After what seemed like a eternity, the bell finally rang and 16-year-old Vlad Masters couldn't be happier. He sped out of the school, backpack and all, and started walking home.

"Hey, Vlad, did you understand any of that?" Jack Fenton asked, who was walking beside him.

"Yes, Jack, I did." Vlad rolled his eyes. "Let me guess: you weren't paying attention. Drawing anti-ghost devices again?"

"Yep! One day, this will become reality!" Jack smiled. "That, and Alyssa was sitting in front on me. Damn, that girl is hot!"

And a bitch. Vlad thought to himself. But he couldn't bring himself to shake Jack out of his romantic daydreams. "Well, I'm sure you'll be able to win her over." Like you do with everyone else, Mr. Football Star.

"Thanks, V-man. Hey, I'll see if I can get one of her friends to go out with you!"

"No, buddy. I am not going on a date, especially not one that you set up. Remember what happened last time?"

"Come on, it couldn't have hurt that much!"

"You call getting kneed in the groin not very painful? How would it feel if I did the same to you?"

Jack winced. "Point taken, V-man. Still, least we got a whole weekend to mess around. Your parents are still on their business trip, right?"

"Yeah, for the next few days. Least they left some money and food this time around."

"Come on, buddy, cheer up. Besides, I'm sure Maddie will be around as well." The thought made him smile, the first genuine one of the day. He and Maddie Stevens had been friends ever since first grade, where she defended him from a boy forced his face into the mud. "You're lucky to have a girl like that."

"Oh, no. I don't like this idea." Truth be told, Vlad had a small crush on Maddie, though it wasn't anything major. He knew Jack was going to try and play matchmaker again. He meant well, but it almost always ended in disaster.

"You know you want my help; admit it!"

"No, and don't ignore me again." They had finally arrived at Vlad's house, which was the nicest on the block. His parents were quite wealthy and they had much to entertain themselves. Vlad quickly found the chessboard and they started a game. Vlad picked black and Jack white. Jack liked to joke that Vlad was pure evil, but really, he just preferred to have his opponent make the first move.

It was somewhat boring for a while, since both of them knew the game and were setting up their pieces for the offensive. "So where is Maddie?" Vlad asked. "She should be here by now."

"I'm sure she'll show up." Jack smiled, taking a rook with his knight. "Check." Vlad moved his king out of the way, and used a pawn to capture another. That wouldn't have mattered much, except it let him take Jack's Bishop with no way for him to avenge it. The game went on, and after a few minutes, it was like a machine gun had raked the board. Vlad avoided a potential trap for his queen, and put Jack in check, forcing him to sacrifice his last rook.

"Seriously, Jack, what is going on?" Vlad asked. "She's never this late." He moved one of his last 2 pawns to take Jack's last bishop, although he had to sacrifice one of his knights. Pretty soon, very few pieces were left, and Vlad was moving on Jack's queen. Jack had no other pieces save for a couple of pawns, and a knight, so there was little he could do. That is, until Vlad made a mistake and lost his queen. "Damn, why didn't I see that coming?"

"Because I'm going to kick your butt." Jack bragged. The game went on for a while longer until Vlad used his knight and rook to checkmate Jack's king.

"The winner and still champion!" Vlad laughed, doing a victory dance.

"Hold on, hold on, this is not checkmate." Jack protested.

"Care to try again, Jack?" Vlad chuckled.

"Get back here; this is not checkmate! This isn't checkmate! Damn, checkmate!"

"Hey, at least you put up a fight. Work on your offense and you might even beat me once in a while. Emphasis on might…" Vlad was the best chess player in the school and was proud of it. He had been playing for 6 years, and while he wasn't a master, he was quite skilled.

"Oh, I'll beat you one of these days!"

"You've said that for months and it hasn't happened. You must be a glutton for punishment…or just a glutton." On that note, Jack went into the kitchen and raided the fridge. He grabbed a can of Pepsi, chicken wings, and a slice of pizza, gulping it down in less than 5 minutes. The house had 3 easy chairs, a large couch and a giant television. Both of them sprawled out and relaxed.

"Jack, I'd say you eat like a pig, but pigs chew more than you do. You eat more like a duck or something."

"Hey, I just enjoy my food. So where's your fudge?"

"We're out of fudge right now. Look, Jack, where is Maddie? Stop stalling and just tell me."

"Okay, fine. The guy she licks finally agreed to go out with her and she's getting ready. Maddie's pretty nervous about this, so she's going over everything you can think of."

