Page 64 of With This Lie

Dani

I hearthe bathroom door squeak open and shut again. I hear heavy footsteps walking slowly across the floor. I look out under the stall and the shoes are men’s. Lucas? I open the stall door.

“What are you doing in here, Mark?” I ask, rolling my eyes.

“What’s wrong? Not happy to see me, Dani?” he asks.

“I think we both know the answer to that,” I say.

“You used to be happy to see me all the time. What changed?” he asks.

“Well, remember that time you were an asshole that basically tried to rape me? You were dead to me after that.”

“Oh come on, you know you liked it,” he says.

I try to walk past him and he cuts off my path to the door. “I’m not doing this with you, Mark. Let me out of here,” I demand, trying to move the other way past him. He cuts me off again.

“Do you remember what I said to you, Dani?”

I roll my eyes again. “You spewed so much bullshit, Mark. Which time do you mean?” I ask. He lunges toward me and puts his hand around my neck, pushing me back. I lose my footing and try to regain it as he shoves me to the wall.

“I said you’d pay, Dani. I said no one tells me no. Remember now?”

“What the fuck, Mark? Get off me!” I yell.

He puts his hand over my mouth and pins me with his forearm, freeing one of his arms. “I take it your little lover boy doesn’t know, does he? He doesn’t know I’ve been inside you too, does he?”

I shake my head.

“Of course not,” he says. “I wonder if he can taste me on you.”

He laughs and I try to jerk myself free but he just slams me back into place.

“Where do you think you’re going, birthday girl? I haven’t given you your gift yet,” he says.

I feel Mark’s free hand slide down my side and reach the edge of my dress. I start shaking my head side to side.

“Hush now, we don’t want to be interrupted,” he says.

I feel his fingers running slowly up my thigh and he starts playing with the edge of my panties. My legs want to collapse. I feel sick. I can’t believe this is happening. I can’t believe no one has come looking for me. How long has it been? It feels like it’s been at least an hour. Mark tilts his head down and smells my neck. I close my eyes. The worst part of my childhood is now replaying and I’m just as frozen now as I was then. I try kicking my legs just as I had the first time he did this. Mark pushes his body hard against mine, taking my breath away.

“You’re not doing that again, love. I’ve learned my lesson,” he says.

I keep my eyes closed, waiting for what he might do next.

“I’m going to enjoy this more than any of our other times together,” he says against the side of my face.

I hear the bathroom door swing open behind him and my eyes shoot open.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Lucas’ voice rings out, loudly, echoing in the small bathroom.

Mark reluctantly lets me go; not with haste or worry, just with a shrug of his shoulders and a laugh, like what he was just caught doing is no big deal at all. “Don’t worry, man, it’s not a big deal,” Mark says, holding his hands up in front of Lucas.

“The fuck it isn’t, Elliott,” Lucas says.

I stand there against the wall, still half-frozen, attempting to wrap my arms all the way around my body to protect myself.

Lucas walks across the floor, getting in Mark’s face.