Austin, Texas

5 May 1967

Classes were over. Finals were coming up but she could easily study for those at home and quietly come and go from campus. She was free.

Packing an overnight bag, she intended to come back for the rest of her things at some point, perhaps even permanently if things went the way she planned them to.

The idea of transferring to a women's university had not gone down well with her mother, the support she'd shown weeks ago beginning to wane, but that wasn't going to stop her.

She'd lost six pounds in the eight weeks since the weekend at the cabin and only now that she could see a different path ahead was she beginning to have an appetite again, to feel like she wasn't just living in a fog.

Her academic advisor assured her it was possible, now all she needed to do was hear back from one of the three women's colleges she'd applied to and the weight on her shoulders would be lifted.

She couldn't change what had happened in the past, never able to retrieve what had been taken from her, but she could make plans for the future.

If she never interacted with another college man again she wouldn't be upset, her mother would be, the chance of finding a husband in an environment full of women slim, but what her mother thought no longer mattered so much to her.

Finding a husband was the last thing on her mind, and even if it were the first, she doubted very much any man would want to continue seeing her when she could barely stand to be alone with them, when even premaritally acceptable activities were no longer something she felt comfortable doing.

Classes were over. Finals were coming up, but beyond that, he was free.

He loved college however the past few weeks had been nothing like what he'd come to expect from the experience and he was looking forward to putting junior year behind him.

He couldn't get her out of his mind, which ordinarily wouldn't be such a bad thing, except in this case 'her' referred to Sue Ellen and it was what had happened to her that continued to haunt him.

He hadn't done enough the first time and while he didn't actually have anything to do with what had occurred subsequently, she blamed him.

"Bobby."

"Sue Ellen."

Spotting her approaching him outside the gym, he'd barely had time to say her name before she slapped him.

"What was that for?"

"I asked you not to tell people and you did."

"I didn't."

"No? Then why did Walt think I owed him something, something like I gave Alex? Why did I have to literally run terrified to escape those expectations?"

"I…"

He hadn't told Walt a thing but that didn't seem to matter to her. It probably didn't matter overall either, she was upset and anything but an apology wasn't going to cut it.

"I didn't say a thing, but I'm sorry that happened. I will deal with it, and anything else. I promise."

"I'm not sure I can cope with anything else."

It wasn't his fault, but he felt like it was.

It seemed he was retroactively solving problems instead of proactively preventing them from occurring in the first place.

He couldn't control anyone but himself at the end of the day however he could certainly do a better job at trying.

Sue Ellen was surely not the only girl who'd ever experienced something unpleasant, his discussion with Martha had proved that months ago, and Walt and Alex weren't the only ones who were guilty of upsetting behaviour, it was a widespread issue and now that he had an understanding of that it would be irresponsible to continue to do nothing.

19 May 1967

"No men. Tonight is for sisterhood."

Making a show of locking the door and closing the curtains, Lillian, a senior, and more importantly, the sorority president, made the announcement that stood all year round, but meant something different in context. They never allowed men beyond the foyer, not into the dining room, the living room, the study room, or up the stairs to where the bedrooms were, but usually they could stand and wait, not tonight though, tonight no one was to come in or go out the front door, tonight was a lock in, that was tradition.

Listening to the speech Lillian was giving, one that very heavily borrowed from the words of the two previous presidents on the night before their graduation, Sue Ellen's mind wandered. The summer had arrived and she didn't have a clue what the future held, not in the next few weeks or months but she felt better than she had in a long time. She hadn't heard whether she was going to be on stage at the Miss Texas pageant and she was unsure whether she was going to complete her senior year in Austin, Denton, San Antonio, or Belton, but whether she stayed or went, one thing was clear to her now, she would always have her sisters.

She hadn't leaned nearly enough on the girls she called sisters when she needed them but she really ought to have. If terrible things had happened to her then they had surely happened to other people too, which was awful, but also meant she wasn't alone.

Next year would be different. Next year, whether she was on a co-ed campus or an all-female environment, she wouldn't be so quiet.

"…the seniors will come forward and light their candles, passing their flame to a junior, who will pass to a sophomore and so on until we all have a lit candle, then we'll head outside."

Pulled back to the present as the basket of candles came her way, she felt good. The repetitiveness of traditions calmed her and knowing what to expect next because those things never changed was comforting. With so much change all around her she liked that some things were predictable, previously, presently and forevermore.