Slash Work - 7. Recovery/How Do I Explain This?!

Chapter 7: Recovery/How Do I Explain This?!

Chad walked over to the guest chair and sat down. His whole demeanor changed instantly. He breathed a heavy sigh.

“Dude, that was some fucked up shit,” he said.

“So what happened then?” I asked. “Why can’t I remember any of it?”

“I don’t know why you can’t remember any of it. Maybe it’s just because your brain’s trying to repress it or something. Denial of the whole thing, you know?”

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense.”

“So there I was, working on that damn project in the middle of the night, and all of a sudden, I get a phone call,” he starts off. “I’m thinking, ‘Who the hell calls me anymore?’, because most of my friends just text message me. So I look at the screen and it says ‘Unregistered Caller.’ So I think that it’s some guy calling to prank call me. Nevertheless, I answered the phone.”

He stops to pause. He sighs. Is this really that taxing on him?

“As soon as I answer the phone, you start yammering away a mile a minute. I couldn’t make out a single word you were saying. I tried to calm you down, but nothing seemed to work. It was like you weren’t even listening to me. Honestly, I was a good mix between being royally pissed off and scared shitless. I mean, this isn’t like you. Losing your cool and all.”

“No, of course not,” I said, shifting my eyes this way and that to get the message across.

“Yeah, whatever, dude,” he said, clearly not amused by my trying to inject humor into a serious conversation. “Finally, I heard you saying something about me getting over here really fast, and as soon as I heard that, I bolted out the door and got here as fast as I could. When I got here, you were lying on the ground. You didn’t look hurt. There wasn’t any blood anywhere that I could see. As I got closer, I found...”

He stopped mid-sentence. He broke eye contact with me. What did he find? And why was he starting to get red?

“...I found out that your pants and boxers were around your knees,” he finished, still too afraid to make eye contact with me.

“Oh,” I stated, suddenly feeling the urge to throw up.

“I didn’t look, I swear!” he said quickly.

“No, it’s okay,” I said back. Wait, what did I mean by that?

“Dude, I didn’t know what to think. I mean, here you are, lying on the floor, pants and stuff around your legs, and you were still conscious, dude! You had that glazed look in your eyes. I don’t even know if you knew that I was standing right next to you, asking about a billion questions a minute.”

“I still don’t remember anything.”

“Which would probably explain the whole ‘glazed eyes’ look you had going on there. You just looked at me, but you weren’t really looking at me. Like you were just conveniently turning your head my way. After I kept asking if you were alright and what happened, you finally seemed to realize that I was there.”

He took a deep breath before continuing.

“The first thing you said was ‘Hey.’, like we were just passing each other in the hall. I had to try a new approach to get you to tell me anything. So I just casually sat next to you and asked how you were doing. That seemed to work, because after that you told me everything.

You said that some guy just jumped you. I asked who, but you said that you didn’t remember because you never really got a good look at him. You said that he hit you with something, and that it hurt like a motherfucker. Then you went down for the count and blacked out. Then you said that you came to, finding the guy ripping your jeans off and probing at your asshole with a couple of fingers. I didn’t think that a couple of fingers would still be hurting you today, but then again, I’ve never had a couple fingers shoved up my asshole before either. Anyways, that’s when you started flailing at him, according to what you said. I’d believe it, ‘cause when I arrived, you were in bad shape. Like I said, you weren’t bleeding, but you said that it hurt to move. I didn’t know whether you’d broken any bones or not.”

This story was just getting better and better now, wasn’t it?

“You said that after awhile of struggling, the guy just gave up, probably because he was afraid to get caught, and ran off. After a few minutes, I showed up. After that, I got the keys from you, brought both of us into the room, and laid you on the couch.”

So that’s how it went down, huh. Well, it explains why my ass hurt so much, and yet I wasn’t technically raped. Still, it was an attempted rape, and only got foiled because I subconsciously fought the guy off. But who would want to rape me? Who even knows I exist?

“I see,” I said dimly.

“Dude, I should’ve floored it while getting here. I could’ve done something, man. I don’t know what. I could’ve helped somehow,” he started.

“Chad, don’t. There was no way you could’ve known about any of this,” I intercepted.

