Chapter 20
Kylie
It was Saturday morning, and I was at my normal morning shift with Piper. The crowd had just come and gone, and we were cleaning up the mess left behind. I seriously couldn’t wait until I didn’t have to work in customer service anymore. I glanced over at the girl who had been sitting alone for a couple of hours and noticed there were tears streaming down her face. When she turned, I realized I knew who she was. Not only was she in one of my classes with Ben, but she was the girl he described who had come out of the dean’s office when he had been waiting for his meeting. He had pointed her out to me before I left campus on Friday.
On my break, I decided I needed to get to the bottom of this. If we were going to attack the dean and the provost of a major Ivy League school, we needed to do it as a mob and not as a few stragglers with a proven past. I took off my apron and slowly approached her, sitting down next her and rubbing her shoulder. She sniffled and looked up at me, surprised.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you,” I said, handing her a box of tissues I had grabbed from the back. “I wanted to know if I could talk to you?”
“Thanks,” she said, taking the box of tissues and pulling one out.
I sat back and waited for her to finish wiping the makeup from her cheeks and blowing her nose. She glanced up at me nervously and then looked down again, knowing I had seen her there all morning. Not that I looked amazing working an early Saturday morning at a coffee shop, but she looked terrible. Her eyes were puffy and red from crying, her hair was in a messy bun on the top of her head, and she looked like she hadn’t changed from her sweatpants in days. She was depressed, and the look in her eyes was all too familiar to me. It was exactly how I’d looked when I’d been torn away from Ben and Grant, forced to face the dean on my own. I was terrified at what I had to face, and if Ben and Grant hadn’t been there after my conversation with them, I would have been her, crying alone in the corner of some coffee shop, trying to make sense of the world around me. My heart immediately went out to her, and anger bubbled in my stomach thinking about what they probably had done to her.
“Do I know you?”
“Yeah. I mean no, not really,” I stuttered out. “I’m in your class with Professor Ross. We sat next to each other for a few classes.”
“Oh, yeah,” she said, pointing at me and wiping her nose. “You’re the girl who had that horrible rumor spread about her.”
“Yeah,” I scoffed. “You gotta love college life. But that is part of why I want to talk to you, actually.”
“I don’t know anything about it,” she said, shaking her head. “I just heard someone talking about it. Some guy that said he used to date you. He said you got the picture pulled from Facebook. Good for you. Bullies suck, and I can’t believe they’re letting him get away with this.”
“Yeah, well, it’s gotten a bit more complex than just a case of bullying,” I said, shaking my head and sitting back. “Everywhere I turn is like a terrible train wreck these days.”
“I totally know how you feel,” she said, tear welling up again. “Trust me. My life is the worst train wreck imaginable, and I did it to myself.”
“Are you okay? I mean, you’ve been sitting in the corner of the shop, crying on and off for almost three hours,” I said. “You can talk to me. I’m safe. And you’ll be surprised how understanding I can be. I’ve been through some pretty heavy things recently, and if it weren’t for a couple of really good friends, I would be exactly where you are right now. I know how it feels to be alone and completely helpless in your own life.”
“Do you know how it feels to make a huge mistake and not be able to get out of it?”
“I could, but I think I have something that will help both of us if I’m right,” I said.
“Really?”
“Yeah, but you have to talk to me first so I know I’m right,” I said. “I promise whatever you say will stay between us unless you give me the okay.”
“Well.” She started to sob again as she began talking. “I screwed up two semesters ago. That’s where it all started.”
“Hold on,” I said. standing up and putting my hand down for her. “We have an employee area around back of the store. It will give you some privacy.”
“Okay.” She grabbed the tissues and her things and followed me through the store to the back entrance.
We walked outside and put our coats on, feeling the cold Massachusetts air. I shivered and walked over to the bench in the employee smoking area. The girl put her things down and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, lighting one and offering one to me.
“No thanks,” I said, smiling. “What is your name by the way? I’m Kylie.”
“Ariel,” she said. “Nice to meet you.”
“You too,” I said kindly. “So, you messed up a couple semesters ago.”
“Yeah.” She took a deep breath before continuing her story. “I ended up in the dean’s office being threatened with expulsion over my grades that semester. That’s when the vice president came in.”
“Arthur,” I said.
“Yeah,” she nodded. “They told me if I slept with them every week, they would change my grades and pass me. I didn’t know what else to do, so I agreed.”
