Chapter Four

The newspaper was useless. How could Chuck find a part-time job if there were barely any listings? He balled the paper up and tossed it in the trash can beside his desk. Smoke curled from the Marlboro he’d been neglecting. It tilted into the ceramic ashtray like a teeter-totter. Looking into the glazed eyes of Courtney Love, the poster dominating the wall in front of him, Chuck said, “I know what you’d do. You’d say fuck it and go out and party. I bet you always knew you were going to be a rock star.”

He considered doing his AP calculus homework but decided he wasn’t in the mood. He could do it tomorrow morning on the bus. Math always came easy to him. He was the only student who not only had passing grades in Mr. Peterson’s class, but had yet to score less than a ninety on any of his tests or pop quizzes. In another school, he could have made some good dough as a math tutor, but his fellow students didn’t give a crap enough to ask for his help, unless it was Donna and her friend Joanna. They were both hot and way out of his league. No way was he going to ask them for money. He would pay them to be their tutor.

Just because the kids in Polk High didn’t care about their grades, didn’t mean the ones in the surrounding schools didn’t. Chuck made a note to himself to create a flyer for his tutoring services. He’d post them in the library and on the community board in the Gristedes supermarket on the edge of town.

He stubbed the cigarette out, opened his bedroom door and called out for his mother. When there was no reply, he shouted, “Dad?”

They weren’t home yet. Maybe they’d stopped for a drink after the movie.

Good. He opened his drawer, lifted the false bottom he’d built and selected the fattest of the joints he’d stashed there. With the window wide open, Chuck sat on the sill and sparked up. He needed to relax. The pressure was on this year to finish high school with straight As so he could get a full scholarship to fucking anywhere. Math and science were no problem, but he had to work his ass off in social studies and English. The 78 he’d gotten on his last social studies test had scared the hell out of him. He’d been obsessing over it for a week now. And then there was the pressure of scrounging up money. Sure, he would probably get a scholarship, but he’d need a better car (his beater was on its last legs), gas and spending money if he wanted to eat and have any kind of a social life.

“Fuck me,” he said, exhaling a lungful of sweet smoke.

His shelf of VHS tapes was filled to the max with horror and action movies. It could be fun to watch From Beyond high, especially when those big-ass worms wriggled through the air, or when the guy from Re-Animator went to the lab and ate those brains. That would definitely relax him, at least for an hour and a half. Then it would be back to obsessing about school again.

He should be more like his friend Vent, who barely passed and didn’t seem to have a care in the world. Or he could go to the extreme and emulate Mick. No, that was too far. Mick was destined to rot in Milbury. The only way he’d escape the run-down town was if he was sent to an out-of-state prison, which was a real possibility.

High, dark clouds obscured the stars, the moon just poking out from behind their puffy veil. Chuck turned his face into the breeze, feeling the tension bleed from his muscles. Mick had scored this weed from some new guy. It was strong stuff. If Chuck had money, he’d buy more, because as close as he and Mick were, his wayward friend wasn’t into charity.

Twin beams of light swept across a swath of the back lawn. Chuck jumped off the sill, pinching the end of the joint out and fumbling for his can of Lysol. He sprayed the room down as quickly as he could.

A rock pinged off his window. In his panic, Chuck barely registered it. When a larger one hit hard enough to crack the glass, he dropped the Lysol.

Mick.

He stormed to the window. “You asshole—”

Heidi stood under the window. It looked like she was holding up a very drunk Marnie.

“Are you alone?” Heidi said. It sounded like she was crying. Chuck’s mouth went dry. Had Marnie taken something and OD’d? She was a smart girl with a wild streak, but not half as wild as her reputation. Still, he could see her taking a hit off of a joint that was laced with something.

“Yeah.”

“Come down and help me.”

Marnie started to slip out of Heidi’s grasp, her arms hanging limply, head facing the ground. Heidi let out a sharp yip and caught her before she dropped.

“I’ll be right there.”

Chuck flew down the stairs in his bare feet and threw the front door open. It slammed against the frame with a heavy thunk. He got to them just in time. Heidi was bent over, trying to maintain her hold on Marnie’s waist. Chuck scooped Marnie into his arms and almost lost her, too. She was complete deadweight.

“We need to get her inside,” Heidi said. Her eyeliner streaked her cheeks. She trembled uncontrollably with her arms crossed over her chest.

Chuck carried Marnie like a groom whisking his bride over the threshold. In the light of the living room, he saw that she wasn’t drunk or tripping. Her lips were split and twice their size, a pair of pink hotdog buns. Blood stained her teeth, with more dried blood in her nostrils. Her left cheek was a light shade of purple and swollen, and her right eye was sealed shut, turning all sorts of horrible colors. What the hell had happened to her?

He gently laid her down on the couch.

“Do you have a first aid kit?” Heidi asked, pacing.

“Upstairs. I’ll get it.” He stopped, took hold of Heidi’s arm. “Was she in a car crash?”

Heidi shook her head and her lips quivered when she tried to speak. He cupped her cheek. “It’s okay. Let’s take care of Marnie first.”

Chuck ran upstairs to the bathroom, ripped the cabinet under the sink open and wildly pushed everything aside, grabbing the plastic first aid box in the back. His heart thundered. He was no doctor. Marnie was in bad shape. What could he possibly do? Heidi looked ready to break down. It was up to him to take care of the situation, whether he wanted to or not.

Thundering back down to the living room, Chuck saw Heidi was now on the plastic-covered couch, Marnie’s head resting in her lap. Chuck dropped to his knees and opened the kit. A slew of bandages flew out like doves springing from a magician’s hat. Marnie was unconscious. He found a cotton ball and dabbed at the blood.