A sudden scene flashed before my eyes. I had a question to ask.

“So what happened after you brought me in here?”

“Well, I set you on the couch, like I said. I had to ransack all the rooms to find out where everything was. I got a blanket from your bedroom and put it on you, since you looked like you were cold. Then I figured that you could use a warm washcloth on your head, just in case. And then I just sat there, dude. You fell asleep and I just waited until you could come to. After awhile, I took the washcloth from your head and went into the kitchen to reheat it, and then I heard someone crying and went back and there you were, seemingly fully awake now,” he explained.

I blushed a little, embarrassed that I had let him see me cry. No guy wants to have another guy see him cry.

We stayed silent for a little while after that. Finally, I broke the silence.

“So, what do we do now?”

“I don’t know, dude. Neither of us knows who attacked you. All we can do right now, I guess, is just keep moving forward. Move on. I highly doubt that you would want to report this to the authorities. So for right now, just rest. Give your body some time to recover, dude. I’m sure that, by Monday, you’ll be able to go back to school.”

He was right. No way would I go to the police and say that I was raped. First off, I doubt they would believe me. Secondly, if they found out I was gay, then they’d just say that I “wanted it,” like I was some low-class girl that got raped. Thirdly, they’d no doubt tell everyone. Word would spread across campus that I got raped and then EVERYBODY would be calling me gay, or some synonym like it.

“I hope so,” I said.

We pretty much spent the rest of the day just chilling out. I tried discreetly writing more to the story when he wasn’t looking. When he asked what I was tying so feverishly about, I just said that it was a paper for another class. He seemed to buy it.

“So do you have to work later on today, bro?” he said later on that afternoon.

“Nah. I have the day off,” I responded. “Like I’m going to be working seven days a week AND be a full-time student.”

He laughed. “Yeah, I’d bet that would get tiresome really quickly.”

At around four, the poor guy left the room and went into my bedroom. He didn’t come back out. Quietly, I lifted myself up (with much less pain this time) and snuck into my room. There he was, fast asleep on the bed, feet dangling off the sides. He looked so cute right then. I just wanted to cuddle the life out of him. And then use necromancy to bring him back from the Great Beyond so that I can snuggle him to death again. Okay, I’m going to stop there before it evolves into something not even hardcore porn sites can show. And I’ve seen those hardcore sites, so I know what they do and don’t contain. Not that I ENJOYED looking at those sites, mind you. I just happened to completely stumble upon them by accident...

I’m serious!

Anyway, I left Chad to his rest and went back into the living-room-of-sorts. He really should’ve gotten some rest over the past few days. I mean, seriously! How hard can one project be? I sat back down at my laptop and started writing more to the story.

I thanked Guy C’s hospitality once more. He laughed and said to stop it already. That I had thanked him practically every five minutes for the past day or so. I knew it was an exaggeration, but I did seem to think that I couldn’t thank him enough. After all, if he hadn’t showed up at the lockers and found my bloody, limp body, then I’d probably be dead by now.

I don’t remember much of the incident. All I remember was that it involved a whole bunch of guys, probably from the football team, and that it hurt. A lot. And for some reason, I can’t get the image of a raven out of my mind whenever I think of the scene as well. I don’t know what that means. Ravens are like crows, right? Does that mean that I really was near death’s door?

“Dude,” he said, interrupting my reverie. “Your hot chocolate’s getting cold. Something on your mind?”

“No, not really,” I replied. “I’m just...thinking about things. That’s all.”

Suddenly I heard my cell phone ring.

Suddenly I heard my cell phone ring. Wait...what? Creeeeeepy. I answered it.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Hi honey. How are you?” came the voice of Mom.

I relaxed tenfold.

“I’m doing well, Mom. How are you?” I said back, sounding more forced than I’d meant to be. I was SO not going to tell her about my near-rape experience.

“I’m doing just fine, dear. And how are your grades? Are you keeping them up?”

“Yes Mom.”

‘Get off the phone already, Mom.’

“Have you found anybody special you’d like to take home to us for Winter Break yet?”

“No Mom,” I replied. God, why does she ALWAYS have to ask that? Is it some maternal instinct I’m unaware of?

