Her Teen Dream (20 page)

Karin played with her food, not even
pretending to eat anymore. “I just wish this would all go
away.”

“Yeah, don’t we all. Unfortunately, it’s here
to stay till we get to the bottom of it.”

“And that means determining which one of your
friends, Lesley or Reese, is telling the truth about what really
happened,” Josephine said flatly. “Then dealing with it.”

This was the part that scared Karin. How did
she deal with such an allegation and the aftermath? Was it possible
that the three of them could still somehow come out of this with
minimal damage?

Greer pursed his lips. “Well, my advice to
Lesley as the accuser, were I allowed to give her any, would be to
step up to the plate quickly in solidifying her story, if she hopes
to win the support of her best friend...and me—”

Karin looked at him with a raised brow. “I
thought you were on Reese’s side—legally, I mean.”

“I’m on
your
side, honey,” he said
laconically. “As for Reese’s defense, if after all the evidence is
laid out I come to believe that young man laid one finger on
Lesley, I will recommend that he gets himself another lawyer. And
he could forget about any more thoughts of romance with you ever
again!”

Karin’s heart sank, even if their
relationship was still on the rocks aside from Lesley’s charge. For
if her own father abandoned him during his time of need, how could
Karin expect Reese to stand by her and resolve their own issues
should he prove to be innocent of any improprieties?

By the time she went to bed, Karin was more
confused than ever. Her best friend was barely talking to her and
the boy she still loved could very well be a sex offender. All of a
sudden all she ever wanted was turning into a nightmare that
figured to get worse. She could only pray that she woke up from it
before it was too late and her world was turned upside down
forever.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Karin was in something less than a deep sleep
when she heard the chime. At first, she thought it was part of a
dream she was having about running track in which Coach Cleaver was
blowing his whistle, urging her to run faster and faster. But then
as that began to fade and she opened her eyes, Karin realized it
was her cell phone ringing.

It must be Reese wanting to talk while her
parents were asleep so they couldn’t prevent it. Though things were
very much up in the air with them, Karin was excited at the
prospect of hearing his voice again, as if she hadn’t heard it
recently. But another side of her wondered if it was a good idea to
talk to Reese right now while her parents were up in arms over what
they almost did. And what he might have done to Lesley.

I have to
, she told herself.
Whatever else, I owe it to Reese to at least keep the lines of
communication open
.

Karin got up and dragged her feet to the
dresser where she’d set the phone.

She was surprised to see that the caller was
not Reese, but Lesley.

She could barely put the phone up to her ear
fast enough.

“Lesley—”

“Yeah, it’s me.” Her voice was shaking.

“Are you all right?”
Of course she isn’t,
given the situation
. But maybe she’s a little better than she
was before.

“Not really,” Lesley uttered.

Karin felt her stomach churn. “Oh, Lesley,
I’m so sorry about this whole thing.”

“I need to talk to you.”

“Of course.” Karin was careful to keep her
voice down, lest she wake her parents and have an unwanted
audience.

“Not over the phone,” Lesley told her. “And
not by text.”

Karin glanced at the clock and saw that it
was nearly four a.m. “Do you want me to come over there?”

“No!” Lesley snapped. “I need to get out of
here before my Mom and Edgar wake up.”

Karin assumed that her house would not be a
safe place to have a private conversation either. So she proposed,
“How about the park?”

“That’s good.”

“I’ll meet you outside in five minutes,”
Karin said.

“All right,” Lesley agreed. “Bye.”

“Bye.”

Karin felt a rush of adrenalin as she quickly
slipped into a pair of jeans and a heavy sweater. She tiptoed from
her room and down the hall past her parents’ room. The door was
closed as usual. She hoped they were sound asleep.

Otherwise I will have some major
explaining to do.
She preferred not to go down that road now,
especially when Karin sensed that Lesley was about to do some
explaining of her own.

* * *

Outside, a street lamp softened the darkness.
Karin waited on the sidewalk for Lesley to emerge. She did, coming
from the side of her house. Karin knew that their front door
squeaked and was more likely to alert Shelly or Edgar. She noticed
his car parked in the driveway, where it had been just about every
night lately.

