Rain (Hudson 1)

"Don't you even think of asking me to let you out of this house at night again for some time, girl," she told her. "I want you home right after school, too. Until you're eighteen, you're my responsibility, hear?"

"That's not fair, Mama. Everyone makes mistakes," Beni moaned.

"Yeah, well, I've got enough problems without you adding more, Beth Arnold. You just make sure you don't fail any more tests, either. I'll be watching you closer than before, hear?"

Beth got up and returned to our bedroom, slamming the door behind her. She glared at me.

"Thanks a lot," she said.

"What do you mean? What did I do?"

"You got me in trouble. If you didn't say anything, I could have made up a better story," she cried. "Now she won't let me do anything. I hate it here."

"That's not fair, Beth. I was only trying to help you. You think I like lying to Mama for you? Well, you're wrong. I'm not going to do it again," I vowed.

"Good," she said and threw herself on her bed with her back to me.

Roy was right, I thought. Beth would sink us both.

.

It was harder for both Beni and me at school now. Some of the boys who had been at the party teased her and her supposedly loyal girlfriends didn't do much to protect her, either. Every one of them seemed to think what had happened to her was funny and not very serious. Beni looked so lost, I felt sorry for her. I watched her sitting at a corner of her friends' table in the cafeteria, brooding and keeping her eyes down while the other girls laughed and the boys tormented her. Finally, not being able to stand it any longer, I left Lucy Adamson and went to where Beni was sitting.

"Why do you sit here with them?" I snapped at her. "These aren't your friends. Look what they did to you," I said glaring at Nicole and Alicia.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Alicia demanded. "We didn't do nothing to nobody. Anything that happened to her, happened because she wanted it to happen."

"Sure," I said. "With friends like you, she doesn't need any enemies."

"You bitch," Nicole said, rising.

"Just leave it be," Beni told me.

"How can you sit here?"

"She'd rather be with us than with Miss Prissy," Alicia said. "At least she's having some fun with us."

"You call what happened to her fun?" I grimaced. "I really feel sorry for you."

"Shut your mouth," Nicole said. "Or shut it for you."

"Will you just go away," Beni cried. "You're just making everything worse for me."

I looked at her, at the pleading in her eyes. I really felt sorry for her, but I didn't know what to do.

"You're just jealous, is all," Nicole said. "You're dying to have a man put his hands on that precious body of yours, Miss Prissy."

The girls laughed.

"Yeah, it's different than you putting your hands on yourself," Alicia said. They all laughed again.

"You're all disgusting," I said and turned away, leaving their laughter rising like a wave behind me.

"Why are you starting with them?" Lucy asked when I returned to our table.

"I'm trying to help my sister," I said.

"You're just going to get them after you all the time now, and they'll bother me too," she said.