Secrets in the Attic (Secrets 1)

She sat up and brushed back her hair. "I was just thinking about you, imagining what you were doing, trying to feel what you were feeling."

"Oh?" How odd, I thought.

"Don't sound so surprised. It helped me pass the time. But why are you back already?"

She reached for her clothes and quickly started to dress.

"It was terrible," I said. "It wasn't the way you thought it would be."

She stopped dressing. "Why? What happened?"

"He tried to rape me," I said, my chin

quivering.

"What? Why? Why would he have to do that? What did you do?" she asked, sounding as if she were accusing me, as if it had to be my fault.

"It wasn't what I did," I said. "It's what he did!"

"Tell me everything. Start at the beginning, and don't leave out a syllable," she said, patting the sofa. I sat, and she finished dressing.

"Well?" she said when I hesitated.

I took a deep breath and began. "I biked to the post office and got into his car. We drove off, and he pulled into a driveway not far away, where he said his cousin was building a house for someone. There was a house being built, but I have no way of knowing if his cousin is involved."

"Oh, c'mon, Zipporah. I don't need those kinds of details. Stop babbling like an idiot. What did he say to you? What did he do?"

"I can't help it. I'm still shaking," I said. My tears felt hot as they ran down my cheeks.

She put her aim around me. "Okay, okay. Relax. You're here now, safe with me in our nest. Take a deep breath, and tell me exactly what happened."

"He started to talk about you and me and compared me to other girls at school, just as you said he would, complimenting me, saying how sincere a person I was. What a good friend. Reliable."

"Good. So?"

"But then he suggested I had been with other boys."

"Other boys?"

"Lots of other boys!"

"Pretending he knew you weren't such a goodygoody and therefore you shouldn't be one with him," she said, nodding. "Another male trick. I call it setting the sexual table for their feast."

"He said you told him I was the school's biggest well-kept secret."

"He said I did? What a liar."

"Then he saw the red bikini panties and talked about how we shared everything He said you told him they were mine "

"Another lie. He probably thought he was stroking your ego or something"

"I started to get a bad feeling. Everything was moving so fast. There was nothing romantic about it. The moon could have been behind a wall of clouds. He was the one who demanded we go into the backseat."

"He got ahead of you. I was afraid of that. What did you do?"

"I wasn't comfortable with him anymore. I told him to take me back, and he became very angry and said you and I were just weird. He didn't call me any names, but I knew he thought I was just a tease."

"That's just his way of dealing with rejection. Any girl who doesn't just roll over for a boy is a tease in their eyes," she said.