Page 12 of In the Air Tonight

Mom leaves the room.

Teagan hangs back. “You’re full of shit. Why’re you faking?”

“I’m not.”

“You are, and I’m going to find out why.”

She storms out of the room, leaving my stomach in new knots at the thought of her finding out why I’m sitting out the family reunion.

Two hours later, my phone rings.

It’s Sienna. “Hey.”

“Are you at the reunion?”

“I’m sick.”

“For real?”

“Yes.”

She feels like a stranger to me after the way she acted last night. Her first impulse was to cover for Ryder, not assist Neisy. I hate her for that as much as I hate myself for being so weak that I caved to her intense peer pressure.

“Last night was fucked up.”

That’s one way of putting it.

She clears her throat. “I, uh… You didn’t tell anyone did you?”

“No.”

“Oh,” she says on a long exhale. “Good. That’s good.”

“It’s not good. None of this is good. Ryderrapedher, Sienna.”

“Don’t say that! Someone might hear you.”

“No one is here.”

“Don’t even say it out loud.”

“This is wrong. You know it as well as I do.”

“How is it wrong to protect someone we grew up with from someone we don’t even know?”

“He did this toher, not the other way around.”

“She must’ve done something to make him want to.”

“Sienna…” Did I ever know her at all? “Rape is never the fault of the victim. Tell me you know that.”

“How do we know they haven’t been getting busy before now? Maybe that’s how she likes it. A little rough.”

I’m even more nauseated now than I was before. “I have to go.”

“You can’t say anything. You promised me you wouldn’t.”

I want to tell her to fuck off and to hell with whatever promise she thinks I made.

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