[Disclaimer: The following chapter deals with rape and assault, and will be pretty graphic.]
Chapter Eleven: Craig and Manny to the Rescue
~*Bianca*~
Eleventh grade had definitely not been my greatest year to date. First everything with Craig, then getting my hair hacked off. I had never cut my hair in my entire life, and Manny cut it off at my chin. I was self conscious about it for months. But eventually, Jimmy got me over that.
Jimmy. The only good thing in my life at the moment. I didn't have any female friends, I tended not to trust them. I felt bad for breaking up Craig and Jimmy's friendship, but Jimmy told me not to worry about it. He also quit the band.
We dated all through the year, and life was pretty good, and finally, it happened.
No, not that! Perv! Hah, just kidding. I'm talking about the last day of school. Three months of freedom, away from having to see Manny, Paige, Ashley, or Hazel in the hallway every day.
I exited the school building and stood on the front steps, inhaling deeply. "You smell that?" I asked Jimmy.
"Smell what?" he replied.
"Freedom." I answered. I grabbed his hand and we walked down the steps together.
"So, what's on the agenda tonight?" he asked.
"I don't know." I replied. "Mom and Dad are out of town again. Cruise."
Jimmy shook his head in disbelief. "I can't believe your parents just leave you alone like that all the time."
I shrugged. "What can I say, I'm used to it."
"Doesn't make it right." Jimmy replied with a shrug of his own.
"Okay, so I guess it's movies and dinner at my house tonight? We could order Chinese." I suggested.
"Works for me." Jimmy replied. "Look, I gotta get home, I promised my mom I'd help her hang drapes. But I'll come by around six, okay?"
I nodded. "Okay."
He lifted my chin and kissed me. "See you in a little while."
"Bye." I said with a smile. He smiled back, then turned and walked down the sidewalk to his house. I turned and began walking in the opposite direction. I wanted to go to the bookstore and kill some time.
Apparently, I had gone on a time killing spree, because it was dark when I got out of the store. It was already six forty two. Jimmy was going to be worried if he showed up at my house and I wasn't home. I hurried down the street.
I hadn't gotten too far when I felt like someone was following me. But every time I turned around, there'd be no one there. Finally I just deemed it my own personal demons and began to ignore the little voice in my head
"Hey." A man stood in front of me, blocking my way.
"Excuse me," I mumbled, turning to move past.
"I said hey." The man moved to block me.
"Hey?" I looked up at him, getting nervous. "Can I help you?" I asked in my best 'angry urban girl' voice.
That must have been whatever the man was looking for. He grabbed me and pulled me into the park, hand over my mouth, back up against a tree. "Yeah, yeah you can." His voice was deep, gruff.
I tried to scream, but his hand was too tight over my face. I kicked my legs out, trying to remember everything I'd learned in the self-defense courses my mother had made me take. I'd lived in downtown Los Angeles for two years and never had a problem, please god don't let me get raped in a tiny little town east of Toronto. The irony alone would kill me.
The man's hand made its way up my dress, roughly pulling on my nipple as I felt his tongue smush against my mouth. The taste of his saliva made me ill. "Relax and it won't hurt."
I wanted to laugh until I cried. Relax and it won't hurt?? I could feel his penis pushing up against my stomach through the fabric of my shirt and increased my struggling tenfold. I had to get away...
I didn't see the fist coming until I was flat on my back, head ringing. A second punch brought the taste of blood to my mouth, a third left me numb
"I told you if you relaxed it wasn't gonna hurt." He knelt between my legs and ripped my panties off, shoving my skirt up around my waist. I took the opportunity to scream at the top of my lungs, a tortured cry for help.
The guy jumped up with a start, erect penis flopping in the air. He hurriedly shoved himself back into his pants and zipped up. "Fucking bitch," he kicked me. He looked down at her. "Gonna get up, bitch?"
I just laid there, terrified to move.
"Bitch." He kicked me again. And again. He coughed up and spit on me, kicked me one last final time, and left.
