3 (3 page)

As Logan kept ranting about
his playthings, Lucy and her friend got flustered and
mad because they were duped by him – he obviously
had more stuff. They got up and went to Lucy's room. That left the
rest of us. Logan kept on bragging along, now he was
onto the sports he was in and how well he does in them. My sister
got so mad she decided to tell him, “You look too fat to be good.”
He wasn't fat maybe husky but not fat – okay he’s chunky – scratch
that he’s fat – I’m always trying to be nice to everyone. She
started telling him how all three of us were on the swim team and
anyone of us could beat him. He replied by saying “I would
love to see you in a skin tight swim suit.” I was sitting Indian
style with my elbows on my knees and my chin resting on my hands, I
looked up at him quickly. He was looking right at me, but I
dismissed him thinking he was talking to Tori. 

Everyone flirted with my
sister so he must have been looking at my sister when he said it,
all the boys liked her. She was beautiful. My sister told him about
my diving and Logan said “I betcha diving makes you sooo flexible,
I wanna see you twisting and flipping in the air,” real sleazy
like. Kevin and Logan were the only two that laughed.

Who does this guy think he
was
John Travolta? G
ive me a break. I just
gave him a dirty look and said “You're sick” and he responded “Sick
in love with you”. He just grossed me out more, this guy is crazy –
“You mean you're in love with Tori”, and he replied “No, I mean
you!” I was actually repulsed by this guy, and now I thought I'm
glad I'm not Tori because she has to put up with this crap from a
lot of guys, I’ve seen it happen before.

Logan was obnoxious and
nothing to be obnoxious about. He looked very average to me,
nothing special. He doesn't even look like he's fit enough for
sports; maybe there is a layer of muscle hiding underneath that
husky body of his, or maybe not I laugh to myself. He had short
dark hair that was dyed a brown orange color, ick, and no
extraordinary features to him, except for the fact that his ears
stuck out. And the mouth on him, has he ever listened to
himself, maybe that's the problem, he won't shut up because he
likes listening to himself – he’s the only one too. When he ran out
of things to say I think he just started making things up, actually
I think most of the stuff he told us was all lies.

He started bragging again,
this time about how he was on swim team and he's sure we had
nothing on him. My sister got so mad she blurted out that I
was a wrestling manager and I can kick anyone's
ass.

In eighth grade, Nic and
I were what they called wrestling managers. We weren't actual
managers though. We would just keep score and video tape their
matches at the meets which included tracking, setting up and
breaking down the equipment. There was no actual wrestling or
training involved. The only people I have ever fought with before
were Tori and Kit and I’m sure that didn’t count for
much.

At this point I was still
drawing pictures in the carpet with my finger, bored, half
daydreaming not paying attention to what Tori was saying but to
look like I was interested I agreed with her and said “Oh yeah
sure” while still looking at the carpet and drawing something else.
I didn't bother looking up or even removing my face from my hand
and Kaboom! I was flat on my back! Logan had launched himself
over the coffee table onto me laying me flat out, his head hit mine
making the back of my head crash into the floor. He said “Give me a
kiss baby!” and in the distance I heard Kevin saying
“Let's give the love birds some privacy. “ Kevin, Tori and Kit
all left. I'm assuming they went all the way down to the basement
because that's the only place we were allowed to go.

I tried to get out from
under him, “Get off me!” He grabbed my wrists and pinned them
to the ground, I shook my head back and forth so he
couldn't plant his awful lips on me. I wiggled to the
left when he leaned to my right and tried to plant one on my
cheek. “You know you want it; you know you love it baby.” He
said in this creepy awful voice.

I thrust my butt up off
the floor and kicked my legs out to the left and was able
to free half my body wishing desperately I could make this stop.
Logan grabbed me at the waist and pulled me back to
him. I yelled “Help!” but my voice was drowned out by
TV’s and stereos blasting throughout the house. He entangled his
leg around my right leg and I couldn't move. Everything
felt as though it was in slow motion and time was standing
still, I tried to get free, I felt my muscles begin
to tire. He ripped my shirt part-way open, “Stop!” I said
“Stop it! Let me go!”

