Discussions
There was a pause.
"You raped a boy?" said Pam slowly.
"Well that's impossible," said Guy confidently.
"I – I think I did it," said Carly, her voice trembling, pushing her bushy hair away from her face.
"You think you did it," said Pam.
Carly nodded, her brown eyes wide.
"And how did you so that," said Pam steadily, gazing at her daughter.
"I – I held him down and I forced him… this is really weird. And it's really hard to explain…" said Carly, rubbing her temples in frustration. "It's so strange!"
"I'd say," said Guy, "is this guy smaller than you, Carly?"
"No, he isn't," said Carly, shaking her bushy head, "but I forced him. Um… it would sound incredible though…"
"Well you can't have done it if he were unwilling," said Guy.
"I did," said Carly in a dull voice, staring at the wall.
"You sure about this? This isn't a prank?" said Pam. Carly sniffed and nodded.
"Well go upstairs and get some rest sweetie," said Pam, "we've got to talk about this," she said meaningfully to Guy.
Carly made for the door, but then turned. "I don't know what to do, mum," she said with a helpless shrug, her expression miserable.
"Try to get some rest, sweetie," said Pam. When Carly had gone she turned to Guy. "Well what are we going to do?"
"Do?" said Guy, "you didn't believe that, did you? Girls can't rape. You can't rape the willing. And a nice girl like Carly? Do you buy it?"
"She confessed it. She wasn't messing with us. She thinks that she has," said Pam, "can a girl even do that? You know, legally?"
"Not in this country," said Guy comfortably, "besides, she will probably be over this in no time."
Carly sat on her bed, feeling as though she wanted to scream and scream. She felt really trapped in her own body. She glanced upwards at the huge clown doll she kept propped up in the room. It was actually a silicone sex doll, large as life, with the right parts that she could have sex with, but no one would know just by glancing at it. The gaudy silks of the clown costume obscured it. She supposed that in secret she was certainly no innocent five year old, but she never wanted to hurt anyone she loved.
Still in a state of great anguish, she knew she had to get someone she could actually talk to about this, or she would burst. She sent an urgent message to her friend Sally. Sally was certainly open minded and few things seemed to phase her. She went over in her head what she should say. Even with Sally, she would have to be careful.
Sally arrived twenty minutes later. She had her pink baseball cap on, backwards this time. "What's the deal, Carly?" she said, pushing her chestnut hair away from her face as she sat down beside Carly on the bed.
"What would you think if I did something really bad and it was too weird to believe?" said Carly cautiously.
"Something that made no sense?" said Sally, "well it's OK to talk about things that make no sense."
"Well here it is," said Carly, "last night I was at the house party and was working up my courage to talk to Jack about my crush on him…" she flushed, but admitting to the crush now seemed insignificant compared to how the rest of the story went. "I didn't feel very confident, but then I put on this wooden mask I had found and it turned me into some freaky, green nympho monster and I cornered Jack and raped him. At dawn I think I left, but it's hard to remember exactly. I – I'm sure he didn't even recognise me. The mask suddenly enveloped my whole head and turned green when I put it on."
"You're saying you're like a rapist Cinderella or something?" said Sally raising her eyebrows, "you're right, that doesn't make any sense at all."
"No, but it's serious, I did something terrible," said Carly, feeling fresh tears welling up in her eyes.
Sally narrowed her blue eyes, "so you dressed up in a Halloween costume to frighten Jack?" she said.
"It wasn't just a Halloween costume and I didn't just frighten him I held him down and forced him to have sex with me, I've already explained," said Carly, feeling hysteria welling up inside her and fighting to keep her voice calm.
"You forced him?" said Sally.
"If it were a man holding him down and having sex with him against his will, that would be rape," said Carly. She was beginning to wonder whether this was entirely pointless and no one would ever take her seriously. "It was definitely no Cinderella story."
"The real story of Cinderella was not the Disney or the ladybird version," said Sally, "it was in fact really strange and scary in places. The ugly step sisters did things like amputate their toes so that they could fit the glass slipper."
"That's nasty, but this is nastier," said Carly unimpressed. "I take it you don't believe me either?"
"Tell you what," said Sally, a thoughtful look in her blue eyes, "the logical thing is to ask Jack what he thought about the encounter."
Author's Note: Is that a good idea? What would happen if they ask him?