~*Manny*~
Guilt.
It's not a very fun thing to deal with, and unfortunately, I'd been dealing with it for the majority of my sophomore year.
I felt horrible about what I had done to Bianca. Looking back now, so what if they had slept together two years ago? Craig was with me now, and happy. We both were. Ashley had fallen for a senior named Bryce and didn't bother us any more, and our home, academic, and social lives were great.
But I still felt bad about what I did to Bianca. It just kept gnawing at me, and I knew I wouldn't be able to get rid of the feeling. I had tried to make it up to her several times, but she refused to acknowledge me or Craig. I knew it was useless.
Craig and I had just left the mall and were taking a walk down Degrassi Street, hand in hand. The last day of school had been great, and the night was going even better.
But as we passed by the park, we heard a deafening scream. I jumped.
"Did you hear that?" I asked.
"Yeah." Craig said, pulling me closer to him as he scanned the area. "Stay close."
As we got closer to the area we heard the scream, we heard a man shouting.
"Gonna get up, bitch? Fucking bitch!" We saw him run away, but were more concerned with the girl than with catching the guy.
She had fallen face down, and was clearly unconscious.
"Turn her over." I told Craig. Craig kneeled down and turned her over on her back. But the second he saw her face, he fell over. I clapped a hand over my mouth.
"Oh my god, it's Bianca!"
"We have to get her home." Craig said, picking her up. "Come on."
~*Jimmy*~
Something wasn't right. It was seven thirty, and Bianca wasn't at her house. She had left the door unlocked for me and I was sitting on the couch. I sighed and looked at my watch.
Ten more minutes, and I was going to go look for her.
Just then, I heard a loud knock on the door, and someone sobbing on the other side. The door opened, and in walked Craig and Manny, Craig carrying Bianca, who was sobbing her eyes out.
"Put me down now!" she screamed, hitting his chest.
"Okay, okay, calm down, Bianca." Craig said, setting her down.
"Bianca?" I asked. "What happened?"
She fell into my arms, grabbing onto me for support.
"Bianca?" My arms instinctively went around her. Like she was a child, I led her to the couch and set her down, pulling her into my embrace. "Bianca?"
She clung to the t-shirt on my chest and tried to regain some control of her emotions.
"Bianca?" I was starting to get scared now, rubbing her back. Manny and Craig were looking into the room and I gestured to them to go in the kitchen. "What happened, baby? Where'd you disappear to tonight?" I'd been worried sick all night. I'd known something was wrong...I held her tight, trying to calm her shaking.
Still more sobs from Bianca.
"Bianca? God tell me what happened, please..." I begged, getting scared. I couldn't imagine what could have happened to make her act this way.
Her voice soft, a hysterical hiccup between each word, she managed to get out, "tried...to...rape...me..." before dissolving into tears again.
"Oh god, Bianca," I turned her face to mine, my brown eyes filling with tears when I saw what had happened to her. "Who did this to you..." I traced the bruises on her face.
She jerked in my arms, wincing a little when I tried to pull her closer.
"Where else did he hurt you?"
Bianca lifted up her tank top, showing me the bruises on her ribs. One of his feet had left a complete impression across her ribcage, "hurts to breathe," she mumbled. She started crying again as she held the shirt up. "I'm so dirty."
"No, Bianca..." I rubbed her back. "I gotta take you to the hospital though."
"No." The first clear word I'd heard from her since Craig brought her in.
"Bianca, you're hurt, look at you, you need a doctor..."
Bianca pushed away from me, her face in her hands. "No."
"Please, let me take you to the hospital..."
"I don't want anyone to know..."
I couldn't help but glance at Manny and Craig, who were poking their heads out, listening to what was going on. I would have promised her the moon at that point, my fear for her was so great. "Nobody will ever know. Let me just go get Spinner or Marco."
I pulled away from her slightly, and Bianca grabbed at me.
"Don't leave me, Jimmy." She clung to me and would not let go.
