“Then that’ll likely explain those. As I said, I don’t think that anything was done to her. In my professional opinion anyway,” the woman said.
She must’ve been a doctor.
A doctor?
What the hell?
“Thank fuck,” I heard said.
That was Banner.
Banner?
Why was he here with me and not playing…
I peeled open my eyes and immediately groaned, the harsh light over my head piercing my eyes.
“Ohh,” I heard my mother say. “Baby, are you awake?”
My head throbbed.
It hurt so badly that I couldn’t stand to keep my eyes open.
Immediately after opening them, I closed them again, groaning.
“Turn off the light,” Banner suggested.
I heard more than saw the light get extinguished above me and chanced a look through slitted eyelids.
I saw my dad, my mother, and Banner all standing there. Banner was in the corner of the room, looking like he’d had his guts brutally ripped from him.
I looked at my father and got much of the same.
I didn’t even have to look at my mother before I knew.
“What’s wrong?” I asked worriedly.
“You don’t remember?” my dad asked, sidling up to the bed.
“I do.” I paused. “I remember going to the bathroom, and then nothing…”
Banner cursed.
My eyes flew to him.
“Why?”
“You were attacked under the bleachers,” my father said gently. “You were unconscious when Banner got to you.” He looked as if he didn’t want to say the next part. “You were also naked from the waist down.”Chapter 20
Blood type: Little Debbie.
-Milk Cup
Banner
“Can Banner stay, Dad?” Perry pleaded. “Please?”
Her dad took one look at her, then at me, and he nodded. “That’s fine.”
“Don’t worry, sir. I’ll wake her up every two hours. I won’t let you down,” I said.
He paused. “Just know that I don’t want to be a grandfather right now, Perry. Banner, please, for the love of all that’s holy.”
****
The cry of the alarm had me jolting up in bed and reaching for the light. I had been doing this all night long.
“Perry, wake up,” I ordered, twisting on the air mattress that I’d borrowed. Perry’s dad brought it up for me to sleep on tonight. “Perry.”
Perry’s dark eyes opened, and when they did, a flood of tears fell with them.
“He didn’t rape me,” she whispered. “I remembered. He never planned to.”
My hands clenched in the sheets as I stared at her with fury boiling underneath my skin.
“You remember?” I asked.
There was a shift at the door that had me looking up to find Perry’s mother standing there.
But Perry didn’t spare her a look. Her eyes were wholly focused on me.
“I never saw him,” she said. “He came up from behind me and dragged me underneath the bleachers. He didn’t stop until he had me pinned up against the big pole in the middle, so deep in the shadows that when he turned me around, I still couldn’t see him.” She swallowed hard. “He didn’t talk. He pulled my shorts off, though. God, I was so scared.”
Bile rose up my throat as I thought about what almost happened.
“He didn’t do anything more. Just slammed my head up against the pillar. I didn’t pass out until he was long gone. I was lying there for what felt like forever.” She paused. “I was awake through the entire Star-Spangled Banner, and then I passed out when I tried to stand up and couldn’t. I hit my head twice.”
I gathered her into my arms then, unable to stop myself.
“He was messing with me,” she said softly.
I pulled her into me tight, and when I next looked up, it was to see her father there, in his underwear, staring at us as if he wanted to come yank his daughter out of my arms and squeeze her tight and never let her go.
Instead, he caught his wife’s hand and led her out of the room, closing the door softly behind them.
It wasn’t until the door was closed that I pressed my lips to Perry’s cheek.
I wasn’t sure when it happened. Somewhere in between meeting Perry Street and now, I’d gone and fallen in love with her.
No turning back. Fight anyone that tries to hurt her. Kill anything that does kind of love.
“So I had to tell your dad that I had sex with you last night,” I said conversationally. “I think he’s waiting for you to get better, and then I think he’s going to kill me.”
There was a long stretch of silence and then, “I don’t even know what to say.”
“I didn’t either,” I admitted. “I wasn’t sure if they needed to know. But I told them anyway. And I swear to God, I think your dad nearly killed me right there in the middle of the ER. I think he would have had my brother and dad not been standing right there.”
There was a long silence and then, “Your dad doesn’t feel bad, right?”
I remembered the devastation on my father’s face at hearing, and seeing, what had happened to Perry.