Read Online Short Century by David Burr Gerrard - Free Book Online Page B

up.”
    â€œI think you should leave, Arthur. I need to get some ice for James, but I’m not going to do that until you leave because I’m not going to leave you alone with him.” The looks were looks she had been giving since she was a child, but they had always been directed at Paul or my mother. The calm, articulate strength was new, if unsurprising.
    â€œHe was trying to rape you.”
    â€œNo, I wasn’t, you idiot,” James said, holding his bleeding nose.
    â€œHe wasn’t.” Emily sat up straight. Her shirt was still unbuttoned and her bra cup, though it covered her nipple and areola, was twisted. She looked, unquestionably, like a sexually competent woman. But looks can be deceiving, and Hickham had once said that he had no desire to have sex with a woman whom he wasn’t raping.
    I looked at her, trying to be sympathetic and caring.
    â€œEmily,” I said. “We told each other that we would never deny the truth. Right? And the truth is that he was trying to rape you.”
    â€œThe truth is that he’s my boyfriend.”
    â€œHe’s your boyfriend? But he doesn’t respect women.”
    â€œArthur. We’ve been going together for three months and this is the first time he’s tried to touch my breasts. He’s a gentleman. You, on the other hand, are just like Paul.”
    I was shocked that she would actually say this out loud. I stood up, finding that my knee hurt very badly.
    â€œYou’d probably like it if I killed myself like Paul.”
    This was an immensely petulant, manipulative, and self-pitying thing to say. It—and I—deserved her contempt. What it and I got was something else.
    Her face crumpled into a helpless sobbing that made her look five years old again. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Arthur, I’m so sorry. I never should have said that. You’re nothing like Paul.”
    â€œ I wouldn’t mind it if you killed yourself,” Hickham said.
    â€œJames!” she said, and slapped him across his cheek.
    â€œOw!”
    Shame started to set in, and I said that I should probably go.
    â€œYou should stay. James should go.”
    But I was already on my way out.
    f
    The incident left me so unhappy that I took a cab back to Grand Central and got on the next train to New Haven. I realized fully that I had overreacted, and that Hickham had unquestionably been the victim of the afternoon. If anything, I was more clearly guilty of assault than Paul had ever been, at least until that day on the beach. When I got back to my dorm I knew I should call Emily and apologize, but I was embarrassed about my behavior. I hardly got any sleep that night, because I kept thinking about what I had seen and what I had done. I was going to call Emily the next morning, but then I didn’t, and a couple more days went by and I still didn’t call her. I found it difficult to concentrate on schoolwork, so mostly I did a lot of wandering around campus, thinking of everything and nothing. She called several times and left messages with the guys who lived on my hall, prompting them to tease me a bit. Sounds like she’s got it bad for you, that sort of thing. Finally I called her back, and the first thing she told me was that she had broken up with James Hickham.
    â€œGet back together with him,” I said. “I had no right to…interrupt you.”
    â€œNo. You were right all along about James. Only an unredeemable prick would tell someone to kill himself. Of course I should have known he was a prick, since he talks all the time about how women want to be raped. Just like you said. I’m so stupid.”
    â€œYou’re not stupid. You’re the furthest thing from stupid.”
    â€œWhat I said was stupid. Nobody has ever said anything stupider than that thing I said. Promise you forgive me?”
    â€œOf course. And I’m sor…”
    â€œListen, I’m going to tell