I saw that all of the male figures had huge, crudely-drawn penises.
“Oh my god!” I shrieked. “What is this?”
Ruth looked guilty. “This was there, too,” she said. She handed me a crumpled piece of paper and I unfolded it, gasping in shock when I read the words scrawled on the page.
“June Rogers is a fuck slut!! She is a sexual predator!! She will fuck your male students so keep them locked away!! She is a pedophile and should be arrested!!!”
I screamed and grabbed the page with stick figures off the wall, crumpling it and tearing it into a thousand pieces. Tears stung my eyes and I covered my face with my hands before I began to cry.
“Ruth, what’s going on,” I cried, feeling helpless. “Why would someone do this to me?”
Ruth looked nervous. “You probably don’t want to rip that up,” she said. “You probably should want to keep it as…you know, evidence.”
“Evidence?” My jaw dropped. “What’s going on, Ruth? Why is someone trying to sabotage me?” Tears of humiliation and hurt streamed down my face and I wrapped my arms around my body, hugging myself tightly.
Ruth licked her dry lips. “I don’t know,” she said softly. “Is someone mad at you, June? Is that what’s going on?”
“I have no idea,” I said. Then, an image of Andy popped into my mind and I shuddered.
“June?” Ruth asked cautiously. “It’s okay – you can tell me.”
I shook my head and bit my lip. “Forget it,” I said. I tried to pull myself together, and wiped the tears from my face with the backs of my hands. “It’s not worth talking about.”
Ruth nodded slowly. “Okay,” she said. “But if you need to talk, I’m here.”
I set my lips in a thin line. “I’m fine,” I said softly.
At least, I hoped I was fine.
By the time I left school, I was a nervous wreck. All of the happiness and joy that my date with Thomas had brought me over the weekend had vanished. Why was Andy doing this? Why did he hate me? I knew that I shouldn’t have ghosted him, but that didn’t warrant any of this insanity! He was acting like a total crazy person.
I was a few blocks away from school and almost to the subway when someone grabbed me and pulled me into an alley. Before I could scream, a hand clapped over my mouth. Someone’s arms wrapped around my torso, pinning my arms to my sides, and carried me far away from the street.
“Help!” I tried to shriek. It only came out as a muffled grunt. Panic began to race in my belly and a cold sweat broke out over my body. This is it, I thought as my unknown assailant dragged me farther and farther from the safety of the street.
“Shut up, bitch,” a familiar voice hissed. “Did you like my notes?”
When I realized it was Andy who had grabbed me, I twisted and shrieked in fear. Andy gripped me with surprising strength – he was a smaller guy, and I was shocked that he was able to carry me at all.
Finally, Andy took his hand away from my mouth and I gagged and coughed. Pain bloomed in my chest and I shuddered as sobs began to wrack my body. When I looked at Andy, he looked smug and satisfied.
“Hi, June,” Andy said coldly. “I was hoping you’d see my drawings.”
“Why?” I asked softly. “Why would you do something like that, Andy?”
Andy’s eyes flashed with anger and he stepped closer, balling his hands into fists. I shivered with fear.
“Please don’t hit me,” I said softly. “Please, Andy. I’m sorry – I know I shouldn’t have stood you up, that was wrong and I’m sorry.”
“You’re right,” Andy said coldly. “That was a shitty thing to do, June. I thought girls like you were nice – I thought girls like you didn’t mess with innocent men and their emotions.”
“I swear, I wasn’t trying to hurt you!” I shrieked. “I was just feeling scared. Andy, you made me feel like I couldn’t say no to you! But I don’t have time for a relationship,” I added quickly. “I don’t have time to date you – or anyone else!”
Andy shook his head and licked his lips. “I don’t believe that, June,” he said softly. His voice was as cold and chilling as steel. “I think you lied to me on purpose because you wanted to hurt me. Tell the truth, June – you lied because you wanted to hurt me.”
He stepped closer and my heart began to pound in my chest. Cold sweat raced down my back and I put my hands up in a weak defense as Andy advanced on me. My bag slipped from my shoulder but I was barely even aware of the contents spilling all over the wet asphalt of the alley.
“Andy, please,” I begged. “Please, please don’t hurt me!”
“I’ll do whatever I want to you, June,” Andy hissed. “So don’t think you can get out of this alive.”
When he put his hands on my shoulders, I screamed and screamed. My throat was burning as I called for help. Knowing that I was only feet away from the safety of the street somehow made me feel even more panicked, and I twisted furiously, trying to free myself from Andy’s grip. Enraged, Andy pulled one of his hands free from my body and slapped me across the face.
The pain stung, but it was enough to startle me into action. Before I could even think about what I was doing, I screamed and threw my whole weight to one side.
“Help!” I screamed. “Help, someone’s trying to assault me!”
Andy was clearly stunned and he made another grab for my arm but I darted out of the way and started to run towards the street.
“Help!” I shrieked again. “Somebody, please!”
My heart was pounding and the adrenaline was rushing through my body as I tore out of the alley and stumbled onto the sidewalk. A curious pool of people circled around me and I launched myself towards one of the men who had gathered in confusion.
“Ma’am, what’s going on? Are you okay?”
“Please,” I sobbed. “The man in the alley! He was trying to assault me!”
A couple of the people nodded and ran into the alley while someone else called the police. Suddenly, I felt faint. The world around me began to zoom and spin and I clutched at my chest. Sharp pains were spreading from my heart out into my shoulders and I gasped as my eyes rolled back in my head and I passed out.
When I came to, I was surrounded by uniformed police and EMTs.
“Miss Rogers?”
I nodded weakly. “Did you get him?” I asked softly.
Two of the cops exchanged a dark look.
“No,” one of them said shortly. “He ran off before we were able to make the scene.”
Despair welled up in my chest and I began to shiver as the tears came rushing back to my eyes.
“Please,” I begged. “He was trying to assault me! He grabbed me from the street and dragged me into the alley!” Please, you’ve got to help me!”
One of the cops nodded. “That’s why we’re here,” he said. He sounded tired as he pulled a small notebook from his pocket and began to scribble notes.
But as I recited the story, including the part where Andy and I had gone on a date before, to the cops, I could practically see my chance of success draining from their eyes.
“This is someone you’ve dated before?”
“Just once,” I said quickly. “Because he pressured me into it.”
The cop frowned. “But you asked him,” he said.
“Yeah, because I felt like I had to!” I said hotly. “And now he’s stalking me!” I told them about the messages Andy had sent to my apartment, as well as the lewd stick drawings he’d posted in the break room.
The cops exchanged a look. “We’ll go talk to him,” one of them promised. “Just don’t get your hopes up.” He chuckled. “Men don’t like it when women aren’t straight with them. You should’ve just told him no.”
My heart sank. “I can’t believe you’re blaming me for this,” I said softly. “That’s so messed up.”
The cop sighed. “Look, I can’t say anything else right now. Just know that we’ll do our best.”
I closed my eyes and tears streamed down my cheeks. I couldn’t believe that the cops weren’t doing more to help me. I’d just gone through one of the scariest experiences in my life and they were acting it was my fault!
“Forget it,” I said bitterly. “I can handle this on my own.”