"Never, baby."
~*Bianca*~
Jimmy put his arm around me and reached over for the telephone. "Get over here, Spinner. NOW."
Spinner was in my living room ten minutes later.
"What's up, Jimmy? It's the middle of the night..." his voice trailing off when he saw Jimmy on the couch with me. "What happened?"
"Some bastard tried to rape her and beat the shit out of her. We gotta take her to the hospital." Jimmy's voice sounded alien, sad and serious.
Tears pooled in Spinner's eyes, the horror of Jimmy's words setting in, "oh Bianca, I'm so sorry."
I didn't hear a word. I was still thinking about the spit. How vile it tasted, his tongue on my face. How if just one little molecule of it had gotten into my bloodstream, if I didn't washed every little particle off, I would be dirty for life. Spit had all sorts of germs in it, you know. And I had heard him cough before he'd spit on me, so what if it was one of those nasty mucousy ones? I squirmed in Jimmy's arms, and with a start, threw up all over the couch. I burst into tears again, seeing what I'd done. "It's dirty..."
"Baby, don't worry about it," Jimmy didn't visibly react at all to the mess, just held me tight and continued to soothe me. "It's no big deal. Everything's going to be ok."
~*Spinner*~
Craig, Manny, and I had been talking in the kitchen, and decided they would take my car to the hospital. "Let's go."
"We're going for a little trip now, ok Bianca?" Jimmy was whispering softly to her as he carefully gathered her battered little body in his arms. As he picked her up, she groaned in pain. He carried her, his face close to hers, like a mother comforting a child. "Just to the hospital, then we'll come right back here. Quick little trip."
Bianca shuddered in his arms and gasped, "Jimmy, it hurts..."
"I'm sorry baby, I have to do this..." a tear ran down his face and he tried to walk faster.
~*Bianca*~
I was faintly aware that I was being carried, and I knew I hurt all over, but nothing more than that. The constant pain had given me something to focus on, and a calm silence had come over me. I was still shaking, and my nails were dug deep into Jimmy's back, but my sobs had calmed, and I was silent for the trip to the hospital.
~*Jimmy*~
Manny, ever the savior, had called ahead to the hospital and explained the situation. Bianca and I were ushered into a private room when we arrived, and a female doctor joined them almost immediately.
By this point, Bianca was no longer talking. The doctor gently tried to ask her about what happened, but she would just bury her head even further into my chest, tears streaming down her face. The doctor let me stay while she examined Bianca, and I held her hand as the doctor did her job. X-rays and some shots later, Bianca was sound asleep.
It took some convincing, but the doctor finally got me to leave Bianca's side long enough to go to the hallway to talk to her.
~*Spinner*~
"Please, tell me she's ok." Jimmy looked terrible, his eyes bloodshot, clothes ragged. "I love her," his eyes found me, Craig, and Manny in the chairs outside the room.
I got up to hug Jimmy tight, "I know you do, Jimmy." I kept my arm around Jimmy's waist to hold him up while he talked to the doctor, his anguish dragging his body down.
The doctor looked solemnly at us. "We're going to need to keep Bianca overnight for observation, she was deeply in shock when you brought her in, but she'll be fine in the long run. She has a couple of broken ribs that will need some healing, a slight concussion, and those bruises on her face are going to look pretty ugly for a while, but she'll be fine. She was very lucky."
"Luck?" Jimmy glared at the doctor. "What kind of luck gets a sixteen year old girl beaten up and raped?"
"She wasn't raped, that's the lucky part." The doctor said softly. "Trust me, it gets worse than this. Just be there for her, she'll be ok."
"I will always be there for her." Jimmy muttered, still angry. "Can I go back in?"
The doctor nodded. "Your friends are a sweet couple, he seems to love her very much," she remarked to me. She gestured towards Jimmy, who had returned to his spot at Bianca's bedside, her hands held tight in his, his head on her stomach.
I smiled wryly. "Yeah, he does."
