Richard

I’d just begun to doze off, my thoughts at least somewhat free of Michael and his scheme to have me and Jessica under his thumb throughout our academic lives, when I was pulled back from the edge of slumber by the obnoxious chirping of my phone. I opened my eyes, turning over and grabbing the phone off of its charge.

It was Jessica.

“Hello?” I answered, blinking my eyes in the darkness of my dorm. Why was she calling so late? Had something gone wrong?

“Hey,” she said, her voice almost tremulous with what I thought might be excitement or nervousness—I couldn’t tell which.

“Is everything okay?” I asked, sitting up a bit more in bed. In the background I could hear Becky’s voice along with a much deeper, though somewhat familiar one. “Who’s there with you?”

“Becky,” she said, though there was some hesitation in her voice. “And Greg.”

“What is Greg doing there?” I asked, suddenly on edge, sitting forward. “I thought he didn’t want anything to do with this.”

“I think he had a change of heart,” she replied, “and he had an idea about how we can get those pictures from Michael.”

I frowned, flexing my fingers slowly. I wasn’t sure if it was just my own paranoia or if any of my suspicions were based on anything at all, but Greg’s sudden change of heart made me nervous.

“How do we know that we can trust him, Jess?” I asked. “I mean, he already said that he wouldn’t help us once. What’s to say he won’t make a break for it if things get too tough? What if he’s still working for Michael? He’s already told us that he was desperate for cash before and now he wants to help out of the goodness of his heart? I don’t like it.”

“Like it or not, it’s all we’ve got,” she said, her voice soft. “He found a way to do something to Michael’s phone—clone it, he said—we don’t even have to touch it. He can get into all of Michael’s files and delete every single picture he has of us, even the ones he had up in the Cloud.”

I couldn’t help it, a smile broke out on my face. Maybe, just maybe, we could get through this on the winning side.

“That’s awesome!” I said, laying back down on my bed, arms up under my head.

“There’s just one problem, though,” she said, and all at once my hope of victory felt like it was slipping away.

“What’s that?” I asked, swallowing hard to keep the disappointment out of my voice. I felt like we were so close to getting Michael’s shadow from around us that it should have felt too good to be true.

“For this cloning thing to work with Michael’s phone I’m going to have to get close to him,” she said. She sounded none-too-pleased by the idea, though that hardly stopped me from getting upset. “I’m going to have to distract

“Absolutely not,” I said, sitting up once again in bed. “I don’t want that bastard anywhere near you, Jessica. I told you that I’d keep you safe.”

“It’s the only way that this will work, Richard,” she said, defiance creeping into her voice. “Michael won’t be able to resist coming in close—close enough for the machine in my bag to do what it has to do. Greg said that it just needs some time in order to make the right connection and download Michael’s entire phone onto a blank that is going to be hooked up in my bag. After I get the word from Greg that everything is done, then I can get the hell out of there.”

“But what if he doesn’t let you leave, Jessica?” I asked, my voice rising in frustration. “He’s already proven what he’s willing to do to a girl to get what he wants—what’s to say he won’t use this to get you thrown in a bedroom and tied up so that he can get what he never got from you in high school?”

“I’ll be fine, Richard,” she said, trying to wave off my concerns. “I can run a lot faster than you think I can.”

“It’s not about how fast you can run, Jessica,” I said, “you’re going to be in a room full of his friends. Who knows whether one of them is going to grab you while you’re trying to get away? AEO is one of the worst frats in the entire school—they’ve had more investigations for this kind of thing than anyone else in the country! And do you know why they haven’t been shut down?”

“I just thought that they’d—”

“They have their former brothers in practically every part of the school administration,” I interrupted, almost yelling into my phone. “Even some of the campus police are theirs. If something happens to you, Jessica, then they’re going to get away with it!”

There was a long moment of silence between the two of us as Jessica tried to find words to come back at mine. I hoped that I’d talked some sense into her. If only that had been true.

“That’s going to be a risk I’ll have to take,” she said after she worked up the nerve to defy me yet again. “If it means stopping Michael from using those pictures against us then I’m going to do whatever it takes. You’re not going to lose your scholarship just because of me.”

“I don’t care about the scholarship, Jessica!” I said, entwining my fingers through my hair. I closed my eyes, leaning forward onto my elbows as I tried to figure out a way to save her from what I knew would only be trouble.

“I have to do this, Richard,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “This is one of the only chances we’re going to have to keep ourselves safe from him. This has got to be done, and I have to be the one to do it.”

“I’ll come with you,” I tried to bargain, hoping that with me there she’ll at least have some chance at getting out of there unaccosted. “I can step in if things get too bad.”

“We can’t risk him seeing you,” she said. “If he spots you, he’ll know that something is happening and he’ll run. Michael’s not a dumb guy, but he won’t expect something like this from me of all people. He thinks I’d never do anything like this.”

“Jessica,” I said, trying to appeal to her, “I don’t think this is going to be a good idea. If he hurts you then I don’t know what I’m going to do… Or if I can stop myself from hurting him. I’ll make good on the promise I made him and make sure he rolls across that stage in a wheelchair—unless I put him in a body bag first.”

“I know, and that’s why I can’t have you there—you might jeopardize everything if Michael catches sight of you. I need you to stay away until everything is done. Can you do that for me?”

I stared around at my darkened dormitory, looking at the way the moonlight played against the white walls, casting dark shadows that could have swallowed up the sun.

“I don’t know if I can, not if you’re in danger,” I replied, my fist clenched.

“Then you need to promise me, Richard,” she said. “I need you to promise that you’ll let me do this on my own, for both our sakes. If he sees you then those pictures are as good as on the internet already. Do you understand?”

I put my head in my hands, fretting over what might happen if I left her go off on her own like that. How could she expect me not to come after her? To be there to keep her safe after what we’d built together? I wasn’t sure if I could make that kind of promise, to just let her walk right into the lion’s den with only a cellphone for protection and the hope that nothing swallows her whole. How could she expect me to just stand by?

She’s a big girl, I thought, though I hated myself for it. I can’t stop her from doing anything she wants, and I shouldn’t. I have to trust her to take care of herself.

But was it her that I didn’t trust? Thoughts of Michael danced through my head, mocking me with images of Jessica being pulled into the same back room that Becky had been raped in. She could end up just like Becky, or worse. God knows how many college girls go missing year after year, and if she turned into just another face on a milk carton, I’d never forgive myself. But I didn’t really have much of a choice.

“What if you get hurt? What if something bad happens, and I’m not there to protect you?” I asked. “How am I supposed to just let you put yourself in danger?”

“I don’t know, Richard,” she whi

spered into the phone. “But I need you to try for me. I need you to trust me.”

I rubbed the bridge of my nose in frustration. There was no getting around it.

“Fine,” I said at last. “I can’t stop you… I just hate the idea of something happening to you, Jessica. I hate what he might do to you if I’m not there to stop him. I don’t know if I can live with myself.”

“I know,” she said gently, “I’m scared too. But we have to do this if we want to be free of him.”

“Yeah, I know.”

I ran my fingers through my short locks, shaking my head. I wasn’t sure how I’d stay sane, wondering if she would be okay or if I’d be able to keep my promise.

“If anything goes wrong, Greg will have 9-1-1 on speed-dial,” she said, trying to be reassuring. “He’ll be listening to the whole thing. I won’t be alone. We’ll call in the real police, not some on-campus assholes.”

“This is dangerous,” I said.

“What’s life without a little danger?” she asked, trying to sound playful. It didn’t help.