Have We Gone Too Far?

I followed her onto the field as she dragged me along by my arm, which for some reason didn’t bother me too much. Weird. I suppose I was just feeling sorry for her.

We sat down on the grass and I had a look around to see if I could see Kyle running. I couldn’t. Strange seeing as that’s what he said he’d be doing. I could see a few other guys racing up and down on the track but Kyle defiantly wasn't there.

“Everyone hates me,” she moaned as she lay down on the grass beside me. “My mates think I’m pathetic because of my family. It’s not fair.”

“I know what that’s like,” I whispered. “If my friends ever met my parents... let’s just say they wouldn't be my friends long after that.”

“Yours aren’t as bad as mine,” she grinned. “Did you see them at my party? They were awful!”

I nodded at her and smiled weakly. Just because your parents are embarrassing doesn’t mean they’re awful. They still love her and they’d never hurt her, unlike mine.

“They could be a lot worse,” I mumbled. “I mean there are some people out there who don’t have parents, some kids have to put up with parents who don’t love them and some parents even hurt their kids.”

“I know,” she whispered. “What are your parents like?” she asked me.

“They’re alright,” I whispered after a pause.

Luckily she wasn't paying much attention to me at the moment so she didn’t notice my slow reaction.

“You know, if your friends fall out with you just because of your parents, they’re not worth even thinking about. They obviously weren’t good mates,” I whispered.

“I suppose,” she mumbled. “You’re like the only person I can talk to now, though. Thanks.”

“It’s no problem Liza. Sometimes you have to talk to someone,” I sighed knowing how desperately I needed to talk to Cole.

“Do you want to come around mine after school?” she asked. “Please don’t let my parents scare you or my cousin, he’ll be there too.”

“Erm,” I panicked, not really wanting to hang out with her to be honest. “I'm not sure if I can make it tonight.”

She stared at me wide eyed, which slightly freaked me out. She has really big eyes anyway so when they get wider it’s quite scary.

“Why not?” she asked me in her cute little pleading voice which she knew I'd answer to.

“Well, I'm...”

“Please come,” she begged.

“Fine, but I don’t know what time I’ll be able to get there...”

“I’ll be fine as long as you come,” she grinned as she stood up and walked off.

That was... odd. Now I’m going to spent time at her house. Great, how exciting is that. And her parents will be there; what a joy! Words can’t describe how much I'm looking forward to this.

“I'm so sarcastic,” I mumbled to myself as I walked back towards Mr. Sanders’ office.

I stood outside of his door for a few minutes, just to make sure I wanted to do this. I know it’s not going to be easy but he’ll make it better, I hope. He’ll defiantly make me feel much better on the inside about it anyway. He has that kind of effect on me.

Deep breaths. I opened the door and froze when I saw someone else in there with him. It was the new boy. They both turned and faced me looking shocked that I’d walked in on them. Cole was glaring a little, probably because I’d interrupted a private confidential session he was having with that new kid. And the boy just looked embarrassed.

“Oh, erm... sorry,” I whispered as I walked back out again.

What the hell was that? Why was he in there? Ha! Maybe he has problems too. It’s probably nothing too serious though, I’m sure a little consoling will fix him up. It’ll most likely be to do with him being an obvious emo. He’s bound to be a suicidal all negative cutter guy. That’s the vibe I got from him straight away.

I sat outside of the door until they came out, slightly smiling at me; strange.

“Same time tomorrow Zander,” Cole told him.

“Whatever,” he mumbled but I don’t think Cole heard him.

So the new kid’s called Zander; interesting.

“Come in Zack,” Cole hissed at me.

I’ve got no idea why though, I’ve barely done anything wrong. Well, except for walking in but anyone can make a mistake like that.

“Why’s the new kid need to talk with you?” I asked once we were both sat down.

“That’s none of your business,” he hissed. “And why did you come so early? You didn’t even knock.”

“Look, I'm sorry. I didn’t think anyone else would be here.”

