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The next day, Mellie slept in until noon. She woke feeling refreshed, but somewhat anxious about missing school. She had spoken with Danielle and Christine the night before, and they had promised to get all the makeup work she needed and bring it over tonight. Mellie ate breakfast and took some of the pills the doctor had prescribed for her. Then she put on fresh clothes and gave herself a sponge-bath so that she would look and feel cleaner to see her friends.

At 3:30, she was surprised to hear her doorbell ring. She wasn't expecting her friends for another hour or so. Maybe it's a package for Mom or Dad, she wondered. She answered the door.

It was Bobby, carrying a bouquet of long-stemmed red roses.

"Oh wow. Hi, Bobby. Um, do you want to come in?" Mellie felt awkward at receiving him due to her bruising and the negativity she had felt was left over from their date.

"Sure. These are for you. How are you feeling?" He handed her the flowers and carefully placed his hands on either side of her face so that he could look into her eyes.

Mellie sighed. "Thank you. I'm feeling much better today than I was yesterday. Just bruised a little."

"I brought you something else, too," Bobby told her. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a deep purple silk scarf. "I thought you could use this as a sling for the dance. It should match your dress and it'll feel soft on the part of your arm not in a cast."

"Wow, Bobby. I really appreciate it. You don't have to take me as your date just because I was in a car accident though. I mean, I would understand if you wanted someone who could actually dance and who wouldn't be covered in bruises." Mellie looked up at him. She sincerely hoped he would want to go with her, but a part of her also wanted him to say no. Curious, she thought. Why would I want him to refuse to go with me? Then I would have no date.

"Of course I still want to go with you. Even battered and bruised, you'll be far prettier than any other girl present at the dance. I look forward to our night together." He laughed. "That sounded oddly formal, but it's the truth. I wanted to make sure you knew that."

"I really do appreciate that. Thanks."

"By the way, I made plans for us for after the dance if that's alright. My friend Cameron is throwing a party at his house because his parents will be gone that weekend. Most of the school is going, including your friends and their dates. It'll be fun."

"Oh. Um, that's fine. That sounds fun." Mellie smiled at him.

"Good. Well, I need to get going. I hope you feel better. When do you get to come back to school? I miss seeing you in study hall."

"Next Monday. So I'll only miss one more day."

"Awesome. I'll see you on Monday, Mel."

With that, he left. Mellie trimmed the stems of the roses and put them in a vase in her room. She didn't need her parents asking about them. Her friends showed up next, bringing her homework and chocolates.

"Ohmygod, Mellie. We were so worried when you didn't show up at school yesterday, and then the rumors started about how you were in a car crash with Oscar and Carlos. Is that true? Did they crash into you?" This came from Danielle, who was always submerged in whatever gossip was flying around the school.

"Yes. Carlos ran a red light and hit me."

"That's insane! He ought to be locked up for like, the rest of his life," Christine said. "They both showed up to school without a scratch on them, and here you are, an inch from death. We heard they weren't punished by their parents or the school, and that Oscar didn't even get caught with any alcohol in his system because the cops didn't find him until later. Only Carlos got a drinking ticket."

"Well, Oscar is the one who called 911. And he rode in the ambulance with me to the hospital. He wasn't the one driving though. And he apologized like, ten times. Probably more than that, honestly."

"Whatever. They should both be drawn and quartered. They are high school seniors and should know better. What if it had been a pregnant woman or something? Then they'd be responsible for two deaths. This justice system is ridiculous!"

Mellie appreciated her friends' concern, but she really did not want them to blame Oscar. He was so much more than they thought him to be. She was really starting to respect him.

Once Danielle and Christine finished their tirade, they left so that Mellie wouldn't get overly excited. Mellie started on her assignments and wished she didn't have to miss school the next day too. She was grateful to Bobby for the flowers, but felt unfinished. His visit hadn't excited her as much as she would have guessed. A few weeks ago, she would have paid huge sums of money to get him to come to her house, and then when he came, she felt...nothing. Maybe I don't like him anymore, she mused. When her homework was finished, she ate and went upstairs for bed.

