Read Online Just Jelly Beans and Jealousy by Tammy Falkner - Free Book Online Page B

I’m parked. They’re blond and huge. But one of them is
holding hands with a girl, a pretty lady with dirty-blond hair. I
sit up taller and watch them. They’re friendly with one another,
and you can almost see how happy they are to be together. The one
holding hands with the girl slaps her on the bottom and runs from
her, and she streaks off after him until she can jump on his back.
She leans forward and kisses him on the cheek. He puts her down
because she’s signing something to him. My heartbeat stutters. This
is the family. I’m almost certain of it. They’re Peter Reed’s
brothers.
    Peter Reed is someone I have wanted to meet
for two and a half years. He saved me one night when I really
needed saving. He found me huddled in a room in the back of a frat
house after the unthinkable happened.
    I’m huddled by the wall, still shaking from
what happened. He turned out the light when he left, so I sit in
the dark with my teeth chattering so hard that my jaw hurts. My
panties are still wrapped around my ankle, dangling there like the
useless piece of cloth they are. One side is broken from where he
ripped them off me, but I can’t make my arms unwrap from around
myself long enough to pull them up. Or off. My skirt is hiked up
around my waist. He didn’t bother to even pull it down when he was
done. He just whispered in my ear about how no one would ever
believe me if I told and how I better keep it to myself if I knew
what was good for me.
    My phone dings beside me, its bright face a
beacon in the darkness, and I look down at it. I want to pick it
up. It’s probably one of my friends wondering where I’ve gone off
to. But I can’t unwrap my arms long enough to reach for it, either.
If I unwrap, I’ll fall apart. I can’t fall apart. I just can’t.
    The door opens, and a sliver of light tumbles
into the room. A young man laughs at someone as he closes the door
in a girl’s face. He flips the light on and leans back against the
door, cursing playfully. I crawl on my hands toward the shadow in
the corner. Maybe he won’t see me. But he does. I can tell when he
freezes and curses for real.
    My teeth are still chattering, and I can’t
draw in a complete breath. He drops down to squat in front of me.
“Hey, are you all right?” he asks. He reaches a hand toward me. An
animalistic sound leaves my throat. It’s one that scares even me,
and he jerks his hand back like I’m a rabid dog and he’s afraid
I’ll bite. The guy who just left, he wasn’t afraid of me at all.
After a few minutes of really nice kissing, I was ready to stop,
but he pushed me down, tore off my panties, held me still, and
raped me.
    I look into this man’s sky-blue eyes, and
they’re so different from the brown ones that hurt me. I open my
mouth to speak, but only a squeak comes out. My phone dings again,
and I look toward it.
    “Do you want me to get it for you?” he asks
softly. He reaches for it and then puts it within my reach. I take
it, jerking it from his hand as I crouch further into the corner.
He pulls back like I scare him. I look down at the screen.
    Rachel: Where are you, hussy? I saw you
locking lips with the douchebag. Did you leave with him?
    I need to reply. But my fingers are shaking
too much.
    “Do you want me to do it?” the man asks. He
gently takes the phone from my grasp with a twisty tug, and I let
it go. It’s of no use to me. I’m shaking too badly to use it.
    “What do you want me to say?” he asks.
    I swallow hard. I screamed when it started,
before he covered my mouth with his hand, right before he banged my
head on the bathroom countertop, and now my throat hurts. “Help
me.” The words are a whisper, and he leans closer because he can’t
hear what I’m saying.
    “What?” he asks softly.
    “Help me,” I say. He looks at my face. He
doesn’t look down at my exposed body. He just looks at my face,
like I’m not sitting here with my skirt hiked up above my hips,
like my shirt’s not torn