He told me “You love it
baby, you know you want it.”

My body began to shake,
tears began to fall. He was working with my right arm trying to pin
it down. I fought and moved any part of my body I could trying
to break free. I couldn’t move under his weight, my one
leg was still totally pinned. 

“You’re hurting me! Let me
go!”

He grabbed hold of my right
wrist but had no control. As I struggled to free myself I
tried to think of a wrestling move that would get me out of this
mess. I quickly thought; roll over so I wouldn't get pinned and
then try and get up. I could do
this, I could roll over. I tried and tried to roll but I
couldn't budge.

“Addie I know you
want it, give me a kiss” he said with effort.

“Leave me alone,” was
all I could muster up and not very loudly, it was a
struggle to speak. I pulled myself up on my elbow and suddenly, he
whacked my head with his and my head hit the floor with such force
that it throbbed and rang. When we locked eyes, his looked like
reflective mirrors with no color to them at all, they alarmed me
with such a frenzy my heart stopped. He got my right arm between
our bellies and laid on it with all his weight
and I could barely move. My right leg still
pegged started to tingle. Me being panicked and
struggling to get away so bad, I know, was making him more
excited.

He pinned my left arm to the
ground, pressed his head on my cheek and pushed
so I couldn’t move, I couldn’t even turn my head. “Stop!
Please! Stop!” I felt tears rolling down my cheek
and his hot breath on my neck and he licked it and
then I felt a searing pain. “Get off!” I tried
wriggling some more and broke my left wrist free. I
inhaled and started hitting him with my fist as hard as I could, in
the back, arm and face, anywhere. I felt
like I started to break free but instead I felt
his hand in my shirt and on my breast. I pulled at his
hand, “Leave me alone!” I yelled again and I’m sure
no one can hear me. All I can hear is noise.

I free his hand from my
chest and he moves it to my waist, my jeans open and his hand
is...”Aaaaahhhhhh” I let out a high pitch scream. I started
crying so hard I couldn't breathe. And then, just like
that, he was off of me. I immediately sat up and scooched myself
backward until I hit the wall. Logan was standing holding his
eye “You bitch!” I retreated further into the wall
pulling my legs into my chest, pulling my shirt closed as tight
as I could. I looked over to the entryway, my
brother was standing there backing up slowly, shaking his head, he
looked really scared. “You asshole, if you ever touch my sister
again I'll split your other eye open!” Kit shouted.

Everyone else came
flooding into the living room, Kevin in the lead; my hands were
shaking trying to hold my blouse shut tightly across my chest. I
noticed buttons on the floor in front of me, I collected them and
re-clutched my shirt. My hands were trembling, my wrists bruised
and red, my head pounding, my neck all wet and I hurt all
over. I wanted to feel my neck to see if it was split open,
but I don't dare touch it without looking at it first.
Everyone was looking at me, they seem puzzled like they had no idea
what was going on. But how couldn't they? They had to know exactly
what was going on. Kevin yelled “Logan get off the carpet!” He
looked at me and exclaimed “What did you do Addie!” Like it
was my fault, Logan headed into the kitchen
and I ran into the basement and hid in the
corner.

No one came down after me, I
was alone. My hands and legs were still
shaking, I let myself slump into the corner. I
realized my whole body was trembling and I couldn't stop shaking
even after I sat. There was extreme chaos upstairs. “We
have to call 9-1-1?” someone shouted. “Who cares if he's bleeding
send him home, get him out of here!” The tears started falling
again, they felt like hot rivers of lava running down my face that
burned and moved in slow motion. I could hear someone, I
think Logan telling his side of the story
but I couldn’t make out his words. 

I heard someone coming
down the stairs, I inched myself tightly into my corner.
Oh please don't let it be Logan, please don't let it be him.... Kit
came around the corner and up to me and put his hand out. As he
helped me up my blouse fell open and I noticed my
jeans were unbuttoned. I pulled my shirt down hoping Kit
didn’t notice, and squeezed my blouse together, only two buttons
were left on my blouse. My hands were still trembling so badly, I
had a death grip on the other buttons in my other
hand. I sat on the couch in the corner farthest from the
stairs and grabbed my knees.

