Apples?
He presses his head back into the pillows, focuses on the ceiling. Can he focus on the ceiling? The place behind his eyes aches with that Death Valley crack, where the earth splits from too long without rain. His tongue is made of sandpaper.
He’d succumbed to beer pong in the basement last night. His team didn’t win.
The problem was the crap beer.
The problem was too much crap beer.
The problem was . . . too much.
But it’s not like he’d had anything else planned for Friday night.
It was him, Rob, and Justin against three guys who had wandered in from Conundrum. He should’ve known better: Rob and Justin usually just watched from the sidelines. Guys from Conundrum pretty much majored in beer pong.
At one point they were taking a break while someone went upstairs to take a piss. He’d crashed onto the couch against the wall. The room was spinning, slowly, clockwise. He remembers thinking that wasn’t too bad. End to end spins, where you rotate head over heels? Those were the spins to watch out for.
He remembers a piece of one conversation.
“So, did you all meet with Bockus tonight?” This from Todd, a Conundrum guy.
Rob and Justin looked blank.
“Meeting?” Justin asked.
Short laugh from Todd. “Guess he’s in trouble,” he said. “Some girl reported him after that party we hosted with you all a couple weeks ago. He’s being investigated and had to give the college a list of people who were there.”
“Damn,” said Rob. “I didn’t hear anything about this.”
“Were you at the party?” asked Todd.
“What party?” said Justin.
“Exactly,” Todd said, laughing. “People are conveniently forgetting about that party, let me tell you. I, for one, have no idea what Bockus was up to that night, and I sure as hell don’t want to get nailed for serving alcohol to underage freshmen because he was being a dick.”
“Wait, some freshman girl is upset because Bockus gave her a drink?” said Rob.
“Dude, you’re stupid. A girl is accusing Bockus of rape.”
They all turned when Richard said that. He hadn’t meant to comment. But the beer loosened his tongue. He stared up at them and their revolving carousel of faces.
“Seriously?” Rob said.
“Trust me; I know,” Richard said. He also knew about the “house meeting” Todd was referring to. He’d bumped into Jordan shortly afterward.
Jordan had to give the college a list of witnesses, for the investigator, and he’d gone to Conundrum to give people a heads--up. It hadn’t gone well. They were furious he’d sub-mitted their names. What the hell, Bockus? pretty much summed up their reaction.
Not about the rape charges, he told Richard. They knew he was innocent. About the booze. Everyone was worried the investigation was going to lead to their house getting cited.
“I haven’t even told the Taylor guys yet,” Jordan said. “Not looking forward to that.”
“Yeah, the Doctor is going to love it,” commented Richard.
Jordan had shrugged. “Exley’s all set.”
Richard’s phone pings again.
No apples? This message includes a sad emoticon. The round yellow face sheds tears.
He can rally. Shower. Touch base with Justin to see if he can borrow his car. Drink water. Many glasses of water.
Give me an hour, he texts back. Pick u up outside the union?
Maybe he was wrong about being wrong about her. Which would be good. A double negative equals a positive, right? As he waits for her to reply, he realizes something.
Exley is all set.
He’s the other guy. The one other person Jordan told about the night with Jenny.
And he’s all set. What exactly does that mean?
His phone again.
Haley replies with another emoticon. This time, the yellow face smiles.
. . .
Pressed up against the wall in the darkest corner of the dark, packed room, Exley watches.
The bodies set in motion blur into one another, a fury of shadowed arms, grinding hips, faceless expressions masked in loose hair. An undercurrent of voices drowning just below the surface of the music, the sound a steady, rising tide as more arrive.
Jordan finds him.
“Best party yet,” he half shouts into Exley’s ear.
The Doctor nods, unspeaking. His eyes remain focused forward, at the center of the writhing room.
“Where are the girls you said were coming?” Jordan asks.
Exley tilts his head back, drains his cup. “They’ll be here.”
. . .
15
Haley
After hours of soul searching, Haley makes up her mind.
She likes Richard Brandt. A lot. Her gut tells her he’s a nice guy.
So she will go apple picking with him.
And she will tell him about Jordan and Jenny.
It will be awkward. Possibly awful. It’s an honor code violation, since she’s sworn to privacy. But the other options suck.