Author's note:
I would like to thank my editor-in-chief, The Goofy Proofy Reader, for their continued support, insight, and suggestions!
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Jen woke with a start, a headache from crying herself to sleep the night before pounding in the front of her head. She had no idea how her life had gotten so out of control and was no closer to figuring out how to escape this mess.
No time to dwell on it
, Jen thought, forcing herself out of bed to take a shower.
She avoided looking in the mirror, unable to look at the red hair Camila had forced on her or the bruising on her thighs and breasts that had almost faded from her night at the hotel she still couldn't remember.
Dressing for her first call, Jen grabbed cereal and sat at her desk.
At least none of the calls were video calls today
, Jen thought as she slurped the last of the milk from the bowl. Taking some medicine for her headache, she threw herself into her work, hoping it would take away her depression for a little while. She logged out of work at five o'clock and turned on the TV.
She had just found a drama to watch when there was a knock at the door. Dreeding who it might be, Jen looked through the peephole and cringed. Camila and Donald were in the hallway.
I can't catch a break
, Jen thought, as her shoulders slumped.
Unlocking the door was one of the hardest things she had done all day.
"What took you so fucking long?" Camila asked, pushing past Jen.
Donald smiled, "Hi, pretty lady," as he walked by.
Jen closed the door. The sound reminded her of an old movie where the door slammed behind an innocent woman who was then trapped in a prison with deranged convicts.
Jen was forced out of her daydream by Camila yelling, "Get your lazy ass in here, Slut."
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Becky's week had been crazy. She had pledged to a sorority with several other young women and had found out Saturday night that she had been accepted. The party that followed lasted until late into Sunday morning.
She woke to the worst hangover ever to the grating sounds of Jenna and her parents yelling at each other.
"WHAT THE HELL WHERE YOU THINKING?" Jenna's father yelled, the door to Becky's room doing almost nothing to mute the sound.
"Fuck, Jenna. What the hell did you do?" Becky said, getting to her feet. She threw on some clothes and opened her door to see Jenna cowering on the couch with her father towering over her. Jenna's mother stood over to the side, clutching her purse and looking terrified.
Becky sent a text to campus security asking for help. She didn't know if she would need it, but better safe than sorry.
"I love family reunions as much as the next girl, but could you keep it down a little? Some of us were up late last night," Becky interrupted as she entered the room and opened the refrigerator to grab a water bottle. She kept both of Jenna's parents in her field of view, not wanting any surprises.
"You! You, you, Slut! You did this to our daughter!" Jenna's raving father spat, coming over to the table Becky was standing next to, getting uncomfortably close to her.
"Hi, Ted. It is so nice to see you again. How is the job going?" Becky asked, keeping a neutral face.
Ted had a vein in his forehead that was throbbing in time to his pulse.
Maybe the asshole will stroke out
, Becky thought, hopefully. It would be better for both Emma and her mother.
He wagged his finger in Becky's face.
"Don't you talk to me like we're friends, Slut. Our daughter was a good girl until she moved in with you. Now she. She," Ted was at a loss for the right word.
"I don't know what's going on."
"Ted."
"But if you don't get that fucking finger out of my face, I will break it for you."
The glare Becky gave Ted made her point, and he pulled his hand back out of her face.
"All I know is I get woken up to you yelling at Jenna, and when I come out to see what the hell is going on, you start calling me names and yelling at me. So either calm the fuck down and start talking like an adult or get the fuck out," Becky gritted out, shifting her posture slightly.
All traces of nice Becky were gone.
"Someone sent us a picture of Jenna," Jenna's mother, Beth, said quietly, her mousy voice barely a whisper. "We wanted to talk to her and get her to see that she would go to hell if she continued down this road."
Becky knew Jenna's family was very religious, so she had been careful to ensure that no pictures of what she had Jenna doing made it to social media. She wasn't going to be the reason Jenna was outed. Who knows, Jenna might just be going through a phase, and in a few months, she might be banging her way through the football team.
So it wasn't her.
Looking at Jenna, "What is she talking about?"
"Like you don't know," Ted muttered.
A look from Becky shut him up.
Jenna was crying, her knees against her chest, trying hard to crawl inside herself.
"Jenna," Becky snapped.
Jenna looked up at Becky.
"What did you do?"
Jenna's tears turned to sobs, and she shook. She opened her mouth but closed it, unable to talk.
Becky walked over and pulled her into a hug, wiping away her tears.
"Why don't you go into your room? I'll deal with your parents," Becky whispered into Jenna's ear.