The room went quiet for a while as Cole started filling in some paper work and I tried to get my thoughts straight. How the hell am I meant to start? I can’t just say everything as quick as possible, can I?

“Cole,” I whispered, breaking the silence. “I need to speak to you about, you know...”

“If you’re ready,” he smiled, speaking in a softer voice than he was before, which I think meant he forgives me for barging in. “Would you like to ask questions or do you just want to just say it?” he asked me.

“I don’t know,” I said calmly, trying to hide how scared I was on the inside. “A bit of both?” I asked him. He nodded lightly and looked right into my eyes.

“Do you want to start with what happened before you were... attacked?” he asked me.

“If you promise you won’t tell anyone.”

“I promise sweetie,” he whispered.

“I snuck into this club and I got drunk and took drugs and stuff,” I mumbled.

“Zack,” he gasped. “What were you thinking?”

“I was feeling really down and I wanted to feel better, even if it was just for a short while,” I explained.

He shook his head at me, looking really ashamed. I don’t even think my reason was good enough now. Why did I go there?

“So what happened between getting high and getting raped?” he asked me still looking downwards.

“I just had fun I guess and when I left someone jumped me,” I whispered.

“Okay,” he sighed gazing up into my eyes and looking deeply into them. “What exactly did he do to you?” he asked me with a fierce look in his eyes.

“You know what he did,” I sniffed.

“The only way to solve this is by telling the police, that way you’ll know he won’t hurt you again and he won’t hurt anyone else either,” he said softly to me. “They’ll want a lot more than he raped you, you’ll have to tell them exactly what happened.”

“I can’t though,” I cried. “I can’t say I was at the club or I was drunk or that I’d been taking drugs.”

“You won’t need to,” he whispered and came and sat beside me.

“Yes I will!” I shouted accidentally. “If I tell the police they’d want to know where it happened and they’d look at CCTV and all that crap. If I lie they won’t find anything but if I tell the truth...”

“Calm down Zack,” Cole said wrapping his arm around me and pulling me into his chest. “We’ll think of something.”

“That’s easy for you to say! I'm the one having nightmares about it. Crying in bloody class and scared to freaking death!” I said as I pushed away from him. “You don’t understand what it’s like. I have no idea who it was, it could be anyone. I could have spoken to them today...”

“That’s very unlikely...” he interrupted but then I did the same to him.

“You can’t prove that I haven’t though, can you?”

“No,” he sighed. “But I can still help.”

“Not if you don’t understand,” I grunted.

“I know what it’s like being raped Zack!” he shouted. “And I do understand what you’re going through!”

He looked so angry right now but he also looked scared.

“Did you report it?” I asked him.

“That doesn’t matter Zack,” he sighed.

“So you’re trying to make me tell the police when you didn’t do it yourself? That’s not fair!”

“It happened to me under different circumstances to you,” he whispered.

I looked at him as he tried to calm down. I could see the pain in his eyes and I felt so sorry for him. Maybe it would have been better if he didn’t understand. Why did I want someone else to understand my pain?

“Did it happen recently?” I asked him.

“Yeah,” he whispered.

Cole got raped. I got raped. Beth got raped. That’s a lot of rape. Wait, what if it was all the same person?

“Cole... Beth was raped too but I'm not meant to know about it. What if it was all the same person?” I asked him.

“It won’t be,” he mumbled.

“How would you know?” I asked him.

“Because I know who did it to me,” he whispered.

“Tell me.”

“I can’t.”

“Just tell me,” I begged. “Please.”

“No,” he hissed. “Forget I even mentioned it.”

Why won’t he tell me?

“Please Cole! I need to know,” I cried.

Wow, I can cry on command now, maybe I can control it now.

“Zack, I just can’t tell you.”

“Fine,” I grunted. “But there’s no chance I’m going to report mine until you tell me who did it to you.”

He nodded at me.

“If that’s how it has to be then I can’t force you to tell them,” he sighed, standing, well, sitting his ground.