FicWad

The doctor looked at me incredulously and finally shrugged his shoulders, "I guess I can let you go home, but if there's any problem and all, come straight back here, okay?" I nodded absentmindedly, feeling very happy that the doctor had finally given into my request. Spending a night in this place with all kinds of sick and injured people would've definitely have creeped me out. The doctor grabbed my hand and added, "I'm serious, Olivia! You need to swear to me to come back here if anything goes wrong, alright?"

Thinking that the doctor was being kind of paranoid, I rolled my eyes and said, "I swear to come back, happy now?" just to appease him. The doctor still looked rather hesitant about letting me leave, but at this point, he really had no choice. He watched as I tried to stand up. Luckily, I could still feel my legs, but I still couldn't feel anything in my back. As I put my feet on the ground, Dave offered me his hand. I took it readily to help me to keep from fallen. My legs were stiff and sore, but they did hold me up.

Waving goodbye at the doctor, I put a stiff smile on my face and focused on trying to ignore the soreness in my legs as Dave led me through a door that I didn't remember entering. As I walked along, a sharp pain between my thigh suddenly made me cringe. Dave immediately stopped and gave me a worried look, "Are you okay?"

I nodded quickly and tried to smile so Dave wouldn't worry. Somehow, the two of us made it outside and to Dave's car. Despite my protests, Dave insisted on lifting me up into the passenger seat. To be honest, I was kind of glad that he had helped me. If he hadn't, I might've ended up flat on my back from falling. My legs were shaky and threatened to give way underneath me at any moment.

As soon as I was arranged as comfortably as possible in the car, Dave climbed into the passenger seat and revved up the car. We sat in silence for a few moments. I closed my eyes and tried to relax. The whole scene with Ray was still envisioned clearly in my mind, but I tried to shove it far into the back of my mind. Everything was going to be okay now.

"Hey Olivia..." Dave asked cautiously, obviously about to bring up a bad subject. Knowing that there were some thing that he really did need to know, I turned and looked over at him. Dave continued, "Um, I guess this is none of my business, but did you know that guy? Or did you just meet him today? Wait...was that guy Marty's cousin?"

It didn't really surprise me that Dave wanted to know about Ray. I didn't really feel like talking about Ray right now, but Dave had a right to know about him. So despite my weariness, I explained the whole situation to him, "Yeah, I knew him. His name is Ray and yes, he is Marty's cousin. The two of us met at the beginning of school last year. He ended up abusing me the very first day we met. He got the rape video recorded and threatened to show the video to the whole school if I told anyone what he had done to me. So for about six months, I was literally his sex slave. Eventually, James found me and rescued me from Ray. I had never thought that Ray could find me again...I had no idea that he was Marty's cousin. I guess they do look alike though."

Dave nodded vigorously, "Yeah, their resemblance is freaky. God, Olivia, I wish I had been going to the same school as you. I would've rescued you from Ray the very first day he abused you. I can't believe you were able to deal with his torture for six goddamn months! You're a strong girl. So is this why you travel around with James? Is he kind of your...I dunno...'protector'?"

That was part of the truth, but not all of it. True, James was my protector, but he was also the love of my life. I didn't think now was the right time to bring up relationships with Dave though. Dave had just saved me from Ray and if it hadn't been for him, Ray probably would've cut my body up and I would've ended up bleeding to death. So I just nodded to Dave's question. It wasn't like I was lying exactly. It just wasn't the whole truth. Oh well, Dave could learn the whole truth some other day.

Thinking more about Ray, I looked over at Dave and asked him a question I had been wondering about for a while, "So how did you find me anyways? I was pretty sure nobody had any idea where I was. I figured I was going to die." Dave cringed and my words and put a reassuring hand over mine. He said with regret in his voice, "When I finally noticed you were gone, I saw that there was a door open to the right of the bar. I traveled through that door and it let me to a back room. Once I was in the back room, I found another door that led to the outside. That's when I found you. I can't believe I didn't notice you were gone from the bar earlier!" Dave shook his head with regret as if he considered it his fault about what had happened to me.

