Page 65 of Ours
“I didn’t see him at all. I skipped first and second period, but he wasn’t in biology.” Cory hadn’t thought much of it at the time. “I hope he’s okay.”
“I think he will be; he just needs to calm down.” Derek stopped the car at a red light and turned to Cory. “You seem to be taking it rather well, though.”
“Enh. It’s not like any of those people are my friends, and we’ve got what, a few months of school left?” Cory shrugged. “After you and Nic found out, and after telling Steph, it doesn’t feel as scary.”
“You came out to Stephanie?” Derek looked over in surprise.
“That’s sorta what I wanted to talk to you about.” Cory took a breath. “I talked to Stephanie this morning. She found out at the party that I had been fucking around with someone, and without meaning to, I kind of let it slip that it was you and Nic.”
“Cory, youwhat!?” Derek’s tone grew angry. “Fuck, that’s probably where the rumor came from!”
“What? No. That’s impossible,” Cory reasoned. “I literally told her in the middle of first periodtoday. She was with me through second. If Nic was already freaking out by then—”
“Okay, okay, it couldn’t have been her.” Now Derek sounded more annoyed then angry. “But you still shouldn’t have told her.”
“I didn’ttellher,” Cory continued defending himself. “She guessed after I told her that I had been messing around with two straight guys.”
“Fuck, Cory! Why not just show her a picture of my dick in your mouth? You didn’t think to liea littleto cover our tracks?” Derek groused as he pulled away from the now-green light. “Why wereyou even talking to her about it anyway? You should have just told her to mind her own business.”
“Because I needed to talk to someone! A friend—someone who isn’t you or Nic!” Now Cory was getting annoyed. “Not that either of you talk to me much these days anyways.”
“What was that?” Derek’s voice was icy.
“You and Nic never actuallytalkto me about any of this stuff!” Cory had started, and he wasn’t going to stop until he got everything out. “You don’t even really give me the option to say no to anything! You just tell me what I’m going to do or put me in a position where it would be hard or weird for me to not go along with it.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Derek gripped the steering wheel tightly. He didnotlike where this was heading.
“Everything! Blowing you guys at school, loaning me out to the daddy at the porn store, blowing Taylor, and now Julian! All of it!” Cory started listing his grievances. “Even how you started this. You guys got together and planned to get me drunk and then basically made me your sex slave! And you just assumed I’d be cool with all of it!”
“Well, you were, weren’t you?” Derek was trying (and failing) to not raise his voice. “Or are you trying to tell me you haven’t loved every second of this? That you haven’t been having some of the best sex of your life?”
“That’s not the point!” Cory was frustrated that Derek seemed to be completely ignoring what he was actually saying. “I hadn’t hadanykind of sex until you decided to change thatfor me!”
“Decided for you? You meanforcedyou, right?” Derek practically snarled. “Just say it, Cory. You’re saying werapedyou.”
“What!?” Cory practically choked on air at the “r” word. “No, Derek, that’s not what I mean—”
It was too late—Derek was already slowing the car down, pulling over to the side of the road.
“Get out of the car.” He was not about to sit here in his own car and let someone accuse him of …that.
“Derek—”
“Get out of my fucking car, Cory.” Derek wouldn’t even look at him, the anger radiating in waves.
“…Fine.” Cory opened the door and stepped out, slamming it behind him. He heard the passenger window lower and turned to face it. Derek had made his point, hadn’t he?
“Wouldn’t want to force you to have to ride around in a car with yourrapist.” As soon as he spat the last word out at Cory, Derek peeled off, leaving Cory on the sidewalk, mouth agape as he watched the car fade away down the road.
Nearly shaking with anger, Cory forced himself to turn again and start walking toward the Burger King. His hands shook as he reached for his phone, eventually managing to pull up his mother’s info and call her.
“Hey, mom.” Cory did his best to hide the emotion in his voice. “Can you come pick me up? I’m at the Burger King on Middleton.”
“Sure, honey. Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine,” Cory lied. “I was hanging out with Derek, but he had an emergency and had to leave before he could bring me home.”
“Okay, I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