“Well you need to find someone! I don’t want you to be lonely forever! All I want is for you to be happy! And...” she went on and on and on. Geez, take a chill pill once in awhile! What’s with the sudden need for a committed son? I just tuned her out for awhile until the noise on the other end stopped.

“Are you even listening to me?” she demanded.

“Uh-huh,” I replied.

“So then repeat to me what I’ve just said.”

“Um...” Crap. She got me there. “I dunno.”

“I thought so,” she said, sounding angry. “I am your mother and you should listen to everything I have to say because I know what’s good for you and...”

I drifted off again. See, this is why I chose to move far, far away from my parents as much as possible. Imagine what it would be like if I still LIVED with them.

After (another) awhile, she finally let up and I was allowed to hang up. I did so with glee. Maybe I should think about changing my phone number. I went back to my laptop and decided to get onto the Internet.

“You’ve got mail!”

Oh? Since when? I haven’t posted any new chapters lately. Must be spam. I opened the mailbox. Eleven emails?! And all of them are reviews for my story?! What the hell is going on here?!

“Dude, how do I go about coming out to my...”

“Hey bro. Nice to see a guy doing something like this. Email me sometime and we...”

“Help! I think my teammates might know about me...”

“YEAH! FIGHT OFF THOSE FUCKING FAGGOTS!!! REAL MEN SHOULD BE JUST LIKE...”

“I don’t know what to do. I’m straight, I think, but...”

“Dude, this is so totally me. I’ve got this crush on this one guy, and...”

They’re all like this! Every one of them! They’re all guys! Why are they asking me these things?! I don’t know! I DON’T KNOW! Stop asking me! I can’t solve your problems!

“Hey dude. You okay?”

I spun around to see Chad standing by the doorway of the bedroom. I quickly clicked off the window on the screen.

“Yeah, I’m doing better now,” I lied.

“That’s cool,” he said. “So I think that stuff that I gave you for your ass said to reapply it every so often. Maybe you should think about doing that soon.”

“Oh? I think it’s kinda interesting that you’re thinking more about my ass than I am,” I fired back with a grin.

He laughed. “Douche. You know what I mean.”

I laughed along with. “Yeah, that’s what I just said.”

His laughter died down a little. “Seriously, take the freaking ointment. Do you really want to not be able to stand up again?”

“Yeah yeah. I hear ya. I’ll go do that now before you harp about it again. Wanna watch?”

The sudden offer (meant as a joke, I swear!) startled Chad for a moment, causing him to blush and stutter.

“Um..wait...what...I mean...no...no, of course not, dude...um...no.”

I laughed and told him to chill out. It didn’t seem to help much. I grabbed the ass lotion and headed into the bathroom. In there, I stripped, put the lotion on my hand, and started rubbing my crack. I felt incredibly awkward and dumb right at that moment. I felt like I was a beginner getting ready for his first anal sex. Except feeling even stupider than that. A sudden knocking on the door almost gave me an unexpected three-fingering experience.

“Dude?” came Chad’s voice. “Unless you need me for anything else, I’m going to head on back to my dorm.”

“Dammit! You almost caused me to have my first gay sex experience with myself in here!” I yelled back.

“What? How’s that possible?” he questioned.

“I don’t know. It just is.”

“Well, anyways. Is it okay if I head on out then?”

“Yeah. I think I’m good for now.”

“Sweet. I’ll call you tomorrow then. We can finish that project together if you haven’t already finished yours.”

“Well I WOULD HAVE had I not gotten raped overnight!”

“You weren’t raped!”

“Feels like it!”

“Whatev. I’m going home now. Seeya.”

“Seeya Chad.”

I heard the door open and shut. Damn, I really should work on that project tonight. My professor only knows that I suddenly got “sick” and that’s why I didn’t show up for class today. He won’t make any exceptions if the project isn’t done and turned in next week.

Closing the “Shooting Stars Collide” document, I accessed the Internet, resisted the incredible lure of porn, and started working on that wretched Math Project from Hell. It was an arduous task. Chad had better show up to the door naked tomorrow for all the hell he’s putting me through.