“Oh god, I’m so sorry,” I said, putting my hand on her shoulder.
“It’s been terrible, and I finally had enough, so I told them no more,” I said. “I don’t know what they’re going to do now, but I’m afraid to even go back.”
“I know how that feels, at least the beginning part of it,” I said, hugging her tightly.
“You do?”
“Yeah, they offered me the same thing, saying they would drop the whole fraternization thing if I slept with both of them,” I said, shuddering. “It was terrible. I can’t even imagine how you’re feeling, but I want you to know that what they’re doing is a crime, and if they’re doing it to you and me, then there are other girls.”
“I know there are,” she said, picking up her head. “I’ve seen them coming and going before. It’s always the same. You have to wear a short skirt, heels, a low-cut top, and black stockings. That’s why the dean took a second office in the business building.”
“I figured as much,” I said, sighing. “What would you say if I told you that it didn’t have to continue? You could stand united with me in taking them down. I have two really powerful, really trustworthy people working with me on this who can get our voices heard. You could be a seriously big part of this, and you could keep God knows how many girls in the future from going through the same thing as you. We can’t stand by and continue to let these men do this. This is one of the best colleges in the world. The president would shit herself if she found out this was happening right under her nose.”
“There aren’t enough of us,” she whimpered. “I just can’t. If we failed, they would come after me. I have a full-ride scholarship, and my parents are just farmers. They could never afford to pay for me to go to college. I worked my whole life up to this point to go here and get this degree. If I lose it, I lose everything. I don’t want to go back with my tail between my legs, becoming a farmer like my mother. I’m supposed to graduate in two semesters.”
“That won’t happen,” I said, smoothing her hair. “People take things like this seriously. We will be loud and make them listen to us. We can’t keep this cycle going. Too many lives will be ruined forever. Think about it. We could end this and save all of these girls.”
“But what can just two girls versus an entire community of rich, powerful men really do?” She wiped her eyes. “It’s a great idea, but I should just keep going to school, reorder my schedule to take night classes when they aren’t there, finish, and get the hell out of Dodge. Unless they take my scholarship, but I’ll face that if it comes.”
“No.” I shook my head. “You shouldn’t have to hide in the shadows. We can get more people involved before going forward with this. We can recruit these girls and show them they aren’t alone, that we’re here standing beside them. Don’t you feel a little better knowing you aren’t alone in all of this? Imagine how you would feel with a group of women going through the same thing. We can be powerful together. We can make a movement that will save so many women and ourselves. You won’t heal overnight, but I bet you’ll feel better knowing when you go to sleep at night, those bastards got what they deserved. You could walk the halls without fear, make mistakes without fear, and graduate with your head held high.”
“Yeah,” she says, sniffling.
“Look, just do this for me. Give me permission to tell your story to the two leaders and when we have enough people, I’ll come back to you,” I said. “We won’t use your name without your express permission.”
“All right.” She took another deep breath. “You have my permission. Thank you for talking to me, and I’m sorry for what you’re going through. I hope this ends the way you want it to.”
“Thank you, and here’s my number,” I said, picking up her phone and putting it in the contacts. “Call me day or night. Don’t hesitate, especially if anything else happens.”
“Okay,” she said, standing up. “I’ll talk to you later.”
I smiled and watched as she walked down the alley and out onto the sidewalk, disappearing around the corner. I pulled out my phone and dialed Ben’s number, my foot tapping anxiously. I couldn’t believe what that girl had been through, and I knew there were more like her.
“Hey,” he said. “What’s up?”
“I talked to Ariel, the girl you saw coming out of the dean’s office,” I said. “Her story is unbelievable. She was being forced to sleep with them in order to keep her scholarships. She had broken it off when you saw her, and now she’s scared to death. She told me I could talk to you guys about her story.”
“Jesus,” he said. “That’s so terrible. These fucking guys deserve a serious ass kicking.”
“They deserve a lot more than that,” I said.
“Come over to Grant’s. I’m on my way there now,” he said. “We’ll talk about it all.”
I hung up the phone and went back inside, asking Piper to cover me the rest of the shift. She agreed with curiosity, but I promised I would explain everything later. I left the shop and went straight to Grant’s, smiling at Ben as I walked in. He had already gotten there. As soon as I shut the door, he took me in his arms and hugged me tightly.
“We are going to get these assholes. I promise,” he said.