Jenna jumped off the couch and ran to her room.
"Where do you think you're going? You get back here right now!" Ted shouted as he started to follow Jenna to her room.
Becky moved in front of him and held up her hand. "She needs some alone time to calm down, and honestly, you need some time to cool off as well. Why don't we sit down and you can tell me what happened? Maybe we can figure this thing out?"
Becky was trying to diffuse the situation.
Ted wouldn't let some woman, especially one he was convinced had corrupted his little angel, get in his way and tell him he couldn't get his daughter, so he grabbed Becky to move her out of the way.
Becky used his energy against him and slammed him into the hallway wall before putting him into a choke hold until he was almost passed out.
She could hear Beth yelling and knew she was coming to Ted's aid, but one look stopped her in her tracks.
There was a knock on the outer door. "Campus security."
"About fucking time," Becky muttered as she dropped Ted to the floor.
She walked past Beth, and as Beth moved to help Ted, "Fucking leave the asshole there," Becky snapped, and Beth obeyed.
Becky opened the door to two uniformed officers.
"Someone sent a message that they needed some assistance?" Officer Brown asked, looking Becky over and noticing signs she had been in a scuffle.
"Yeah, my roommate's father came in and started screaming at her, and then the prick attacked me," Becky said, letting the officers into the room.
The officers noticed Ted picking himself off the floor, and the second officer walked over to help him up.
"She attacked me!" Ted screamed, pointing at Becky.
Officer Brown looked at Becky.
"My roommate ran to her room to get away from the asshole, and when I tried to get in his way to keep him from following her, he shoved me into the wall. I defended myself," Becky illustrated the events with a shrug.
Officer Brown looked at Beth.
Beth looked at Ted, who gave her a glare, and then at Becky, who raised an eyebrow. "I didn't see anything," Beth said as she sat on the couch and looked at the floor.
"Take him into the hall," Officer Brown told the officer holding onto Ted.
"Get your hands off me," Ted demanded, trying vainly to pull away from the officer.
"If he gives you any trouble, cuff him," Officer Brown said.
Turning to Becky and Beth, "You two have a seat. I need to talk to the other roommate. What is her name?"
"Jenna," Becky and Beth said at the same time, causing them to share a smile.
Officer Brown knocked on the door and went into Jenna's room. A few minutes later, he came back.
"I gave her a card for victims services. She really needs someone to talk to. I also advised her to file for a TRO against her father. She really doesn't want to do that. I will strongly suggest that you keep him away from her until he can be civil with her. Otherwise, the next time we get a call and he is involved, he will be arrested on domestic abuse charges. The campus has very strict guidelines. If that happens, he will not be allowed on the grounds."
He handed Beth a business card, "This is a friend of mine who works for a consoling service. If you need someone to talk to... We will hold Ted until later today and release him to you, Beth, on the condition that you both leave campus."
"He's not going to agree to that. He wants Jenna to come home," Beth said, wringing her hands.
"Jenna is an adult. If she wants to leave with you, then that is her decision. If he forces her to leave, he will be picked up on kidnapping charges. Even if Jenna refuses to press charges, it will ruin his reputation in his community," Officer Brown told Beth, making eye contact with Becky, who nodded. She understood that he wanted her to call back if Ted showed up and forced Jenna to leave.
"I understand it's hard, but she is an adult. That means that Ted and you will have to accept what she wants to do with her life," Officer Brown said, briefly putting his hand on Beth's shoulder before walking out into the hall and shutting the door.
They could hear Ted shouting as they took him away.
Becky took Beth's hand. "Will you tell me what all this is about now?"
"I guess you have the right to know," Beth said as she pulled out her phone and opened a photo.
It was a photo of a naked Jenna on her knees with her head between the thighs of a woman eating her out while getting fucked by a guy. The faces of the two other people were blurred out, but Jenna was very easy to identify.
The photo was taken in their dorm room, and based on the clothing on the floor and the builds of the man and woman, Becky realized it was Donald and her.
The text to the picture read, "Your daughter is our little fuck slut."
"That's kind of graphic," Becky admitted, handing the phone back to Beth.
"Yeah, kind of," Beth acknowledged, putting her phone back in her purse.
"We got that this morning, right before leaving for church. Ted went crazy. I don't think I have ever seen him that mad," Beth confided.
"All the way here, he drove like a madman. I'm sorry you got mixed up in this," Beth frowned, looking at Becky, who was deep in thought.