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The following Monday, Mellie went back to her classes. Friends mobbed her in every class, asking to sign her cast or how she was feeling. Everyone was overly friendly, and Mellie grew tired by the end of the day. She was glad when classes were over. It gave her room to breathe and think. Bobby had smiled at her during study hall, but made no move to join her at her table. Rather, he spent the entire period doing homework, just as she normally did.

Mellie fell into bed that night, exhausted and thankful for her friends' well wishes. She hoped the next day would be easier, and was glad that Homecoming would be the upcoming weekend. Smiling, she drifted off to sleep.

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Earlier that day.

Oscar had been thrilled to see Mellie in study hall. He was surprised by the intensity of his happiness that she was alright. However, he felt that she was now completely off-limits to him. He and his friend had nearly killed her. What if Carlos hadn't slammed on the brakes? What if another car had been involved?

Oscar was constantly reliving the entire scene, wishing he could find a way to make everything right. Every time he thought of Mellie, he felt sick. The sight of her bleeding, the moment before he knew she was still alive, all of it made him feel pain worse than any he felt during his life. He wanted to vomit whenever he thought of her like that.

But his pain and suffering were abated by the feelings he remembered having when he felt her pulse and when he had held her hand while she slept. He would never drink again. Never! It wasn't worth losing the things he cared most about just to have an hour or two of buzzed fun.

Oscar's second-to-last class each day was Physical Education. Although PE was not required of junior- and senior-level students who participated in marching band, Oscar enjoyed being physically challenged. Working out every day also gave him a way to let out his anger and frustration with the world. Now, instead of breaking laws or getting in fights, he pushed himself to run faster, lift more weights, and work harder. It normally worked. Nowadays, only seriously upsetting situations could cause him to lose his cool.

Oscar's PE class was currently in the weightlifting unit, a unit at which he excelled. The one downfall of weightlifting, however, was that the jocks were often in the weight room and the locker room at the same times that the PE students were. Jocks were not required to participate in a PE course, but they did have to designate so much time each day to working out, so many of them used a free hour as a time to hit the gym. Since Oscar had a decent amount of respect for some of the athletes, he did not mind this normally. Yet when it meant he had to be in near proximity of Bobby Boedon, he most definitely did mind it.

Today was one of the days when Bobby was present at the gym at the same time as Oscar. All through the class, Oscar was able to successfully ignore Bobby and his friends, each of whom was more unpleasant than the last. Bobby had to be the worst though. Oscar didn't understand what girls saw in this guy. Sure, he was attractive in a model kind of way, but his personality left a lot to be desired. Women are so shallow, he thought. He channeled his frustration into his workout, which left him somewhat more tired and a little cranky at the end of class. He went to the locker room to change back into his everyday clothes and get ready for band rehearsal.

As he changed, he could overhear bits of conversations from the people in the room, especially those from the row of lockers on the other side of his own locker. He tried to tune it out, until he heard Mellie's name. Who is talking about her? he thought. None of the jocks really know who she is.

"You know, Mellie. The one in band and theatre. She's one of the girls in the Advanced Placement program. With the really long hair."

Oscar definitely was eavesdropping now. He recognized Bobby as the voice of the speaker, and he silently kept dressing.

"Okay, man. So what about this Mellie girl? Why are you taking some nobody honors student to Homecoming when you could have any of the cheerleaders?" That was the voice of another football player, but Oscar couldn't remember his name.

Bobby lowered his voice a little. "She came up to me during study hall and asked if I wanted to hang out sometime. When she dresses up, she is damn sexy, man. It took all I had not to get a boner on the spot. So I agreed, thinking that maybe I could get a little pussy out of the deal. I prepared for the date and everything. I looked up her profile on SocialNetwork, and found out which movies, music artists, and books she liked best. Then I researched some of them and got enough info to seem like I had really enjoyed all the same things. But when I took her to the pier later, she wouldn't put out. When I told Cameron, he laughed at me, the asshole. So I decided to keep the date to homecoming and get her drunk afterward. Seriously, it's not like she could continue resisting me. Stupid bitch."

"You go, Bobby. This should be an easy whore to bang. If you get her drunk enough, you should share her around with some of us. She'd probably never remember it, anyway."