Lesley walked up to her. Her hands were
jammed in the pockets of a denim jacket. Her hair hung limply
across her shoulders.

“Hey, girl,” Karin said, hoping to make her
friend feel comfortable, though the situation was awkward for both
of them.

“Hey.”

They stood there for a moment before Karin
hugged her. “Everything will be fine, no matter what happened,” she
said, though wondering if that was truly possible.

“I hope so,” Lesley said weakly. “I’ve been
so scared and confused about this...I just couldn’t keep it all to
myself any longer—”

“Let’s walk,” Karin said, and took her hand.
She couldn’t begin to imagine whatever it was that Lesley had gone
through. She just needed to know the whole story, so she could help
her. Or at least try.

Neither said a word until they were well into
the park. They followed the well-lit path and sat on a bench near a
cluster of picnic tables.

Lesley had her head bent down when she said
unsteadily, “I don’t know where to begin.”

“How about at the party?” Karin regarded her
profile thoughtfully. “I saw you and Marcus in the room making out.
Did he force you do something you didn’t want to do?”

Lesley sighed. “No. Marcus wouldn’t do that.
He stopped when I told him I didn’t want to go any further. I
wasn’t feeling very good—I think I had too much to drink—and
decided to go home. Since he wasn’t exactly in the best shape to
drive either, we found Reese and he told me you’d left. He offered
to take me home—”

She paused and a sinking feeling came over
Karin. Could Reese actually be guilty of a sexual assault? She
hoped that wasn’t the case.

“And what happened then?” Karin looked at
Lesley.

“Reese drove me home and we talked.”

“Did he do anything to you?”

Lesley faced her, tears streaming down her
cheeks. “No, Reese never touched me.”

“Then why—?”

Lesley swiped at the tears on her cheeks and
rubbed her nose with the sleeve of her jacket. She sucked in a deep
breath and stammered, “After he dropped me off, I went inside and
straight to my room. I felt sick and just went to bed without
taking my clothes off. And that’s when Edgar came in. He told me
Mom was asleep and that, um, it was time we got to know each other
better.” Lesley paused, wiping her nose again. “I thought he was
crazy and told him to leave me alone. But he got on the bed and
said he was better for me than Marcus. And, um, then he started
kissing and touching me. I could smell alcohol on his breath. I
tried to scream, but he put his hand on my mouth and said he’d hurt
me if I didn’t shut up.” Lesley sniffled.

Karin was shocked. “Did he rape you?”

“He tried to, but couldn’t get in,” she
cried. “He tore my top and, um, kept touching me. Then he just
stopped while I was bawling. He told me not to say anything to Mom
and that she wouldn’t believe me over him if I did.” Lesley wiped
her tears with the back of her hand. “Then when Mom saw me on the
bed like that, she asked what happened. And I didn’t know what to
say, with Edgar standing there and all. I was afraid he’d hurt us
both or that Mom would blame me for what he did. I just freaked.”
Lesley grabbed a wadded up tissue from her pocket and blew her nose
before continuing.

“She pressed me to tell her what happened and
when I tried, all I ended up doing was crying and I couldn’t stop.
Mom asked me if Marcus made me do something against my will. I said
no and she somehow took that as meaning somebody else did so she
started tossing out names. And, um, when she said Reese’s name, I
reacted, thinking about what he told me happened between you guys
that night. I blurted out his name, not meaning to, and Mom decided
he was the one responsible for what happened. And with Edgar
standing there threatening me with his eyes, I just broke down and
told her that Reese had touched me inappropriately and tore my
blouse, hoping she would just leave it alone.”

Karin looked at Lesley with a mixture of
sorrow and anger. “I hate that Edgar molested you, Lesley, but I
just can’t believe that you accused Reese, my boyfriend, of
sexually assaulting you when he didn’t! That really makes me mad!”
She was dumbfounded. “Why would you do that? What on earth were you
thinking?”

