Page 13 of In the Air Tonight

“Blaise… Tell me you understand that you can’t say anything. No one would believe it.”

“They would if we both said something.”

“I never will. Not now or ever.”

“How can you act like you didn’t witness a crime?”

Her harsh laughter hits like a knife to my chest. “Acrime? What the hell are you talking about? Two horny teenagers got busy in the woods, and you want to call it acrime?”

“That’s what this was, and you know it.”

“I’ll deny I was there. If you say anything, I’ll deny it.”

“How can you care so little for what happened to her?”

“She’s nothing to me.”

I’m disgusted by her. While I’ve always known she could be a bit shallow, this is taking it to a whole new level. “She’s a human being.”

“We grew up with him. He’s one of us. She isn’t. It’s not even worth debating. Besides, if she’s smart, she’ll keep her mouth shut about it. People already hate her. If she tries to go after Ryder, that won’t go well for her.”

“Unless a witness backed up her story.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

I have nothing to say to that.

“Tell me you won’t say anything, Blaise. You’ll ruin everything if you do! Don’t you care about me at all? What will Cam say if my best friend accuses his brother of a crime?”

“His brother committed a crime!”

“It’d be her word against his, and no one will believe her. Everyone knows he’s madly in love with Louisa.”

“If that’s true, why did he attack Neisy?”

“Who knows what she said to drive him over the edge? He’s been so stressed out over Louisa. Maybe Neisy’s been coming on to him for weeks for all we know. She might’ve had it coming.”

I gasp, disgusted by my so-called best friend. “How can you say that? No one deserves to be raped, Sienna.”

“You’ve seen how she acts around the boys. She’s always teasing them and flirting with them.”

“She could strut naked in front of them, and she still wouldn’t deserve to be raped.”

“I’m done talking about this. Keep your mouth shut or else.”

“Or else what?”

“Or else there’ll be trouble when everyone hates you for taking her side over Ryder’s.”

The phone goes dead.

I can’t believe she hung up on me or the things she said.

Intense nausea has me running for the bathroom in the hallway, where I’m seized again by dry heaves. There’s nothing left in my stomach but bile that burns my throat and mouth. I thought I felt as awful as it was possible to feel after my grandfather died last year. As bad as that was, it was nothing compared to this.

I hate that Sienna is right. If I say anything or come to Neisy’s defense, my life won’t be worth living in this town. Everyone will hate me, even the parents who’ve always thought of me as a good kid. No one will want to hear that Ryder attacked and sexually assaulted Neisy. And even if I came forward to back her story, no one would believe us.

Ryder is the son everyone wishes they had. When I worked at McChord’s grocery last summer, I heard people say that. He’ll graduate at the top of our class next June. He’s the star of multiple teams and in line for an appointment to the Naval Academy. What must it be like, one of the ladies who worked with me in the deli asked, to have a son so successful at such a young age? She’d joked that her son had barely made it out of tenth grade.

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