I lightly grabbed her hand, squeezing it once before leaving, heading out and into the hall. Within ten minutes, I was at the bus stop, freezing cold in my hoodie, my breath white puffs in the cold air outside. The bus pulled up ten minutes after that, and the driver gave me a look like I was crazy.
In a way, I kind of was. Still wholly against those puffy winter jackets that everyone seemed to be a fan of. I’d rather freeze my ass off, thanks.
I moved to the nearest open seat and pulled out my phone. Levi had texted me already, saying they’d gone to the rec.
Perfect. Now I just had to get there.
The bus was mostly quiet as it drove along. There were some other students here, but most were just other people using the public transportation. Everyone was on their own phones, minding their business. I suddenly wondered how many people had seen one of the videos Dean released.
Not the best time to lose myself in that thought, I told myself, forcing my brain to think about the matter at hand.
I was the only one who got up at the stop near the rec, shuffling out and back into the cold, the bus’s heat a distant memory as it drove off. I shivered to myself as I walked up the long sidewalk to the rec’s front doors. It’d been shoveled, but a thin layer of new snow sat on the concrete.
Snow. It was pretty for the first hour after it fell, but then it just got dirty, crunched-up and wet. And when that snow became so packed it turned to ice? Forget about it. A winter wonderland it was not when you slipped with every step you took.
The rec center was a new environment for me. Not only was it full of people who were in shape—and those people trying to get in shape—but it also smelled of sweat. Now, I didn’t know about you, but for me, the only sweat I liked to smell was Levi’s, and that was only because I was madly in love with the guy. Sweat in general was gross.
I also didn’t know where to go, so I was sure I looked like a fool as I wandered the rec trying to find the courts. The building was bigger inside than it looked; it seemed to sprawl in every direction, with weight rooms, a track for sprinting, and a bunch of other courts, including some rooms that were used for dancing.
Crazy. All these people being active like they enjoyed it. Personally, I didn’t see the appeal. The only physical activity I was down for involved Levi naked and on a bed. Or not in a bed. Levi naked anywhere would work.
After a while of wandering, I found the basketball courts. There were three of them side by side, and the leftmost one was the current one the Sigma Chi boys were using. Thank God, I didn’t have to actually go into the large room and watch; there were some windows from the hall, along with benches, so I was able to plop myself down and watch without being overly creepy about it. I fiddled around on my phone while watching so it looked like I was just waiting for someone to come out.
I texted Levi: I see him. It’s a go.
Kind of felt badass, like Levi and I were locked in some secret spy movie, trying to get ahead of the bad guys. In this case, guy. Just one guy…although, from what it sounded like, most of the guys from Sigma Chi were shitty dudes, and they all deserved some comeuppance.
Dean would get his first, though.
It was only five minutes later when Levi responded: It’s there.
My stomach hardened, and I couldn’t tell if I was nervous or anxious or what. The flash drive was back. Dean had brought it back like the fool he was. Since Levi and I hoped he’d bring it back, we planned on Levi taking it for a few minutes, using his own laptop to see what was on it—since Dean’s laptop was password-encoded. I prayed there was something on it we could use.
My phone rang after a while, and I immediately picked up when I saw Levi’s name. “Yeah?” I asked, heart beating fast in my chest.
It was a while before Levi said, “I think we got him.” And then Levi explained to me just what was on that flash drive, what Dean had.
“Before you put it back, make sure you wipe your fingerprints off it,” I said, my eyes burning holes through the glass to the basketball court Sigma Chi was on. I spotted Dean making a shot from midway down the court, and the bastard nailed it easily. “Text me when it’s done. I’ll handle the rest.”
“What—”
“Trust me,” I said, saying nothing more before hanging up. I’d tell Levi once it was done. There were just some things out there that a fellow girl had to do, and this? I planned on enjoying this far too much.