“That’s just it, I wasn’t thinking,” Lesley
admitted lowly. “Not clearly anyway. You’ve got to believe me,
Karin. I never wanted Reese to get into trouble. I swear it. But
when Mom called it a sexual assault and told the police, I felt
locked in and didn’t know how to get out of it.”

“Couldn’t you have just told the
truth
?” Karin narrowed her eyes with disappointment. “How
could you falsely accuse Reese, while letting Edgar get away with
molesting you? Did you think he wouldn’t try it again and
again?”

“I wanted to tell the truth,” Lesley
insisted, “but I was afraid if I did, no one would believe me after
saying it was Reese who assaulted me. Certainly not my mother who
seemed to think Edgar walked on water, at least when she wasn’t
annoyed with him. I just wanted the whole thing to go away.” She
began to sob noisily. “I’m so sorry, Karin. I know you must hate me
now.”

“I don’t hate you, Lesley,” Karin stressed.
“I just hate that you put me in a position of having to decide who
to believe between my best friend and my boyfriend. And I hate that
Reese was taken into custody for something he didn’t do with half
the school thinking he did. And I hate that I was caught in the
middle even with my parents. You really did a stupid thing,
Lesley!”

“I know, and I hate myself for it,” she
sobbed. “The guilt for doing this to you and Reese was tearing me
up. And I couldn’t stand being around my Mom and Edgar any longer,
knowing what a creep he was. I should have talked to you about this
right from the beginning, but I was afraid of what he might do.
Then I didn’t care anymore. I just wanted the truth to come out and
deal with it.” Lesley wiped away more tears with her sleeve. “Am I
gonna get into trouble for filing a false report or something?”

“I don’t know,” Karin answered honestly.
“Maybe once you explain everything...”

“But how do I explain it to my Mom without
her totally freaking out? What if she takes Edgar’s side over
mine?”

“You explain it the same way you just
explained it to me. She loves you, no matter what you did. Or
didn’t do.” Karin took her hand. “Edgar’s got to pay for what he
did. That wasn’t your fault and you have nothing to be ashamed of,
insofar as being a victim and intimidated into keeping quiet.”

Lesley sniffled. “Yeah, but I’m ashamed for
what I’ve put Reese and you through. How will I ever be able to
make it up to Reese? See Marcus? Or show my face in school
again?”

These were questions that Karin had no solid
answers to, especially where it concerned Reese. How could one
totally erase something that just by implication had been so
harmful to another person, even if no charges had been filed?
Lesley would have to face Reese some way, somehow and try to make
amends. Karin realized Reese had been innocent all along, as he’d
insisted. She had tried not to take sides, for fear of being on the
wrong one. Now she could only hope that through this ordeal they
could somehow pick up the pieces of their relationship and learn to
trust one another again.

With tears in her eyes, Karin gazed at Lesley
and wrapped her arms around her supportively. This was a time when
friendship could definitely be tested, and Karin knew that no
matter what wrong Lesley had done and how unforgivable it was, if
she were to abandon her now neither of them might ever recover.

“Let’s go home, Lesley,” she told her. “I
think it’s time to talk to my father, then your mother. That creep
Edgar’s never going to hurt you again. As for Reese, it’s going to
take some time to undo the damage you’ve caused. I think we both
have a lot of kissing up to him to do, but we’ll just have to take
it one day at a time.”

Though there were still tough challenges
ahead for them, somehow Karin knew they would be able to deal with
them and keep their friendship alive.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Two weeks later, Karin was sitting in the
bleachers beside Lesley as the Elmwood High Spartans were trying to
advance in the playoffs. The atmosphere was feverish and the noise
meter sky high. Karin kept her emotions in check and hoped that the
team came away with a victory. In truth, she was just happy to see
the team still had a chance to win the championship.

Karin glanced at Lesley, whose mind seemed to
be anywhere but on the game. She could only imagine what her friend
must have been thinking. Edgar had been charged with child
molestation and attempted rape and was currently in jail, unable to
post bail. The police had declined to file charges against Lesley
for making a false claim, as they took into consideration
mitigating circumstances. They had, however, admonished her for
what they called reckless behavior and failure to consider the
impact of her actions.