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The next morning Julia woke peacefully from her sleep. She felt groggy, probably due to the fact she'd been drinking the night before, but overall she felt generally content.

Stretching a bit, she let out a groan as she felt the muscles of her body gently pull at each other. When she relaxed, she shifted and felt warm flesh against her back. Her heart caught in her chest for a moment until she remembered just what she'd done the night before. Turning onto her other side, Julia came face to face with Brian.

He was sound asleep on his side, facing her, with one arm almost reaching for her as his head rested in the pillows of Natalie's bed. For awhile, Julia laid there and watched Brian, seeing the way his eyes moved behind closed lids and his chest gently moved with each breath he took. He looked nothing short of beautiful, and even though she had just had all of him in the most intimate of ways the night before, Julia felt a pang of jealously flow through her. Had she never known the kind of man Brian was, she would have snatched
him up when she could have.

Slowly Julia reached out, touching a few strands of Brian's hair that were stuck out at an angle. He stirred for a moment as she touched him, eyebrow twitching for a split second, and Julia smiled. But then she thought of Natalie and the smile slowly faded. Julia didn't much like the idea of telling Natalie what she'd done--she was sure the other girl would be a bit angry with her--but she knew there was no way she could keep it from her either.

So she slowly got out of bed, making sure she didn't wake Brian; the last thing she needed was him questioning who she was talking to were he to overhear. Grabbing a dark thermal shirt and clean pair of panties, Julia pulled them on before grabbing Natalie's cell phone from the bedside table. Locking herself in the bathroom down the hall, she punched in the number she knew by heart. It was only a little after nine on a Sunday morning, so Julia hoped Natalie was awake. She was relieved when she heard the other line pick up.

"Hello?" the quiet voice answered.

"Hey, it's Julia. Did I wake you?"

"No," Natalie replied, rolling over in Julia's bed. Truthfully, she hadn't gotten much sleep all night.

"Oh..."

"What'd you call for?"

"Um..." Julia said with a pause, biting her lip as she thought about how exactly she should go about explaining it. "Well, it's about last night."

Sitting up in bed, Natalie didn't say a word as she thought about where that statement could lead.

"Brian and I...had some drinks last night and..." Julia stuttered, feeling her throat tighten. "We had sex." Letting out a deep sigh, Julia waited for Natalie to explode, to unleash as much anger as she could, but it never came.

Hearing those words, Natalie couldn't help but let a few tears escape. She almost felt like Brian had betrayed her, but reminded herself that it wasn't his fault; how was he supposed to know that his girlfriend wasn't really his girlfriend?

"Please say something..." Julia muttered as the silence began to pierce her more than angry words could.

Letting out a chuckle of irony, Natalie sniffled and wiped her tears away. "Well, at least it was still my body," she answered, trying to look on the bright side, if there was one.

Not getting the reaction she'd planned on, Julia's brow furrowed. She took a seat on the toilet after putting the top lid down.

"...Is everything okay?" she slowly asked. There was something in Natalie's voice that was very unsettling. "Did something happen?"

Sniffling once more, Natalie let out a rattling breath.

"Yeah....your boyfriend tried to rape me, and then hit me when he couldn't have his way," Natalie nearly spat, equally as angry as she was scared of what had happened to her the night before.

Julia was at a loss for words. She didn't know why she felt so shocked. She knew the things Chad would do because he always did them to her, but hearing it come from someone else was different. She should have warned Natalie and told her to stay as far away from Chad as she could.

"I'm coming over," Julia finally managed to say before hanging up. Quickly she made her way back to Natalie's room, finding a pair of jeans to wear before running a brush through her hair. Noticing Brian still fast asleep in bed, she quickly wrote hi a note, saying that she had something important to do and that she needed to borrow his car. Stealing Brian's keys from the pocket of the jeans he'd worn the night before, Julia stole one last look at his sleeping form before leaving the room.

Upon arriving back to her own house, which she realized she didn't miss at all, Julia had Natalie tell her the whole story of what had happened to her. She could see the bruise on her own face's cheek, knowing how familiar of a site it was, and had spent quite a few minutes showing Natalie how to cover it with makeup should she need to leave the house. The last thing they needed was someone to ask questions or go to the police.

"You do that too perfectly for this to be something new," Natalie muttered as Julia put down the concealer tube, checking her cheek once more to make sure the bruise was at least less noticeable, if not invisible altogether.

"Well, when you get hut as often as I do you learn how to cover up the scars," Julia answered without even thinking. The shocked look on her own face looking back at her told her she probably should have kept that to herself, but at the same time it felt good to finally let it out.

"You let that jackass hit you?" Natalie asked, eyes wide. She really couldn't believe her ears.

"You can't tell anyone. Please," Julia said quickly, heart pounding. She didn't want anyone to get involved. She could fight her own battles.

"What do you mean, I can't tell anyone?" Natalie asked, outraged. "You expect me to sit back and do nothing about this? I mean, I know we've hated each other the past few years but it doesn't mean I want you to get beaten up by your stupid boyfriend," Natalie exploded.

"Natalie--"

"You have to break up with him. I'll do it, don't think I won't."

Julia sighed. "Natalie, please...you--you can't."

"I sure as hell can! No woman deserves to be pushed around by a man, ever. There are fucking boundaries, and that fucker crossed them. I want him to pay for what he's done to you, and probably every other girl he's dated. Brian would kill that bastard if he knew, doesn't matter if he doesn't like you," Natalie ranted, her face turning red with anger and lack of oxygen from trying to speak too much too fast.

"If you break it off with him, my reputation will be ruined at school," Julia muttered, looking down at her hands. It was the excuse she'd always told herself time and time again.

Natalie paused, disgusted with what she'd heard the other girl say. Looking her square in the eyes, she asked:

"Is your silly reputation worth you being killed?"