I stayed a little while longer, leaving only after Levi told me the flash drive was back in the safe. I went back to the dorm, had to make a little pit stop before going to the place I needed to. The room was too empty without Mel, and it’d be strange to walk in next semester and see her stuff gone—or worse, share the space with someone else.
Levi was already taking care of that, though. He’d started to look for apartments close by we could share.
I took what I needed to, focusing on staying as calm as I could as I headed down the stairs and out the side door, back in the cold. As I walked to my destination, a place I knew where it was but had never stepped foot inside before, I kept reminding myself that I could do this. I could do this with no problems.
This was serious shit anyway, so really, it deserved a serious response. This harassment, this bullying, would not continue. I wouldn’t let it.
I stopped at the base of the sidewalk in front of the building that was my destination, puffing up my shoulders as I stared at the big block letters displayed above the sliding glass doors. Summit Police Department.
Oh, yeah. I was going hard. You knew what they said: go big or go home—and I was most definitely not going to go home.
My feet drew me to the doors, and I kicked off my shoes before going to the front desk, where an older man was working, glasses on his nose as he stared at a computer screen. I leaned on his desk, saying, “Hi. I, uh, I’m not sure how this works, but I need to talk to somebody.” When the man only turned his gaze to me, I added, “A cop, obviously. I’d like it to be a woman, if possible.”
Didn’t know why, but I felt like a woman officer would better understand how serious this whole situation was, whereas a man might just shrug it off as boys being boys.
No. This was worse than that. This was not a boys will be boys situation. This was a dick being a dick, and me trying to prove that sometimes being a dick didn’t pay.
“Let me see who’s available,” the man spoke, grabbing his phone and starting to dial some extensions. “Take a seat,” he added, pointing to the chairs across from him.
I gave him a smile, hoping I wasn’t too forward with my request to be seen by a female officer. It was almost ten minutes later when a young female cop walked out from the back, her blonde hair drawn in a low bun, tight, not a single hair out of place. The dark blue uniform was snug on her body, her badge shiny on her chest. I was guessing she didn’t see much street duty, that she got stuck with a lot of the paperwork of the department.
The woman gave me a smile. “Hey there. What can I help you with?”
I got up. “Do you…do you have an office or something?”
“Sure, come on back.” She gestured for me to follow her.
It wasn’t so much an office as it was a desk surrounded by a bunch of other desks. Two metal chairs sat opposite hers, though hers didn’t look too much more comfortable. We both sat down, and she asked if she could get me something to drink.
“No,” I said, feeling a bit nervous. “I just…I’ve never done this before, so…”
“Never done what before?”
“I wanted to talk to an officer, to see if something can be done.”
“Are you a student at SCC?” she asked, folding her hands along her desk. A computer sat to her left, paper trays to her right. It was a mess, and I was pretty sure it would only get messier once I told her everything I had to tell her.
“I am,” I said. “It’s a long story though, but I need to know if you think there’s enough of a case to arrest someone, or at least press charges or s
omething.”
Her expression suddenly grew serious, and she nodded once. “Start at the beginning, then.”
And so I did. I explained to her everything I could—minus the drama between Levi and me. I told her about me coming to SCC for the first time a few months back, everything that transpired between my roommate and her ex-boyfriend last year. How said ex-boyfriend kept trying to talk to her, stalking her, trying to get me to help reconcile him with her. I told the officer how I refused, and how he immediately released a sex video of me I did not consent to—and when I added in the fact that he’d spread a second video around campus, this one of my roommate who was currently fighting for her life in the hospital after being terrorized by him.
“She blocked him, but he got one of his fraternity brothers to send her the video,” I said, reaching into my pocket and pulling out Mel’s phone. “This is her phone.” I typed in her passcode, unlocking it, going into her text messages and clicking on the video to show her. Just from the angle of the video, you could tell it was from a hidden camera and not filmed purposefully.
The officer had to pause the video, setting the phone down slowly. “Wow. Are her parents aware of the extent of the bullying and the stalking?”