Oscar felt his blood go cold, then begin to boil. He had encouraged Mellie to go for this piece of shit. Encouraged her! It would be his fault if anything happened. He wanted to go warn her, but he knew that she wouldn't listen to him, and that her friends would flip if they saw him merely approach her. He also knew he couldn't get into a fight with these asswipes now, or he'd be expelled again, but he could go to the dance and make sure he was always watching Bobby. Forcing himself to take deep breaths and calm down, he hurried off to band, hoping nothing would happen to her.

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On the day of the dance, Mellie slept in again, hoping it would help her stay up later to go to the party with Bobby and her friends. After a light lunch, she showered (after receiving a little help from her mom to cover her cast), then blow-dried her hair. She had decided to go for a curly look for this occasion, and spent the next two hours meticulously curling all of it. After she finished with her hair, she put on her makeup, jewelry, dress, and shoes. Then she packed her handbag, got her camera from its charger and went downstairs so her mom could take pictures.

By the time Bobby arrived, her mom was ready for pictures of the two of them. Then Mellie and Bobby left for dinner. During the dinner, Mellie was glad that Christine and Danielle had decided that they needed to all eat as a group because Bobby was definitely looking at her with a strange gleam in his eyes. The girls continued to take pictures of themselves and of the entire group, and when dinner was over, they all departed for the dance.

All the usual occurrences that go hand-in-hand with high school dances occurred. Someone spiked the punch toward the end of the night, causing at least three teachers to get tipsy. Chaperones walked around sternly telling couples to dance with less gyrations, and couples did so until the chaperones were once again out of sight. Two girls on the Homecoming Court dissolved into sobs when the captain of the Cheer Squad was crowned Queen, and all the girls went crazy when Bobby was crowned King. Rumors of a fight in the parking lot floated around, but no one knew if they were true, and everybody agreed that the DJ needed to stop playing country music.

Mellie and her friends enjoyed dancing with their dates, especially during slow dances, and when the dance was over, each girl departed with her date, calling that they'd see each other at the after-party. At this point, Mellie got nervous. She had spent hardly any time alone with Bobby the whole night, and she still had a nagging feeling that he had something planned.

Bobby and Mellie drove to Cameron's house, which was a mansion on the wealthy end of town that could easily accommodate three times the high school's population. Then the party really picked up. Only upperclassmen and a very select few sophomores had been invited, and the presence of alcohol was evidenced throughout the house. As the night went on, couples began disappearing to more remote places of the house, but surprisingly, Bobby did not push for Mellie to join him anywhere but on the dance floor, which was crowded with people.

Mellie had several drinks, none of which were alcoholic, so soon she felt the need to use the restroom. "Bobby, where's the restroom?" she called over the music.

"They're probably all in use, so you should use Cameron's parents' master bath. It's at the top of the stairs, in the left wing, sixth door on the right. That'll lead to their bedroom and the bathroom is accessed through the bedroom. Cameron told everybody to stay away from that area, so you should be able to get in right away."

"Thank you," Mellie said as she left. Once she got upstairs, she was glad Bobby had told her to use a private room. Through cracked doors she could see couples in various stages of undressing themselves or even fooling around. Finding the correct room, she let herself in and then went to the bathroom.

When she was finished she washed her hands in the ornate marble sink, and dried them off on the plush towels. She checked her makeup and hair in the mirror, then opened the door to leave and go downstairs.

When she walked into the bedroom, her eyes were immediately drawn to a figure standing by the door. "Bobby, what are you doing up here?" she asked tentatively. "I was just on my way back down."

Bobby walked forward, holding a bottle of Tequila and two glasses. "I thought we could spend some private time together and relax for awhile."

Mellie backed up, but didn't want to return to the bathroom. "Bobby, I don't drink. Can't we just go back downstairs and dance again? Please?"

Bobby's eyes had narrowed at her while she spoke, but she could see that he enjoyed hearing her say "please." At that, she had an idea of what was happening, but she didn't know what she could do to stop it.

Bobby poured some of the tequila into one of the cups, then drank the entire thing in one gulp. Mellie could tell that the glass was much larger than a shot glass. Bobby poured another glassful of alcohol and again downed it in one gulp. Then he advanced toward her again, stopping at the bedside table a mere five feet from her.