“I…I don’t know where to start.”

“I don’t know either,” Heidi said, nearly screeching, clearly riding the edge of hysteria.

He fumbled through the first aid kit, hoping there were some smelling salts. Marnie’s lack of response to all the jostling around and their voices was his overriding concern. She could have brain damage. It looked like she’d taken a hell of a blow – or blows – to the head.

“Marnie, can you hear me?” His brief mellow was long gone, replaced by panic and confusion. She didn’t so much as groan.

Upending the little box, he scanned the contents lying about the rug. No smelling salts.

He dripped some alcohol on a ball of gauze and dabbed at the split in her lip. If anything, the burning pain of alcohol in her wound should wake her up. When her lips parted, he saw that one of her top front teeth had been chipped. Jesus Christ.

Heidi’s tears dropped onto Marnie’s forehead. She wiped them away as quickly as they fell.

“Where were you guys?” Chuck asked. He needed to know what had happened if he was going to do any good.

“B-B-Benny’s.” Heidi’s shoulders jittered as she sobbed.

“Did Marnie get into a fight?” He cleared her nostrils of the dried blood with a Q-tip.

Heidi shook her head. “She, she went outside to smoke. When she didn’t come back, I-I-I went out to look for her. I thought she’d left me there, or maybe, or maybe went to make out with someone. I was about to go back inside when…when….”

Chuck took Marnie’s wrist and checked her pulse. He had no idea what a good pulse should feel like, but there was a beat and he guessed that was good. “When what? Help me out here, Heidi.”

“That’s when I saw her.” A river of tears spilled from Heidi’s tightly shut eyes. “She-she was crawling out of the alley. I said something and she looked at me, and then, and then she collapsed. Tito Hernandez was just walking into the bar and helped me get her in the car.”

The alley? What was Marnie doing in the alley to end up like this? Chuck had just noticed how filthy her clothes were. She must have dragged herself down that nasty, narrow passage.

And now he also saw that most of the buttons on her shirt had been ripped off. It didn’t look like she was wearing a bra, which was unusual for her. Marnie needed the support.

“Did she ever wake up to tell you what happened?”

“No.”

“We need to take her to the hospital.”

Heidi shook her head defiantly. “We can’t. Her parents don’t have insurance.”

Chuck rubbed Marnie’s right hand between his own. It was frighteningly cold. “So? It’s not like they’d dump her in the street. Hospitals help people who are sick and hurt. It’s their job.”

Heidi’s eyes glazed over. He figured in her panic, she’d never considered it.

He was about to tell her they were going to the hospital when he saw the bloom of blood in the crotch of Marnie’s jeans.

The realization of what had happened hit him like a mule kick.

“Did you see her go outside with anybody?”

Heidi wiped her eyes. “No. She, she left so I could talk to Dustin. I was too busy…too busy….”

He refrained from asking her why she’d want to talk to a tool bag like Dustin. The guy was a pretentious prick who thought his shit smelled like ambrosia.

Chuck sat back on his heels and dabbed at the sweat on his face with his shirt. “I think Marnie’s been raped. We absolutely need to get her to the hospital. And we need to call the cops.”

She followed his gaze to Marnie’s bloody jeans. Chuck shifted Marnie’s legs. Spots of fresh blood dotted the plastic on the couch.

“Oh, god,” Heidi yelped, covering her mouth with a shaky hand.

“Maybe I should just call 9-1-1. It might not be a smart idea to move her ourselves. We could end up doing more damage.”

Heidi simply stared into Marnie’s battered face. Chuck got the new push-button phone his father had bought from its cradle on the end table. He pushed the green phone button to get a dial tone.

Marnie suddenly came to and said, “Don’t call the police.” Her voice was weak and thready, but forceful.

She opened her one good eye, pleading with Chuck.

“Marnie,” Chuck said, standing over her, “you need real help.” He staggered with relief that she was awake and talking.

“No. No police. No hospital.”

She wasn’t thinking straight. She probably had a concussion. She was in no frame of mind to make big decisions, or even small ones.

Before he could finish dialing, Heidi ripped the phone from his hand.

“Are you crazy?”

“You don’t understand,” Heidi said. “If the police find out, everyone will know.”

Chuck could barely stifle his anger and bewilderment. “Good. That means more people will be out looking for the douchebag that did this to her.”

Marnie coughed and shook her head, either too weak or unable to speak again.

She exchanged a knowing glance with Heidi.

“She doesn’t want to be the girl who got raped. It’ll destroy her life.”

“It’ll bring a man to justice.”

“You don’t know that. Do you see much justice in the world?”

She had a point about there being a lack of justice all around, but this was still ridiculous.

“Well, we can’t just leave her here. My parents will be home soon and they’ll call the cops whether you like it or not.”

Marnie moaned as she turned herself onto her side with Heidi’s help. “Take me home. Please.”

“You need an X-ray, maybe one of those CAT scans, too,” Chuck said.

She touched her swollen eye and winced. “I’ll be fine.”

He wanted to tell her she was as far from fine as Milbury was from Pluto.

Chuck sagged. He was not going to win and Marnie had already been through hell. He was her friend and he was not going to subject her to anything else she didn’t want to do, even if it was in her best interest.

He covered her with a blanket they always kept thrown over the couch. “Don’t you at least want the guy to pay for what he did?” The guy. What if she couldn’t remember who the man was or what he looked like?

She rested her head back onto Heidi’s lap. “He will.” Heidi pulled the blanket up to Marnie’s shoulder. “I know he will.”