"You can drop the holier than thou attitude. We may have lied about what happened to Claire, but you know full well that the Frats here are bad news." Nish took a step forward, hoping to intimidate Veronica.
She was not to be scared. "I don't care how bad you might think the frats are. You lied. You made a mockery of other victims to further your own agenda. You have no idea what it feels like to actually survive something like that." Anger had gotten the better of her. She had been raped. And the man she had turned to had laughed at her. And these three bitches in front of her had faked a rape, making actual victims like her even more likely to be laughed at.
Fern's words left her mouth before she truly registered Veronica's remark. "And you do?"
"Yeah, I do." Though the words were calm and quiet, they left her mouth before she made the conscious decision to say them.
Her words stopped them all. Claire was first, a small gasp escaping her. Fern stared at her dumbfounded. It was Nish who had the courage to speak up. "You were raped?"
Veronica dropped her gaze, cursing her short fuse. A quick glance back put her too far from the door to make a hasty retreat. Not that it mattered; the words were already out in the open. She looked back, meeting the gazes of the three women in the room. Now that the words were out there, she might as well use them to her advantage. "Yeah, I was."
Claire was the one with the courage to ask about it. "What happened?"
A sigh escaped Veronica. "During my sophomore year of high school, I went to a party. I was handed a drugged cup. When I woke up the next morning, I was alone in bed and…" she trailed off, images of that morning coming back- missing underwear, blood, her ruined car, Lamb's laugh. She closed her eyes and shuddered.
Fern's voice was normal, no sign of pity. Veronica appreciated her for that. "You don't even remember. For all you know, you got drunk with a bunch of your friends and went too far with your boyfriend."
Anger flared in Veronica's eyes, "That's what the sheriff said when I tried to report it. That was right before he laughed me out of his office, telling me to get over it. I might not remember the details, but I know what happened to me."
Nish, ever the investigator, posed the question, "How? If you don't remember anything, if you were drugged, how do you know it happened?"
Veronica shook her head. But she answered, "I know because the people at the party weren't friends. I went to prove a point to them. I know because the consequences of that night came back to bite me in the ass several months later. I know because I was the one who figured out who did it. I did the same thing then that I'm doing now. I followed the clues and found him. I really don't think he would have confessed if it hadn't happened." She was done with them, she turned and stepped toward the door.
"You found him?
"Yeah, I found him. And when I threatened to out him, he pointed a gun at me and promised no one would ever know he was the guilty party." She shook her head, confused as to why she was trying to explain herself to these three. She extended her hand, reaching for the door knob.
"Then what happened?" Nish's voice was soft, almost as though she was sorry for all they had put Veronica through.
Veronica didn't bother to turn, she simply tightened her grip on the door, "I was saved by someone who cared."
"What happened to the guy? Is he in jail?"
Veronica opened the door and stepped out of the room, turning to face them this time, "He jumped off the roof."
Fern sounded stunned, "Why?"
Veronica shook her head; she'd asked herself a lot of questions about that night. That had never been one of them. Beaver had had a million reasons to jump, a rape, a dozen murders on his hands, not to mention a handful of other crimes. He himself had been looking for a reason to step off the ledge; "Because no one could give him a reason not to."