Wiping the remaining tear from my eye returning from the funeral, I stepped onto my doorstep and grabbed hold of the door handle.

It was Johnny and Dally's funeral-of course. Steve was actually crying-first time I've ever seen him. Soda and Ponyboy were bawling their eyes out and Darry was standing there with his head ducked down. Pony and Darry, along with Tim Shepherd and Buck went up to say a few words. A LOT of people showed up-even Dally's alcoholic father. Johnny's parents didn't show.

They were also buried next to each other; it was nice.

I opened the door and walked on in.

"I'm home!" I said.

Then I stopped to a halt as soon as I saw the person standing in front of me. I was frozen; couldn't move, couldn't speak, I couldn't do anything.

It was her.

Michelle Walters.

Michelle Walters is this girl I met when Soda, Steve, and I all went to a party. It was DAYS before Johnny and Dally died-even days before Ponyboy and Johnny ran away. It was back then when everything was okay and nothing bad happened.

We got drunk-all three of us. I'm not the type of person who likes getting drunk a lot. I'll have a beer during the day now and then, but not enough to get me really drunk. I saw Michelle there, and she was someone who was absolutely obsessed with me. She was a nice girl, a real sweetheart. I woulda dated her if I knew her personally and wasn't going with Cathy. At the same time I wouldn't though because she doesn't stop talking to me. Every day I see her she builds up conversation for at least an hour about something really stupid and ends it by looking at me with a loving look in her eyes.

So that night Steve, Soda, and I were sitting at the bar fooling around when Michelle took a seat next to me. She was so drunk I thought she was going to be acting the same way she did that night the entire week. Her words were really slurred and combined so I could barely understand what she was saying. "Ayyy. Twobitmatthews HIIII. Youremember who I am right I'm MichelleWalters yea. I want you-toooo-looove me!" Then she wrapped her arms around my neck really tight but Sodapop pulled me back before she could of gotten any closer.

"You gotta get over the fact that Two-Bit doesn't like you!" Soda said.

"Wha-NOOOO. I know he loves me don't you Two-Bit"

"Not really actually" I said, making everyone laugh.

She still had that dumb drunken smile on her face. Guess she didn't care.

She turned around to talk to her friends so I turned around to talk to Soda and Steve.

Five minutes after I took another sip from my drink, I passed out cold.

When I woke up, I was on the ground of the bathroom. I saw silhouettes of red and blue flashing lights and the muffled sound of someone asking questions to Steve and Soda. The voices sounded professional so I guessed it was cops. I also heard "Get in the back" and what sounded like handcuffs being cuffed. I sat up a little bit, wincing. For some reason, everything hurt. Sure, I was hung over. But EVERYTHING hurt. I almost gasped when I noticed that ALL my pants were down…

I was raped.

Yeah, a boy getting raped-you don't really hear that one a lot.

But she raped me. I guess she was that obsessed. She put a date rape drug in my drink which made me pass out. She drug me to the bathroom to do it.

Michelle was standing in my kitchen clutching onto her purse. Her brown hair was shorter than at the party, and pulled back behind her ears. She looked kind of nervous.

"Um, hi Two-Bit."

"Hi." I was surprised I could get anything out of my mouth.

"I got released from…jail just about a couple weeks ago."
"Good for you."

It was silent for awhile.

"I…um…I wanted to talk to you. About the whole thing that happened."

"Um, alright."

We both had a seat facing each other on my living room couches.

"Listen. I had NO idea what I was doing. Of course that's something everyone would expect me to say but it's true. I've never gotten that drunk in my LIFE. When I woke up the next day in a jail cell, I was panicking because I had no idea what happened. I'm SO sorry Two-Bit. I know you probably hate me and you'll never forget what I did-but please try to find room in your heart to forgive me."

I couldn't look at her. I was thinking for awhile and I thought about how Sodapop and Steve were extremely scared, Darry and Pony never found out about it, and Soda and Steve hate Michelle with a passion.

"I don't hate you." I managed to say. I felt like I was a whole other person watching me and Michelle's conversation on TV. I didn't even think about what I had to say, the words just stumbled out.

She still looked at me.

It was silent. I had nothing to say-I didn't feel comfortable carrying on with the conversation.

"Please don't be scared of me. I decided I don't even like you that way anymore. What I did was just horrible."
"Yes, it was."

Her head ducked down.

"I'm not even that type of girl. I would NEVER do something like that to a person. I vowed never ever to drink again."
I simply nodded.

She sighed after a long period of silence.

"I might as well get going. This is getting awkward."
"It's been awkward."
"I know."

More silence.

When she reached the door she turned around. "Can we try to move past this?" she asked.

The truth was, I didn't know. I just wanted her out so I said "Sure" And faked a smile.

"Thanks" she said with a real smile and left.

I sighed. I was never going to move past that. Why did she have to bring it up anyway?