"Women: can't live with them, can't build robots to do your housework."

Jack laughed loudly. "Don't let Maddie hear you say that! She'll probably kill you, and you'd have it coming."

"Yeah, I know, but she doesn't need to know, does she?" After eating, the friends played a couple more games of chess, which Vlad won, although by the skin of his teeth.

"Hey, Jack, I have to tell you something."

"What is it, V-man?"

"Did you hear those…rumors that were going around about me?"

"No, actually, I haven't. Course, I skipped football practice today, so that doesn't mean much. Sure, the coach will be mad, but I'm the only one who can get us to the playoffs!"

"They said that I harassed that girl Samantha. You know, the one I had a crush on for a while."

"Yeah, I remember her."

And she fell for you, of course. Vlad sighed. He tried not to be angry with Jack, since he wasn't to blame, but it wasn't an easy thing to do. "Well, there are people that are saying I annoyed her, so to speak."

"What are you trying to say?"

"Okay, fine. She's accusing me of harassing her…in a certain way. Jeez, all I said was that I thought she was attractive!"

"How did you say it?"

"When we were talking, I said she looked nice. She just nodded and backed away. I found out she accused me and now the school's threatening to expel me."

"Ah, don't worry about it, Vlad. All of this will blow over."

"For you, maybe! I'm different than normal people, which frightens them! Hell, I see people do a lot worse every day. The girls either giggle or at most, just roll their eyes and walk away. I try to give a compliment, and they go crazy; I'm sick of it!"

"Vlad, she's just stupid if she doesn't see how great you truly are."

"Never knew you had a sentimental side. Can't believe I'm saying this, but thanks for being here for me. Remember, if you tell anyone else we had this conversation, I'm going to kill you."

"How many times have you said that?"

"40 or so; I lost count."

"Hey, V-man, where are those magazines your dad was reading? They were rather…interesting."

"Do you think of anything else besides women and sports?"

"There's more to think about?" Jack chuckled, went to the kitchen and got them both a can of soda.

"Not the way you talk." After another hour or so, Jack eventually went home, leaving Vlad by himself. He curled up on the couch, reading "Congo". He was about halfway through the book, when it started getting interesting. He heard a knock on the door, sighed, and set his book down. When he opened it, he saw Maddie.

"Hey, Maddie, I was wondering where you were!" Vlad smiled. "Come on in!" he closed the door behind her. "So what have you been up to? Well, me and Jack played chess and of course, I kicked his butt. Got to give him credit for trying, though."

Vlad stopped when he realized that something was wrong. Maddie hadn't said anything to him. He took a good look at her and saw something off, although he didn't know what it was. "Maddie, what is it?"

"What do you want to do, Vlad?" Maddie asked, bowing her head.

"That doesn't matter; what's wrong? We've been friends for 10 years, Maddie. You can tell me anything."

"It doesn't really matter, Vlad. I think I'm just going to go home."

"Maddie, just tell me; I'm worried about you. What happened? Those stupid bitches calling you a slut again?" On some level, Vlad understood it was something worse than that. The rumors often bothered her, but to see her like this…

"No, Vlad, it's nothing. You'll just tell me I'm being stupid."

"Maddie, I'd never say that. Now sit down and tell me. What happened to you?"

"Just don't call me weak, please."

"You're the strongest person I know, Maddie." Vlad was starting to have a very bad feeling about this.

"I've been lying to you guys. I've been seeing him for a couple of months now. We had a good time and he offered to drive me home. I accepted, except he went the wrong way. I…told him and he stopped in the middle of the woods. I wanted out, only he wouldn't let me. He started grabbing at me, and I demanded he stop."

"Then what?" Vlad knew, but needed to hear it from Maddie.

"he backhanded me, and threw me into the back seat. I tried to fight him, but I couldn't. He forced me down…and raped me." She couldn't take it anymore and started crying.

Vlad pulled her into his arms, trying to comfort her, only to get elbowed in the gut. "No, don't touch me! No!" Maddie curled up into a ball and cried silently, Vlad not knowing what to do.

Of course she elbowed you; she's just been violated and probably doesn't want to be touched right now. Vlad berated himself. He simply stared as Maddie as she continued. What do I do? I don't want to make this worse.

He simply sat there for an unknown amount of time while Maddie cried herself out. "I'm sorry, Vlad. God, I'm so pathetic; you probably won't even want to be near me again."

