A/N: Chapter three is here for all of you. I had wanted to put it up earlier but I didn't get home as soon as I'd planned so you had to suffer a wait, sorry. To make up for it I'm going to post a second chapter later today. It's my birthday and the next chapter is my present to myself. I'm also planning on writing a one shot (also a present to myself), of course it will be femslash because no one else will get that for me for my birthday, much as I wish they would, hehehe.
Disclaimer: I still don't own them; I'm just toying with their characters for a bit. It's a bit dark and there's some language and general unpleasantness, but where hasn't that been in this story?
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I went and visited her the next day; she was still in the hospital. I looked through the glass of the window on the door and saw that her parents were there too. I pushed open the door and just kept looking at her, feeling all of the guilt from the night before, thinking if I'd been there none of this would have happened.
I took a half step forward when Suzie suddenly says "Stop right there." I froze and looked at her confused. What was wrong…other than the obvious? Her parents must have known and decided to show themselves out, giving us a few moments alone.
"Don't you take another step Jennifer Mosley" Again Suzie made sure to halt all my movement. She was looking at me so fiercely that I wondered just what it was I had done wrong. I was sure I had done something wrong; she must be blaming me too for what happened.
"Suzie…what…?" That's all I could get out before she spoke again.
"Jennifer, I won't let you near me until you stop blaming yourself for what happened. I don't blame you and you shouldn't either. And don't try to deny that that's exactly what's been running through your head because I can see it in your eyes and I don't like it. It wasn't your fault that they did this, it was out of your hands. Stop blaming yourself because I really won't let you near me until you do, and that'll be bad because I really need you to be hugging me right now, so stop blaming yourself and punishing the both of us."
Oh my god. How does she know me so well? How do I respond to that? How come I didn't know what she was thinking? I don't understand how she couldn't blame me, but I could understand that she needed me so I decided that I'll take my cues from her and stopped feeling guilty.
Then it hit me that she really did need me and I moved forward to her side, sat on the edge of the bed and gathered her into my arms. She dissolved into tears and all I could do was hold her. She's so fragile, but because of that speech she gave me I know that she'll be able to pull through this. There's still strength and fight in her, she's shown me that much.
It's a great relief knowing that she's still Suzie inside this battered form and even like this I love her. Probably now more than ever I realize how much I love her, how much I need her. When I first heard the bad news I thought I'd lost her, knowing now that I didn't lose her brings tears to my eyes. There was the very real possibility that she wouldn't be the same Suzie I'd fallen in love with, but she'd proved that she was still there and I could only love her more.
She was in pretty bad shape; they'd really worked her over. Bruises and cuts covered her body, she'd come out with a sprained wrist and a few stitches, but no broken bones which was a small miracle. Even so the hospital kept her for the rest of the weekend (I made sure to spend as much time as possible with her) but they okayed her to go back to school, which she did.
By Monday the entire school knew that Suzie had gotten three of the best football players thrown in jail on what they believed to be a bullshit story of them raping her. Most of the school, even after seeing her face and ginger movements, didn't believe her. They thought she'd made the whole thing up and done the damage to herself, only problem with that is that there was no reason for her to do anything like that. They pretended that she'd set it all up because they'd spurned her advances, the ones she wasn't making because she is a lesbian and in a relationship but they didn't know about that part…not yet anyway.
I was shocked and disappointed that our peers were turning against her. I had thought they were better than that, that they knew Suzie better than that, and that they would see reason…I was wrong on all counts. Not only did they not believe her, oh no, they took it a step farther and started harassing her!
They'd knock her books from her arms, push her into people and lockers, trip her, give her dirty looks, and verbally abuse her. It got so bad in the halls that Martin Querly (he'd grown to a towering 6'5" and beefed up since eighth grade) and I would escort her to and from her classes trying to protect her. Martin believed her without even seeing her, but then he was one of the few who knew about our relationship.
Suzie and I had been together for the last three years, since the summer of eighth grade. We came out to our families almost immediately after admitting our feelings for each other, at first they thought it was just a phase but then they slowly came to realize that we would be together for a long time and accepted that. After telling our families we only told a few of our closest friends like Martin, Ned, Cookie, Billy, Lisa, and Claire…we didn't tell Missy because she'd blab it (turns out that was for the best as Missy was violently homophobic)…after telling our friends we figured it wasn't anybody else's business and all of our friends were very supportive, surprisingly so, actually. We had expected at least a few fights but they were all very understanding…I suppose it helped that Ned and Billy (the two we suspected would cause the most trouble) were both in happy relationships with other people and over their respective crushes on us.
The others also helped to chaperone Suzie through the halls, teachers too, and it helped. The harassment dwindled but the hostility didn't. Many thought she'd planned the whole thing just to set them up. At least they did until Jason, Derrick, and Marcus were back on campus having been released on bail.
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A/N: That's it for chapter three, watch out for chapter four and my one shot later today. I'm tired now, it's 3:41 AM right now on August 22 (my birthday) and I've been awake for almost twenty hours. I'm a wee bit tired. Still I'll be posting more later today, after a nap, shower, and food!
