Mike and Mae headed back to the hotel and ordered room service. He poured them each a glass of wine and sat down across from her. He watched as she moved the food around on her plate.

"Milly always jokes that I'm the good twin and she's the evil twin." She said by way of a beginning. "But the fact is, I've always been more like the invisible twin. At least in high school."

"Oh?"

She nodded. "Milly had enough spirit and passion and presence for two people, so I always kind of faded into the background. Not that I minded." She added honestly. "I actually liked being invisible. I liked it that I didn't have to act a certain way because that was what people expected of me. I liked sitting on the sidelines and watching everyone else."

"I wish I'd been invisible in high school."

She smiled. "I would have seen you."

He smiled back. "I wouldn't have minded if you saw me. But we were talking about you."

"I didn't have a date to the prom." She told him, jumping track again.

He seemed surprised. "No one asked you?"

"Robby Duggins did."

"But he was a geek?"

"Actually, he was a very nice boy. Cute too."

"So why didn't you go with him?"

"Because I was saying myself for someone else."

"Chris Irvine." She nodded.

"But I thought he had a girlfriend from way back when."

"He did."

"Didn't you assume he would take her?"

"Oh, I knew he would take her." She readily admitted.

"Then why?"

"I had plans for Chris." She said. "Even back then. A plan for prom night in particular. I planned to seduce Chris Irvine on prom night because I wanted to give him my virginity before we both went off to college. Even though I knew he and his girlfriend were planning to get married, I just. I convinced myself when I was ninth grade that Chris was my one and only, that somebody he and I would be together somehow. And I wanted my first time to be with him."

Mike said nothing in response to that, only eyed her silently, his expression so intent she could almost see the thoughts circling his brain. She just couldn't quite discern what those thoughts were about.

"I volunteered to be in charge of the punch table." She began again. "I figured that, at some point, Chris would come up to the punch table and I could ask him if I could talk to him privately and then we could step outside where I could tell him what I wanted. To go someplace where the two of us could be alone, so we could make love, and he could be my first. And then, I thought, we could go do just that."

"And how did the plan go?"

Mae inhaled another deep breath and released it slowly. "It went perfectly. At first. Chris did come to the punch table, and he did accompany me outside, and I did tell him that I wanted him to be my first. That part went just fine."

"So what went wrong?" Mike asked softly.

Mae swallowed hard. "It was the um, the making love part. We, uh, we didn't share the same vision for that."

"What happened?"

Mike's voice was even softer now, but somehow also edgier than it had been. He knew what was coming next, she thought. He knew Chris better than she had.

"I would have made love with him that night, Mike." She said. "I would have. I wanted to. And I was ready. I wanted to lose my virginity that night and I wanted to give it to Chris. But not the way he took it from me. I didn't want it like that."

Mike studied her for a moment then very quietly said. "He raped you. Is that what you're trying to say?"

She nodded and moved her gaze to the floor. "It started off okay. When I kissed him that first time, he was obviously surprised but he returned the kiss right away. Very tenderly too, initially. But then he turned ugly. He turned into a total stranger. The Chris Irvine I'd always known was a nice guy. But that night.."

"That night, he showed his true colors." Mike guessed.

She nodded again. "After I kissed him that first time, he smiled at me and for a minute, I honestly thought he was going to tell me he'd always had a crush on me, the way I'd had on him. For a minute, I was so happy, like this dream I'd had for four years was about to come true and he'd tell me he loved me, that he'd never loved anyone but me and that he'd break up with his girlfriend and start dating me. Then he leaned forward and kissed me again. But it turned very quickly from gentle into something else. Something hungry and demanding and mean."

"Mae, you don't have to tell me this if you don't want—"

"I do want to. I think it's important that you know this about me, Mike. I don't know why." She took a deep breath. "It's why I don't. It's why I don't wear underwear. I know you've been curious about that."

Mike stammered. "Well, I, uh, I ah.."

"I've seen the way you look at me, Mike." She interjected. "I know you've noticed. And I know you've wondered why. That night that Chris.. We went out to the parking garage to his car. I thought we could just talk out there and then make up some excuse to leave the prom separately and meet up again someplace else. A hotel or something, I really didn't think that far ahead. But once we were in his car and I told him what I wanted and then kissed him. Well, after that, Chris didn't want to wait. I guess he figured I was fair game. I guess he figured I got what was coming to me."

Her voice trailed off because she really didn't want to go into any great detail about what happened. "I tried to fight him." She said. "Tried to tell him that wasn't how I meant for it to be. But he was way bigger than me and I guess he didn't listen or he just didn't care and that was how I wanted it. He, at one point, he just tore off my underwear. So hard that the elastic in my panties burned my leg and the hooks in my bra cut my back. I haven't been able to stand the feel of underwear against my skin since then."

"How did you get home that night?" He asked. He was enraged by what happened to her.

"Chris drove me home afterward."

Mike arched one brow in disbelief. "He what?"

"He drove me home." She repeated. "Just like we'd been on a date or something. He drove me right to my house, leaned over me and pushed the door open, then kissed me goodnight. As I got out, he told me he'd call me. He said his father kept a boathouse on the river that was nice and secluded, and that next time, we could meet there for our fun. Then he drove away. I snuck in the back door and I took a shower and I went to bed and I tried to pretend that nothing had happened. Later that night, Chris came back to the house only this time he was bringing Milly home. And he was a hero then."

"Oh Mae."

"I never told anyone what happened. She said concluding her story. "Not even Milly. Not until now, Mike. Not until you. I was too scared, too ashamed."

"You had nothing to be ashamed of, Mae." He said adamantly. "You didn't do anything wrong."

"A lot of people would have said I had it coming."

"Yeah, well a lot of people are asses."

"I did come back to the reunion to find Chris, but not for the reason everyone thinks. Milly's so sure I've been carrying a torch for him all these years. She thinks I want to marry him. And Daddy has no idea what happened on prom night."

"If he did."

"He'd kill Chris." She finished calmly.

"Yeah, well at this point, he'd have to get in line."

She hesitated only a moment before saying. "So will you."

Well that certainly got his attention. "You don't' mean to tell me you came back here to—"

"Kill Chris?" She asked calmly.

Mike nodded not so calmly.

"As much as I've fantasized about such a thing over the last sixteen years, no." She said. "That's not why I came back. But I did come back for Chris. I did come back for him."

"But how.."

Mike let the question linger unfinished, either because he wasn't sure how to phrase it or because he didn't want a response. In either event, Mae didn't answer him.

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