Page 63 of Reverse Perspective

"Sadie,” Jake says simply.

“What, Jake,” I sigh.

“Do you trust us?” he asks.

“Yeah,” I say.

“You’re lying,” he says. He walks closer to me and I try to back up but Mason holds onto me. I cover my mouth and shake my head when I start to cry.

“I’m sorry,” I say tearfully.

“Don’t apologize for being traumatized, Sadie,” he says softly.

“I fucking trusted him,” I say. “For ten fucking years he pretended to be my friend. When I see you guys… all I can think about is him. It hurts too much to keep going back to that damn cabin in my mind.”

“Is that why you were going to ditch us today?” he asks with a smile and I nod. “Sweetie, why do you think we are here and not at the park?”

“I… don’t know,” I admit.

“I’ve known you since tenth grade, Sadie. We’ve all known you for years. If you need space, you can take it across the room from us. Friends don’t let each other suffer in silence. We are here because we know you don’t want to be alone. Even if it’s just sitting in silence, you’ve never enjoyed spending your free timealone all of the time, so sitting in this house alone is what will break you. Not Paul. Not Leo. So… You are going to go sit your little ass down with your boyfriends and we are going to have a cookout. The guys’ parents are coming also,” Jake says.

“Wait. Who’s cooking?” I ask. “It’s not Todd, is it?”

“Funny,” he says, giving me a deadpan expression.

“Me and Billy will cook,” Jake laughs. The front door opens and Penny, Mason’s mother, is the first to see me. She sets her bag down and comes over to wrap me in a hug.

“Hey, sweet girl,” she says softly.

“Hey.” My voice is barely audible. She pulls away and Jeff is the one who gets to me next.

“Dad,” Dean sighs.

“Hush. Let me hug my girl,” he says. I can’t help but laugh. Jeff is extremely blunt, just like Dean. “Say the word and he’s dead.”

“No one is going to jail for me,” I say.

“I mean… not like it would be hard to pull off,” Todd says nonchalantly.

“Don’t tempt me. I’ve fantasized about it for two weeks,” I say.

“Say we wanted him dead,” Jeff says. “Hypothetically.”

“Hypothetically speaking… That entire camp was shut down due to a scandal. He’s filing bankruptcy as of three days ago. He has no family,” Todd says. “Just stage a suicide. Hanging would be the easiest to stage, I think.”

“Jeff,” I say.

“If anyone gets to hang him, it’s me,” I say. “Hypothetically.”

“You’re half his size. I don’t picture that going according to plan,” Del chuckles.

“Yeah, maybe that is how I ended up getting raped for hours straight,” I say.

“No, that’s because you froze,” Stacy says bluntly. Todd glares at her and I laugh. “Which is normal, by the way. When I was raped in highschool, it happened around probably thirty otherstudents at a party and no one knew. I just froze up and sat there.”

“Well, that fucking sucks,” I say.

“Yeah. It was a house party and the girl who lived there had a big ass pool in her backyard. I was in the corner. My friend had been drinking a lot that night. I was avoiding him because he kept trying to feel me up. This time he cornered me. I turned to pull myself out and he pulled my bottoms down and raped me right there in front of everyone. Everyone around us thought it was consensual but the whimpering noise I was making was out of pain, but they didn’t know the difference. Everyone was drunk and they had no reason to think it was rape. I’d like to think someone would have stopped him if they had known.”

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