FicWad

It was only then that I remembered that I was completely stripped down. Despite the fact that I felt like I wanted to fall asleep and never get up again, I made an effort to sit up and cover up all my private parts as I reached across the alley for the clothes that Ray had so recklessly stripped off of me only a few minutes earlier. So much had happened in those few minutes. Ray was gone now. Most likely, he would never bother me again. After all, there was nothing to prevent James or me from telling what he had done to me now that his video camera had been destroyed. So life would be easy now, right? Wrong.

I still had problems at the moment. My biggest problem right now that I was leaning against a building, completely naked, and barely able to move. The worst part of that was the fact that James was here in the alley too. I had kind of gotten used to guys seeing me like this, but those guys had wanted me for sex. They had wanted to see me stripped. But James was different. I felt very self conscious in front of him and didn't want him to see me like this.

I pulled my arms closer against my chest to cover my breasts and snapped my legs shut to hide as much of me as possible. I looked up at James nervously to see if he would say anything. The two of us hadn't spoken since Ray had left. I couldn't help but wonder how James had found me here. He certainly had a lot of explaining to do, but now was not the time for that. Right now, I had more important issues to worry about. My teeth were chattering uncontrollably in the cold and my lips were turning purple. James met my eyes for a second with an unreadable expression, and then quickly glanced away and turned his back to give me privacy while I redressed myself. Thank god for that!

As soon as James was turned, I slipped my sweatshirt back around my shoulders and pulled my jeans on. Unfortunately, I was wearing one of my thinnest sweatshirts, and I continued to shake and tremble from the cold. James turned around to see how I was doing just when I let out a loud cough that turned into more of a choke as it ripped out from my throat. James bit his lip and looked me up and down as if he wasn't really sure what to do with me.

The silence between us was getting awkward and I bet you could've cut the tension with a knife if you wanted to. I didn't speak mostly because I was still embarrassed and because all I could think about was getting someplace warm fast. Finally, James found his voice and spoke gently, "We better get you inside fast. Where do you want to go? I could bring you to my house if you want or I suppose we could always go to your house."

I wondered if James' house would be warmer than mine. My mother always never turned the heat on because heat costs money and we didn't really have extra money to spare. However, going to James' house seemed kind of risky. True, James had saved me from Ray, but what if he had done that only to get me for himself? He could bring me to his house and rape me all he wanted and no one would ever know. Shit, I could probably die in his house and nobody would even realize that I had died! Sometimes it sucked to live your life alone without any bonds or connections with anyone. My poor mother probably had forgotten she had a daughter anymore. Speaking of which, she hadn't even woken up for three days now. That wasn't a good sign at all.

James watched me nervous gaze and he slowly over his hand to me and put an innocent expression on his face, saying, "I won't hurt you. You know that...right?" I didn't know that, but I just shrugged. As far as I was concerned, there was no way for anyone to prove that they were trustworthy to you or not. You could never tell. Finally, I managed to reply to his previous question through my chattering teeth, "Let's go back to my house. It's right across the corner from the-"

James cut off my question and said, "Yeah, I know where your house is. Don't talk right now, okay? It'll only cost you energy and it looks like you're gonna pass out any minute." Knowing he was probably right, I just nodded and started following him out of the alley on shaky legs. My knees felt like they were going to buckle underneath me at any moment, but I had no choice but to continue down the road. I kept the thought of a nice warm bed with fuzzy blankets in my head to try to make me forget about the frigid temperatures I was being forced to endure. Suddenly, a question popped into my head. How did James know where my house was? It wasn't like he had ever been to my house before. As a matter of fact, nobody from the school had been to my house before. Had he been following me home from school or something?

Momentarily forgetting my vow not to speak, I raised an eyebrow at James and asked, "H-how did you k-know where my house is?" My teeth clunked together clumsily between each word. James glanced down at me and put a finger to his lips, "I'll tell you later, okay? Just be still for now." I wanted to make a face or roll my eyes, but the effort to move those muscles seemed to be too much for me. I could feel myself growing more and more fatigued every second.

I kept telling myself that if I could just make it to my house, everything would be okay. But the question was: could I make it back to the house? Somehow, I managed to get all the way down the street. My house was actually visible now! In my haste to get to it, I tripped on a big rock lying in the middle of the sidewalk and ended up falling hard on my knees. The fall seemed to take all the rest of the strength out of my body. Instead of trying to get up, I flopped over onto my side and just lay there on the ground like a dead person. I turned my face towards the ground and closed my eyes. The darkness that was coming over me seemed inviting and friendly. I wanted nothing more than it to take me home.

That wasn't James' plan though. I felt a hand shake my shoulder and flip my body over. I groaned and squinted up at James through blurred eyes. His expression was serious as he tugged on my hand in an attempt to get me to stand up, saying, "Come on, Olivia! You've got to get up. We're almost to your house. You can do it."

I shook my head. The house now seemed like a very far way away. It would be so much easier just to lie here versus trying to trudge back up to the house. A cold splat hit my face. I glanced up towards the sky to see snowflakes beginning to fall from the sky. James grabbed my shoulder and hissed even more urgently, "Come on, Olivia, get up for me. I'm serious. You could die out here with the way you keep shivering. Plus it's snowing now."

I made no attempt to get up, but somehow James managed to pull me to my feet. I wobbled precariously when he let go of me and almost toppled over again. James caught my hand just in time and started dragging me towards the house. Those last few yards from my driveway to the front door seemed like miles. It felt like I was never going to make it inside. The pain was pulsing all through my body and my fingers were so numb that I could no longer feel them. But somehow, after what seemed like an eternity to me, we reached the door. James kicked it open and helped me inside.