“I don’t know, maybe.”
“I’ll need you to make an official police report,” she told me, reaching for a drawer on her desk and pulling out a form. “And I’ll contact her parents and see if they want to pursue it as well.”
My heart was in my stomach as I added, “I think he has more videos. I think…I think he might have a whole lot more, with a lot of other girls.” The flash drive in his safe held tons of videos, videos of his fraternity brothers getting it on with different girls, those girls being filmed unknowingly.
“I’ll see what I can do about a warrant, but for now, let’s get that statement done, okay?” She gave me a smile, and I tried not to get my hopes up. Even if this didn’t result in Dean being arrested or charged, it still would show him that I wasn’t about to play around. Not anymore.
I nodded, and the officer helped me out when she could. I’d never written a police statement before, never asked to have a police report done, but there was a first time for everything. Fall in love, get to know the local police better. It went hand in hand.
By the time I was done, by the time I walked out of that police station, I felt proud of myself. Content. The officer had kept Mel’s phone for evidence, and her parents were due here any time to talk to her. Hopefully something would be done about Dean, and maybe even his fraternity. It was probably too much to hope, but you never knew.
Maybe, for the first time ever, luck was on my side.
Chapter Twenty-One – Kelsey
Levi came over later that night, once I was back in the room. I was trying to study for some upcoming exams—those things loomed on the horizon like fucking Godzilla ready to tear apart what mediocre grades I had—but all hope for studying vanished the moment he showed his pretty face.
And then, well, I was pretty sure we all knew what happened. Anytime we were together, alone, it was impossible to keep our hands off each other. I’d never seen my parents act this way, and I couldn’t help but wonder if they’d ever been like this. I never wanted my relationship with Levi to ever regress to the state of—or lack of—the relationship between my parents. I would give anything to keep the fire, to bottle up the passion and always have it around.
Without passion, without heat that made you want to explode, what was the point?
After a particularly long session of reacquainting ourselves with each other’s bodies, I laid on Levi’s chest, his arms around me, holding me close, lest I got any ideas to get up. No, I wouldn’t get up. Not yet. This was…nice. Feeling his bare, hairless chest rise and fall under my cheek, listening to his heart beating. No, I wasn’t going to get up.
I’d already told Levi what I did, and thank God Levi had known something was up, because after he put away the flash drive back in the safe, he grabbed all of his cameras. They now rested in his bag, which was here, in my room, for safekeeping.
“I hope he ends up getting charged,” I muttered, tracing a circle around Levi’s right pectoral.
“I hope he gets arrested and thrown in jail” was Levi’s quick response, which made me grin.
I’d take jail. I’d definitely take jailtime for Dean, but at this point, anything would be better than nothing. He’d gone about, doing whatever he wanted for far too long, terrorizing the one girl I should’ve better protected. No matter what ended up happening, Dean needed to know this was serious shit.
Silence took us over for a while, and Levi’s hands moved to trace my spine. My eyelids fluttered closed; probably for the best, for Dean wasn’t the best topic of conversation, especially while Levi and I were naked and in bed.
Bed. Who knew having sex in a bed was so much better than banging it out against a car or a bathroom stall door? Beds were nice. I really never wanted to go without one again.
“I think I found an apartment for us,” Levi eventually said, and I angled my face up to his, blinking, a smile growing on my face.
Sharing an apartment with Levi would be tough, but it’d be better than rooming here with a stranger. I was sure there’d be little quirks and habits of Levi that would bug the shit out of me—quirks and habits I hadn’t noticed yet—but that was the beauty of a relationship. When you did it right, it evolved and grew with you.
I was never, ever going to give up on this man.
“It’s right off campus, just a street away. The rent’s not too high,” he said. “I think we can swing it.” His chest rumbled, and I momentarily lost myself to the manly sound. “There’s no way in hell I’m going to be welcome in that house if the cops come for Dean.”