"Dave, it's not your fault," I quickly told him. "You saved me. If it weren't for you, I would've died. I guess it's a good thing we became friends, hm?" Dave's worried expression immediately turned into a smile and he nodded at me vigorously. Glad to see Dave smiling again, I smiled too. Well, I smiled until another thought popped into my head. Asking the question was on my mind, I said, "Um...Dave? What happened to Ray? Did you actually shoot him?"

Dave turned pale and didn't look me in the eye. He was silent for a few moments before he finally nodded, "Yeah. I didn't really have a choice about it. It was either shoot him or run the risk of you dying in his hands. Just to let you know, I checked and Ray is certainly dead. He won't bother you ever again. You're safe now."

I was glad at the thought of being safe, but I wasn't too sure I liked the idea of Ray dead just the same. Feeling apprehensive, I asked, "Um...what did you do with Ray's body? You could probably get into some major trouble for shooting Ray. Was anyone else around when you shot him? Or did anyone come to see what was going on?"

Dave shook his head, "Nah, that's the beauty of it; not one single person was around. I think Ray led you into the most deserted part of this town. I just left Ray's body where I shot him. It would be pretty suspicious if I went around trailing a dead body behind me. Besides, all I could think about was getting you help as soon as possible. I wasn't thinking much about Ray."

Suddenly, I had a self conscious moment. Until then, I hadn't remembered that Dave had seen me spread out naked on my back beneath Ray. My cheeks suddenly flushed and I couldn't meet Dave's eyes. Sensing something was wrong, Dave me a worried look and touched my shoulder ever so gently, "Hey, are you okay? You're getting red."

Blushing even more, I continued to look away from Dave's eyes as I muttered, "I'm fine. I'm just...uh...sorry that you had to see me the way you did. You know, when you found me with Ray?" I gave Dave a sidelong look to see if he was getting my point. Luckily, comprehension dawned in his eyes and started to rub my shoulder gently as he replied, "Hey, it's not your fault. Don't worry about it. Let it go, okay? You've got enough to worry about. Besides, it's not like you have anything to be ashamed off."

I could see Dave's eyes looking over my body with interest as he said that last sentence. Again, I felt a tinge of guilt for still not telling Dave that I wasn't interested in him. I just couldn't bring myself to do it right now though. There were too many things going on and like Dave had said, I shouldn't be worrying about anything right now. Ray was dead and that was what was most important.

Dave pulled into the parking lot of my apartment building and parked right up front by the door so I wouldn't have to walk very far. That was good because I was starting to feel a faint tingling of pain coming from my back. I guess the pain relievers were wearing off. As Dave parked the car, I found myself asking him another question, "Dave? What exactly did Ray do to my back anyways? I could feel him cutting, but I couldn't really tell what he was doing."

Dave jumped out of the car and hurried around to my side to open my door for me and assist me in getting out of the car. He really could be a gentleman sometimes. Taking my hand, Dave grimaced as he said, "Uh...Dave sort of made a marking on your back." Wondering what Dave meant by that, I raised an eyebrow while I slipped down from the car and started slowly walking towards the door to the apartment with Dave holding my hand to keep me from falling. Dave elaborated, "He made this cross shaped mark on your back. I can show it to you when we get inside with a mirror if you like."

As the two of us slowly made our way into the apartment's lobby, I debated whether or not I really wanted to see what Ray had done to my back. I suppose I should be grateful that Dave had found me when he did so Ray hadn't been able to do any further damage. Still though, I hated to think that I was going to have a big cross-like mark on my back for the rest of my life."

Dave and I took the elevator up to the seventh floor and started towards the room Ron, James, and I were sharing. Suddenly, Dave hesitated then looked me full in the face before asking, "Um, Olivia? What do you think about coming back to my house tonight? You're going to need help bandaging that cut on your back and I think it would be good to have someone supervising you tonight just in case something would happen. What do you say? My house is pretty nice. It's much bigger than the apartment!"