When I finally stood inside, I leaned heavily against the wall and smiled for the first time in days. I had made it! Now I just had to make it up to my bedroom and get some blankets. I started to walk towards the stairs to my bedroom, but I never made it that far. About halfway across the room, everything in my body stopped and I flopped to the floor with a loud thump.

~ ~ ~ ~

When I woke up, I found myself lying in bed with heavy, warm blankets wrapped tightly around me. I wanted to get up and figure out what had happened to me after I had blacked out, but there was no time for that. I blacked out again. As a matter of fact, for most of the next few days, I pretty much slept. I woke up a few times, but dizziness usually brought me back to slumber. My sleep wasn't peaceful though. On the contrary, it was anything but that. I had several nightmares and my body continued to shake and tremble through my sickness. On a few occasions when I woke up, I found James sitting next to my bed, watching me. I never stayed awake long enough to talk to him though. Now looking back on those days, I can see clearly that James saved my life. If it wasn't for him, I probably would've died right there and then.

After around four days, I finally woke up and had enough strength to remain conscious for longer than a few minutes. Blinking my eyes, I managed to sit up in bed and look around me. At the sound of me rustling around in the sheets, James glanced over from a chair that he had put besides my bed to look at me. He smiled when he saw I was up, "Hey! You're awake. How are you feeling?" Not great, but not awful. My body still ached all over, but my mind was much more at rest. Now that I didn't have to worry about Ray, everything seemed so much better.

"I'm okay," I said slowly, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. "You have a lot to explain to me though. How did you find me back there in the alley? And how the hell did you know where my house was?" James frowned slightly and looked away from me. I suppose accusing someone right after they saved your life was probably not the politest thing to do, but I needed answers to the numerous questions that kept popping up in my head.

"Well, I saw you at work once. You know, that grocery story you worked as a cashier at?" James started. I nodded and he continued, "You didn't look so good when I saw you at the store. You were passed out and your eye was all black and blue. So I hid right outside the door and followed you home when you left the store." I started to speak, but James cut me off abruptly and raised his hand to stop me, "Don't say anything just yet! I know I sound like I was stalking you and all, but I was just worried about you. Besides, I was with Kitty then so I wouldn't have been stalking you anyways."

I bit my lip and tried to think about what I thought about James following me home. To be honest, it was nice to know that he had cared about me enough to take the time to follow me back to my house. But I still didn't know if that was why he had followed me home. For all I knew, he really could be a stalker. I was kind of surprised though when I found I was more upset about the mention of Kitty versus the stalking thing. Kitty brought bad thoughts into my mind. Ones that were filled with James wrapped around and inside her, making sweet passionate love to her...

"Uh, Olivia?" James asked, looking at me awkwardly, "You okay? You haven't said anything." I jerked myself away from those bad memories and tried to smile, "Yeah, I'm okay. I was just...um...thinking about something." There was no way I was about to tell James just what I had been thinking about, so I left it at that. James let it go, and we both fell silent. I wasn't done with my inquisition yet though. There were still a whole lotta things that needed to be said.

"You still haven't told me about how you found me," I reminded him sharply. James nodded and started, "I noticed from the beginning of the school year that you and Ray always went somewhere together after school. At first I thought you guys were dating and that you two just liked to spend time together, but after a while, I could tell that things weren't quite right between you too. Ray just had a way of ordering you around or something. I was even more suspicious when I saw you the night of the school dance. I saw you run across the street later that night with blood on you neck and I noticed your dress was ripped. After that, I was positive something was wrong. The next day, I followed you and Ray to the alley. I wanted to do something then, but I couldn't because Ray had brought his gang along."

My mouth fell open in shock. So James had been around when those bastards had taken turns with me. I burst out, "You actually watched all that?" James almost looked guilty when he replied, "Yeah, I did. I didn't want to, but there wasn't anything I could do that day. I was no match for those four guys. So the next day, I followed you and Ray back to the alley and that's when we took care of Ray. Hopefully, he'll be gone for good." I nodded vigorously. I certainly wanted Ray to be gone for good.

"Olivia?" James asked again, turning a little red in the face as he did so, "Can I ask you something personal?" I looked down at my lap, not really wanting him to ask me personal questions right now. I really did owe at least one question to James after saving me though, so I nodded. James asked, "How long had this been going on? Why didn't you tell anyone? You could've told me."

I gave James a look that meant that I thought he was crazy. There was no way I would've told anyone about my rape. It was embarrassing and it showed that I was weak. I answered the other question though, "It started the first day of school so it's been going on for about six months or so. And telling someone about it would've been too embarrassing."

James sighed and nodded like he understood. Then he glanced back up at me and asked, "That's why you didn't want anything to do with me that day after we met, right? You were scared after what happened with Ray and you just wanted to avoid people in general." I nodded slightly to tell him that he was right.

James tapped his chin with a pencil he was holding in his right hand for a few minutes, looking thoughtful. When he turned back to me, his expression was quizzical, "So tell me something. You obviously don't trust most people anymore, that's for sure. I don't blame you after everything that's happened. Are you scared of me though? Or mad at me? You just don't want to have anything to do with me. I can leave you alone if that's what you want..." Oh god, that was a tough question. Did I want James to go away and leave me alone now that Ray was gone?