Kit grabbed a blanket and
held it out to me; he must have thought I was cold
because I was shivering. I didn't take the blanket I just
held myself tightly in my corner and he covered me not saying a
word. I slowly held out my hand balled in a fist and he slowly put
his hand underneath mine and I wriggled the extra buttons into his
hand. Kit crossed the room and sat, we just stared at each other. I
gave my shirt another glance and noticed the pocket was torn a bit
and it had a couple of blood stains on it.
I squeezed myself into the utmost corner of the cool dark
brown leather couch and pulled the blanket up to my chin. I wished
I could disappear.

The last time I was this sore and trembled
this hard was when my dad sprayed us in the driveway with the
outside hose after losing Tori's boot in the ‘
not quicksand’
we found. I tried to stop but I couldn't, the more I tried to stop
the more I shook uncontrollably, just like that day.

I remember it being a cool
fall day, just last year. The sun was out, the leaves were
falling, my favorite time of year, my sister and I went hiking.
After taking the “dirty slide” down to the ravine and heading north
and then west, after a bit my sister got her foot caught in
some mud and she started calling out to me that she was
stuck. I ignored her at first, thought she was joking and
kept walking, but the next time she yelled at me I knew by the
tone of her voice that she needed help. I turned to
look and she had one leg on the ground and one, well
one I could only see her thigh and she was trying to grab
something. I ran over and pulled her arm, she moved a little
but there was suction or something pulling her back in, sucking her
leg in so bad I couldn’t get her out. I grabbed her under her
arms and pulled as hard as I could. Still she only budged inches.
Tori grabbed a little tree branch behind me and I dug my heels in
on the edge and then we pulled and pulled until we got
her out. We were both laughing and fell to the ground when we
noticed she was missing her boot. We tried digging it out by
hand so we wouldn't get in trouble, but after many hours (at
least it felt like hours) we gave up. 

Our arms burning from
digging, exhaustion started to set in. It seemed like we would
never get home. It was the longest walk I had ever experienced.
Especially because we knew we were in trouble unless we could get
in the house undetected.

When we got home and to our
detriment, our dad was outside and we were muddy head to toe, and
Tori only had one boot, no hiding anything there. Our dad started
yelling at us non-stop, we went to go in the house and he yelled
“There is no way in hell you are tracking that mud into our house.”
He took the hose out, pointed to the middle of the driveway, we
trenched over to it while he sprayed us with the hose until we were
unbelievably soaking wet and shaking uncontrollably from the
intensely arctic cold water that seemed to come from our hose and
the beautifully cool air now felt bitter. We were shivering so bad
we couldn't stop, the sun wasn't helping. Tori's lips were a shade
of purple; the same color our lips used to turn after eating a bowl
of wild blackberries.

Our mother appeared at the
door in the garage. My dad yelled at us to strip and get in the
shower, our mother said “They can't strip out here Sean! Girls come
in the hallway and hand me your clothes. We stepped in on the
carpet; my mom sent our dad upstairs to cool his temper. Tori and I
were shaking so bad and our hands so cold it was hard to take off
our sopping wet jeans; eventually we had to peel them off, it was
worse than peeling an orange. After this long process, we high
tailed it up the stairs in our undergarments and into the bathroom
locking the door. We turned on the hot shower water like we
normally do, but touching it felt like it sent needles into our
hands, we turned it to lukewarm. To stop the shivering we each
rinsed off first, then rotated not speaking; all you could hear
were our teeth chattering.

That's how bad I was
trembling but a warm shower wasn't going to help. I remembered
having told our parents the whole story, boy was our dad mad.
He had started yelling at us again, his voice became hoarser
with each word. Then he said “There's no such thing as
quicksand!” He went on and on how there was no such thing in our
area! We obviously had no other answer for him other than
quicksand. Duh! It was sucking her leg in and we couldn't pull her
out. What else could it be?