“Someone has to put you in your place,” Cars defended, then moved, silently asking for me to put her down. I did, she thanked me with her eyes, and we headed out the front.
“Do I need a shovel?” Andy asked. “Madden and I have enough money to buy freedom.” It was all in fun but she wasn’t wrong. We had more money than we’d ever need. If I found the fucker, I’d end him.
Cars shook her head with a slight smile. “Just more booze and Lee Pace as a dwarf.”
“I was thinking more half-naked, on a bed, telling someone to go slower.”
I raised my eyebrow, wondering what she was talking about since I hadn’t experienced this yet.
“He is in this new TV show, Foundation, it’s hot as fuck.”
“Yeah, sold,” Cars piped in and when we finally made it to the parking lot, Royce was already waiting for us.
“Home, Roy.”
“Roy?” I asked, not liking it.
“Yeah, he’s Roy, my boy.”
Royce shook his head silently, his eyes widening when he caught my stare, a silent help me in his expression. I laughed as I got into the vehicle. Both Andy and I grew up with Royce everywhere. He was always there, no matter what.
Chapter Nine
Better Days – Dermot Kennedy
Madden
After we binged the show—which was only three episodes—Cars fell asleep. Apparently, they uploaded episodes weekly, and not all at once, which worked out. It’d give Cars and me something to do on our weekly Zoom calls.
“She asleep?” Andy asked, brushing a hand over my knee. My body felt far too many things with that movement, but I sucked in a breath and leaned over, checking Carson’s face.
“Yeah, but I’m not surprised. It’s similar to how we met,” I said, reminded of Tony’s stupid face and how I’d probably catch him in a dark alley one day.
She squeezed her eyes shut as if the knowledge physically hurt to hear. It hurt me too, just remembering that day and what happened.
“What happened?”
There it was.
The question I dreaded.
“Cars was on the football field, but I didn’t know it,” I began, my mind traveling to that morning.
I went to the field for my normal miles to run. Track was something I made sure to make time for every morning, but I couldn’t function that morning. It was cold, especially for it already being late April. The sun had barely risen, peaking over the mountaintops, brighter than I expected with the cloud coverage.
I’d delayed exercising as much as I could before classes. So, I changed into my shorts and went out there.
If I’d wasted anymore time, there wouldn’t be any left to shower. After running, I sweated like a pig, and sitting in the cakey afterglow of running wasn’t fun for a full school day. Luckily, I ended up going for my daily five. As I jogged to the field, I saw Cars and three guys holding her down. At first, I didn’t know what was happening. She struggled, but from so far away, the imagery was blurred.
As my eyes focused on her, she wiggled. Her body was shoved to the ground, her bottoms off and her lower half completely naked. She cried out, but her little whimpers were silenced by hands. Regardless, it made me run.
The fear she felt was obvious, and I couldn’t stop my rampage in that moment. Tony loomed over her, thrusting into her body as the others held her down. She sobbed, her body quaked with each sound, and they didn’t stop.
“Get the fuck off her!” I yelled, feeling my entire body shake with the words.
The two holding her down noticed me and ran off, but I knew their names—Erik and John. They were jocks on the football team.
My fist crunched bones, hitting Tony in the nose. He cried out and fell over. With his pants down, I kicked him in the junk. My hands continued to pummel into him, but he cried and people started surrounding us. While in my rage, I could hear their feet hitting the dew-covered grass, crunching as they made their way to us.
Cars whimpered and I forgot she was there for a moment. She laid back, her body folded in discomfort. I took the shirt off my back, covering her naked form. My blood boiled and as the coach came forward. I felt the need to castrate Tony before he got away.
“What the hell is going on?” Coach hollered, his face flushed.
“This sick fuck was—”
“He came up to me and started hitting me!” Tony yelled over me, and Cars whimpered, his whole body shaking. I tried shielding her from everyone and forced them to only watch me.
“I’m calling the cops,” I threatened, looking directly into the coach’s eyes.
He shook his head, sternness the only thing he offered. “Let’s not be rash.”
“Fuck that,” I barked. “He’s a sick sonofabitch.”
I bent down, leaning into Carson. She looked into my eyes, appreciation glimmered there but so did fear and embarrassment.
“Can I carry you?”
She nodded, tears still streaming down her face. My heart hurt for her, for this fucked-up situation that could have been avoided if people taught men to not touch what hadn’t been consented to.
Lifting her, I shuffled past the coach, wanting to shoulder check him for being insufferable and enabling. As soon as he was out of sight, I called the cops. Made sure to tell them everything.
Coach was fired, the school couldn’t have him being on their roster when he didn’t take action immediately. The cops didn’t do much either. That, or Tony’s dad paid them a shit ton of money to escape any charges. Since then, Cars hadn’t felt comfortable dressing femme.
I ended up walking Cars to my car, driving her to the hospital. Since then, we’d been friends.
She looked at me with sadness in her eyes. “Wow. What happened to the other two who held her down?” For the first time since talking to her about this entire ordeal, I smiled.
“I let them know they weren’t ever going to touch someone without consent again.” And I did. John had two broken hands and Erik had to have surgery on his shoulder after it tore from me pulling it.
A light laugh escaped a no longer sleeping Carson. “He’s lying,” she stated. “He beat them within an inch of their lives and Dox had to pay the school off and their parents.” And that too.
“Jesus,” Andy breathed out the words, her face one of shock and pride. “They deserved it.”
“Yeah, they did,” Cars agreed. “He’s been my protector since.”
Andy’s eyes lit up with pride and I wanted to bottle the way that look made me feel. “I regret nothing in life but letting those three pieces of shit live.”
“What happened to this pig, Tony?”
“He did it again,” I growled, thinking of Tam in the alleyway of the school. “Then he landed in a coma from me introducing him to my fists again.” Cars’s face saddened, her features turning into ones of pure understanding and sorrow. “He unfortunately lived.”
Andy’s face fell but she nodded. “You know, Dox knows people.”
I laughed humorlessly. “Tell him that when he’s sober enough to do anything but indulge more,” I mocked, hating how bitter I sounded.
“He loves you,” Andy excused him, just like always.