That much I knew was true. There’d be a riot for him, a stoning. For whatever reason, Dean had the whole of Sigma Chi at his back. Brotherhood or some shit. It was, frankly, annoying. They were all guilty, as far as I was concerned, even if they didn’t know Dean was taping them with their marks.
Yep. The Sigma Chi fraternity hazing included sleeping with a girl the other fraternity brothers said, and if you didn’t do it, they found a way to kick you out. They all slept with girls, and then broke their hearts. That was their game, and I hesitated to even call it a game.
Something like that…it wasn’t a game. It was just cruel.
Every single guy in that house deserved a punishment. Hell, the whole fraternity should be dissolved or something. I knew there were other chapters like it across the United States, but I hoped they weren’t like this particular branch.
“If they do come for him and you’re there, you better text me,” I told him. “I want to see it happen.” Oh, watching Dean being dragged from that house in handcuffs would be something to see, I bet. A spectacular sight I’d never forget.
Levi pulled me up to his head, pressing his lips against mine before muttering, “You got it, as long as you bring some popcorn.” He started to smirk.
Some girls didn’t like smirks, and normally I didn’t—but on Levi? On Levi the smirk worked. When his lips curled upwards like that, mischievous and playful, I couldn’t help but get lost in it. And then his eyes…oh, the blueness of his eyes still got me every damned day.
“Will do,” I whispered, my fingers curling into his dark hair as my lips met his again. This time the kiss was no quick thing. This time the kiss morphed into something more: greedy hands all over each other, lips traveling down bodies, legs opening.
What could I say? Guess when it came to Levi, I was just a hungry kid in a candy shop, wanting it all.
I wasn’t sure why I wanted to be here, but I did. And it wasn’t like I just stood around and looked pretty—I actually helped, a little. I helped Mel’s parents carry down the boxes to the car parked on the turnaround. We packed up most of her things, although there were a few items they said they didn’t want to take; they could either be trash, or I could have them. When Mel woke up, she
’d have to live at home. I had no idea what her parents would want her to do, but I knew it would be an adjustment; her parents were not her favorite people in the world.
I could see why, too. Her mom seemed too stern, too serious. Nice enough, but still, no thanks. Her dad was the opposite, almost too easy-going, going along with whatever his wife said. A pushover to the extreme.
Her mom and dad were down at the car, taking the second to last load. Her bedding was gone; I stood there staring at an empty mattress. It really wasn’t going to be the same around here without her—thank God Levi further investigated that apartment. We moved in January first.
When Mel’s parents came back, her dad gathered the last of the stuff while her mother headed straight for me. I could see where Mel got her looks from; she came from a skinny family, although I still thought she was a little on the anorexic side. Mel’s mom had the same blonde hair, though hers was longer. She was a well-put-together person, not a hair out of place. Her dad was where she got her dark eyes.
It was strange, seeing pieces of Mel in two people that were strangers to me.
“Kelsey,” Mel’s mom spoke, giving me a tiny, almost imperceptible smile, “I wanted to thank you.”
I blinked, clueless. “For what?”
“For bringing the seriousness of the situation to the police and involving us. Mel refused to talk about what happened last year, but now that we know that Dean had been harassing her, I…” She trailed off. “It’s a shame, what college did to that boy. He was a good kid when they were in high school, but now…now he’s just a vile boy, throwing hatred into the world because he couldn’t get what he wanted.”
“I’m taking the last load down the car,” Mel’s dad called out, his arms full as he exited the propped-open door to the dorm room and disappeared down the hall.
“You’ve already done so much for us, but I’m hoping I can ask you to do something else,” her mom went on. She grabbed my hands, squeezing hard. “I want to take this bastard to court. I want to nail him for everything he did to my girl. Will you be a witness? You saw confrontations between them, you know—”
Making Mistakes: A College Bully Romance (Playing Games Book 2) Page 19