"How about you start sharing some of this with me, Mel? You know you want to." He poured her a glass, then poured himself one as well. "Drink with me," he demanded.

Mellie shook her head no, not able to talk. Bobby drank half of his glass, put both glasses onto the table, then stepped forward and slapped Mellie in the face. As it was on her left side, Mellie felt a couple of stitches pop. That whole side of her face burned, but Mellie continued to shake her head as Bobby held the drink toward her again.

"You might as well just take it, you bitch," Bobby said. "Otherwise I'll hit you again. Maybe this time I'll hit you harder. Now, drink!"

Mellie found her voice this time. "No. You can't force alcohol down my throat, so you might as well stop trying." She fought to keep her voice from shaking or breaking.

Bobby drank the rest of the alcohol in his glass, put it down, poured another glass, drank it, and slapped her, harder this time. Mellie bit her lip, but couldn't stop herself from letting out a little cry of pain. She had felt her cut rip open a bit that time, and she could now feel blood beginning to run down her face.

Bobby grabbed her by the arms and shoved her onto the bed roughly. He then said calmly to her, "I can hurt you in ways you never imagined you would hurt. So you can either start listening to me or you can reap the consequences. Now, I'll tell you one more time. Drink what I'm offering you."

Mellie again refused, but didn't want to speak anymore for fear that her voice would show her terror. At this, Bobby calmly took the glass of alcohol and threw it in her face, drenching her open cut. Mellie clenched her jaw to keep from crying out. It burned so badly, her face felt as if it were on fire.

"I guess we're going to do this the difficult way. But I WILL get what I want from you, whether you make it easy or hard." At this he put the glasses down on the table and kneeled next to her on the bed. "Here's what will happen if you choose the hard route. Your experience with me will be longer and more painful than it needs to be. If you choose the easy route, we will be finished quickly and you can leave. Now, which path will you choose? The easy one or the hard one?"

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Oscar was worried. He had gone to the dance and watched Mellie and her friends from the sidelines, making sure Bobby didn't enact his plan at the dance venue. He danced with some of his female friends, but only for a dance or two each. He was far too preoccupied with his surveillance of Mellie to really enjoy dancing. When Mellie's friends had left the dance, he'd waited about ten minutes, then followed suit. He knew where Cameron's house was, and he didn't want to seem like he was stalking the girls or anything.

When he got to Cameron's mansion, Carlos had been waiting for him so they could enter together. Since most of the senior and junior classes had been invited, nobody would think it odd that they were attending. They went inside and walked toward the dance floor, where Oscar felt fairly certain Mellie would be dancing with Bobby. Whenever he had watched her smile at Bobby, or laugh at a joke he told, he had to remind himself that he had encouraged her to attend the dance with him. It still made him ache to see her held by a different set of arms. He had shaken his head at these thoughts, and then continued dancing.

Later however, he had lost track of her. He had seen her leave the main dance room and head toward the stairs. Figuring she was going to the restroom, he didn't feel the need to continue to survey the situation. Ten minutes later, however, he noticed two things. One, Mellie hadn't returned yet. And two, Bobby was nowhere to be seen. This is what worried Oscar the most. Ever since he had heard Bobby talking in the locker room, his stomach had been in knots over how he could protect her, save her. And now it looked like he could accomplish neither.

He headed toward the stairs, hoping to find Mellie on the second floor. When he got up there, though, all he saw were couples drunkenly making out in all the open bedrooms. The bathrooms were locked, and he knew people were hooking up in them. His heart hammering, Oscar retraced his steps. At the top of the stairs, he had gone right. This time, he would go left. There were fewer people in that wing of the house.

Walking softly so he would not be heard, Oscar stopped outside each door and listened for Mellie or Bobby's voice. This hall goes on forever! he thought anxiously. After passing a couple more doors, he thought he heard something. He stopped and put his ear to the door, and just then there came a loud "BANG!" from within the room, followed by glass breaking and a muffled groan of pain. He waited for a moment more, and heard Bobby's voice. This is it, he thought, before he backed up a few steps, ran, and slammed into the door, barreling into the room and leaving the door hanging brokenly from its hinges.