If I hadn't been so hurt, I would've thought that Dave was trying to lure me into bed with him. But under these circumstances, I could tell that his offer was made solely from his concern for me. It was obvious to anyone that I wouldn't be sleeping with any guys for a very long time. My body was going to heal very slowly. But regardless of how nice Dave's offer was, I was still going to have to turn it down. Giving him my nicest smile, I said, "Thanks for the offer, Dave. I really appreciate it. I think I'll sleep better in my own bed tonight though. You know what I mean, right? You can come in and hang out for a while if you want though."

Dave nodded, but looked slightly disappointed. I knew I should just come right out and tell him that I wasn't interested in him at all, but I still couldn't make myself do it. Maybe I was too much of a coward to tell him. Who knew? As we reached the door to the apartment, I turned to Dave and said, "Thanks again for everything today. If it weren't for you, I'd be dead. You were great."

Dave beamed in my praise and looked happy again. Feeling slightly happier as well, I started to reach for the door knob. However, before I could reach it, Dave swiftly took my hand. Wondering what he wanted, I turned towards him curiously. Before I knew what was going on, Dave had taken a step closer to me and had pressed his lips lightly on top of mine. I was totally taken off guard and just stood there as still as a statue for five very long moments. Well, let's just say it was five moments too long.

While I was standing rooted to the ground, the door to the apartment flew open and James stood in the doorway with his hands on his hips. He started out by saying, "It's about time you showed up! I've been so worried about you. What have you been-" James cut off his sentence when he say that Dave was still kissing me. Oh god, this was going to be bad. Very bad.

I quickly tried to back away from Dave and pressed my body against the opposite wall, eying James nervously. Backing against the wall was a bad idea. As soon as my back touched the wall, I had to bite my lip to keep from crying out. Unfortunately, my expression could easily be mistaken for the look of a guilty girl who had been cheating on her boyfriend. At least that's how James interpreted it. He was standing in the doorway as frozen as I had been two moments earlier. His eyes were wide and in them was a look of hurt and betrayal. I knew just what he was thinking, but for some reason, I couldn't move my lips.

When I finally found my voice again, I started to speak, "James, listen to me for a minute-" But before I could finish my sentence, James' expression changed. He quickly masked the hurt and betrayal by curling his lip and by making his eyes hard. They glittered malevolently at me as he swept past me and out of the apartment. As he passed, James muttered, "Fucking bitch," under his breath. It felt like the slap in the face that I didn't need right now.

Ignoring the pain in my legs, I started after him, calling out, "James, please wait a minute. I want to talk to you." James looked over his shoulder at me with a smirk and flipped his long blonde hair to the side as he said, "I'm not dealing with your shit right now. Take it all and shove it up your ass." With that said, James quickened his pace and disappeared into the elevator. That was the final straw for me. I had had a nightmare of a day, and all James could do was make the wrong assumption about Dave and me. Little did he know that I had been raped and abused and that I could've died earlier. But of course, that wouldn't matter to James. The only thing that would matter to James would be the fact that I might've cheated on him.

I could feel my legs give under me and I would've crashed to the floor if Dave hadn't been standing behind me to catch me before I fell. He helped me back up to my feet and then we stood together in an awkward silence. Finally, Dave tried to break the silence by saying in a light tone, "Well, I guess James has a problem with seeing guys and girls together, doesn't he?"

I was about to tell him that no, James didn't have a problem with that. As a matter of fact, James was the one who had shown me the most affection I had ever received in my life. He had been the one who had loved me when I was hurting and broken and he had been the one who had trusted me with his own body and heart. James didn't have a problem witnessing affection, but he was very paranoid about cheating. That hot temper of his didn't help out the situation at all.

Just as I opened my mouth to tell all this to Dave, I just as quickly closed my mouth again. I found that I was very angry at James. I was even more angry at James for rejected me in my time of need than I had been angry at Ray earlier. Couldn't James see that I was hurting, broken, and abused right now? I wanted nothing more than to have his arms wrapped around me, loving me, and telling me that everything would be okay and that he would always be here for him. But no, James was off somewhere doing who-knows-what while I dealt with my pain by myself. And after his little fit, I was feeling about ten times worse than before.

So apparently James wanted to play stupid games with me. Well, fine then. I could play the game too. Grabbing Dave's hand, I gave him my most sultry smile and motioned towards the open door to our apartment, "Wanna come inside?"