Gone

Once she was set up on my bed with a glass of milk in her hand (which was one of the few things she drank at my house, as all juices, sodas, and sports drinks were against her self-enforced rules), her back leaned up against a series of pillows I piled up for her, she clammed up. No matter how many times I begged and pleaded with her to give me a small clue or hint, she shook her head and bit her lip so hard that I was afraid she’d dislodge it.

“Fine,” I finally accepted. “I’m going to take a quick shower. When I come back out, will you talk to me?”

She shrugged, which was a good enough answer for me.

I grabbed a pair of shorts, some underwear, and a t-shirt and headed into the bathroom. As the steam filled the bathroom, my mind and heart raced at the various possibilities of what could have happened to Manny. Something told me it was a little more severe than getting a failing grade on the calculus quiz she was worried about the week before.

What if someone hurt her? Did she find…?

My mind stopped mid-thought and my face drained of all color as I thought of Ben. Ben, whom she trusted and cared about more than any guy in her past. What if he’d done something to her?

I shut off the water with more force than necessary and stomped out of the shower, my foot connecting solidly with the fuzzy carpet outside the shower and sending a shock up to my hip. Ignoring the pain, I got dressed quickly and threw my long, dirty blonde hair up into a towel to keep it from dripping anywhere.

“Manny,” I shouted, maybe a little too loudly, as I raced toward my room and threw open the door. For a split second, I was glad my parents were out on a rare date night and wouldn’t question the ruckus. “Manny, tell me right now what happened.”

She looked up at me with wide, red-riddled hazel eyes, making her resemble a small child.

“Don’t look at me like that.” I could hear my voice wavering with fear as I settled down next to her. “Did Ben hurt you? Tell me right now.”

She looked away, her hair falling in front of her face.

I leaned forward, slowly, and gently tucked the waves behind her ear. “Manny, honey, I need you to talk to me. I know it might be hard, but if he-”

“He didn’t rape me, if that’s what you’re thinking.” Manny stopped to sniffle and looked up at me again. Finally, a lone tear escaped out of the corner of her eye, but she immediately reached up and wiped it away. “I just…”

I kept silent, watching her carefully, waiting for her to tell me on her own time. It was clear I’d already convinced her to tell the truth, so it was only a matter of time before the story was revealed.

She took a deep breath, and if the circumstances had been different, I would have been shocked at her lung capacity. “I was going over Ben’s house to surprise him, right? I had vegetarian, white pizza that I made myself so it was healthy, and we were going to have a movie night together. It was cute.

“But when I showed up, he was doing something totally unspeakable with some blonde chick on his couch. Instead of being normal and just walking away, pretending like nothing happened, I screamed at him, and then everything just got awkward. It turns out the blonde chick is his girlfriend.”

“So when he was all nervous around you at first…it wasn’t because he didn’t know how to handle a one-night stand?”

“Right. It was because he’d never tried cheating on his girlfriend, and he wanted to see if he could keep it up long-term. How fucking classy.”

“What an asshole,” I murmured, shaking my head. “I’m so sorry, Manny. Want me to put itch powder in his underwear or something?”

“As wonderful as that would be…” she trailed off, a smile almost visible on her lips, “I don’t think that’d be a good idea.”

There was a short silence before she sighed. “It just sucks, you know? Because he was the first guy I actually really liked and trusted, and he turned out to be a dickhead. Maybe I should just come to terms with the fact that good guys don’t like me, and I’m going to be alone for the rest of my life.”

As she threw herself back onto my bed, making the mattress bounce up and down from the impact, I shuffled closer to her and put a hand on her arm. “You’re a little young to be drawing conclusions like that,” I told her simply. “I mean, you’re eighteen years old. Your life has barely started. You’re going to have a lot of guys, and girls, for that matter, screw you over, but you’ll come out of it a stronger and better person. You can let stuff like this make you give up, you know?”

A fire lit behind Manny’s eyes as she started to understand what I was saying to her. “I guess you’re right. I just…don’t like waiting.”

“I don’t blame you. I just can’t believe Ben did that to you. What did the chick do when he found out?”

“She was, like, cool with it. I think she was probably cool with it because I was a high school girl, clearly, and she didn’t really think of me as a threat. Which should probably make me angry, but I’m mad at him, not her.”

I nodded. “You have your priorities in the right place, girl. Now it’s time to eat some ice cream and move on.”

She rolled her eyes, making it clear that she had almost completely recovered from the pain earlier. All it took was a little pep talk to make her see the light. “Ice cream doesn’t seem likely. But I’ll get over it. It’s his loss, right?”

“Right. Some guy, someday, will honestly like you for your personality and what you’re really like, and he won’t have a girlfriend on the side. It’s just a matter of time.”

Manny sighed. “You’re lucky you have Liam. He’s such a sweetheart. There’s no way he’d never do something like this to you.”

I wanted to tell her that she was right, that Liam would never think of cheating on me, but I didn’t want to sound cocky. So I just shrugged and said, “He better not. I think he knows what would happen to him if he ever tried. Like I’d kick him so hard in the face that no one would ever recognize him again.”

She chuckled as she ran a hand through her hair, the locks falling perfectly on either side of her part. “True. Guys better hope they don’t ever try to screw you over.”

“I think I make it pretty obvious that they risk their lives by trying.” I pat Manny’s leg quickly before getting to my feet. “Okay, I’m going to go grab a bottle of water. Do you want anything while I’m downstairs?”

She replied, “No, I’m good,” as she gathered up one of my pillows and stuffed it behind her head.

“Alright. I’ll be right back. Try to think empowering thoughts while I’m gone.”