"Maddie, don't say that. I'd never want to abandon you. Who did this to you?"

"No, Vlad, it doesn't matter. No one's going to care, anyway." Vlad saw a handkerchief in her pocket and pulled it out. It was soaked in blood and he threw it down in horror. "Just go away; you don't want to be here."

"Look, Maddie, I'm not leaving you like this, any more than you would leave me. Look, I suggest we go to the police."

"No, Vlad; I don't want to. Besides, I probably asked for this, anyway. I was attracted to him; I could have fought harder. I could have screamed for help."

"This isn't your fault, maddie, it's his, no one else." he grabbed her hand and wrapped both of his around it. She flinched and looked away, but didn't yank it out of his grip.

"Go right ahead; blab. No one's going to believe you, slut. Besides, you wanted this to happen to you, anyway." Maddie pulled her hand away, looking at Vlad with haunted eyes. "No one's going to care; why should you? Don't you have better things to do than talk with your whore of a friend?"

"Don't say that, not ever. You're my friend and I'm sticking by you. Don't ask me to abandon you, because I'm not going to."

"Thanks, Vlad. I still think you should, though. This is my problem, not yours. I've got to deal with this alone."

"No, Maddie, you don't. Again, who did this to you? He deserves to suffer for what he did; what's his name?"

"All right, I'll tell you. His name is Ken, and I've been dating him for a while. Why did this have to happen to me?"

"I don't know, Maddie, but you didn't deserve this. You're a wonderful person and I'm glad to be your friend."

"Sure, Vlad, whatever you say." She turned around and didn't talk to him again. Vlad simply stared at her, processing all of this through his brain. How could anyone do something like this to Maddie?

After a while, he touched Maddie lightly on the shoulder, hoping he didn't make a big mistake. She didn't respond and he heard some light snoring. She's asleep, then. I better get her a blanket if she's staying the night. He grabbed the first one he saw and covered her up to her waist.

He knew he should be focusing on his schoolwork, but somehow, that didn't seem very important anymore. Vlad sat down on the chair and simply watched silently. His thoughts went back to the many times he had been mistreated at school, to the point where it was almost a daily occurrence. Stop thinking about yourself, you piece of shit! Maddie needs you and you're thinking about your problems; pathetic!

Maddie's sleep was very fitful. She moved around on the couch, making noises and sweating profusely. She moaned "No, stop" and it broke Vlad's heart to watch. He wanted to hug her, try to comfort her, but realized that it wasn't a good idea right now. He took the blanket off and set it at her feet.

He spent a long time pacing around his house, lost in his thoughts. Vlad turned off all the lights, except for the one in the living room and sat down once again, not wanting Maddie to get hurt.

Life really is cruel to you, Maddie. Vlad sighed to himself. It isn't kind to me, but it's even worse to you. He knew that he and Jack were probably the only support she really had in her life, and out of them, Vlad was the one she usually turned to. Jack meant her, but couldn't relate to her the way Vlad could. Both of them were in similar situations and could understand one another.

What do we do now? Vlad wanted to help her, more than anything, but didn't really know how to do so.

So what did you think of it? Hopefully, I got the reactions accurate, since I know this is a sensitive issue to some.

To be honest, it's affected me personally. I wasn't the one raped, but it was someone close to me, and it breaks my heart that someone could do that to her, so this isn't an easy thing to write. And no, I am not going to tell you who I'm referring to. In a way, it affected me more than it did her, strange as that may sound.

I first got the idea for this kind of story when I had a horrible nightmare a few months ago, and not the usual kind. In the dream, I was wandering around, when I saw this person running towards me, begging for my help. There was someone after her. I tried to defend her, to protect her, and I failed. It may have only been a dream, but it wasn't easy to deal with. And this was only a few days before I found out what had happened to her.

I decided to make it someone she was dating, someone she was familiar with, because that's who most rapes are committed by, despite the popular stereotype of it being a stranger. In fact, that is barely 2 percent.

In addition, since most of the time the victim is Sam in fan fiction, I wanted to make it someone else. Since no one has used Maddie before, I decided to make her the one. Have to admit, with the guy who hurt her, I don't want to kill him. I want to injure him in a way that he suffers horrible pain forever. Death is too merciful, far as I'm concerned.

Hopefully, you aren't too bored with my monologue. As always, please review. It only takes a few minutes of your time and it motivates me to keep writing. Thank you!