Page 67 of A Summer to Save Us

I never had to explain much to James. When we were still talking to each other, a few words were often enough because I never spoke much.

Today, one look is enough, and he knows what’s going on.

“Hey, it’s not what it looks like,” Chester protests loudly over the alarm. He hastily fastens his belt.

James glares at him. He is pale, and his dark eyes blaze like black fire.

“Move aside, Kans,” he says unemotionally.

For a few seconds, I am terribly afraid.

James has never been a thug. On the contrary, he settles disputes with arguments.

Now, however, he looks too angry, as if no argument in the world could stop him from beating up Chester.

“James, don’t,” I whisper because I know how much trouble it will cause.

“Move. Aside!” His voice sounds so frightening, I stumble past him into the anteroom as he begins to pummel him. I spin around.

Chester staggers against the stall wall, groaning as a stream of blood shoots out of his nose.

He stares at my brother, stunned. “You’re crazy! She threw herself at me, and I pushed her away.”

James grabs him by the collar of his bloodstained polo shirt and shoves him backward, causing him to trip on the toilet and almost lose his balance. “I saw you staring at her in the lobby. How you ran after her,” he gasps.

“She wanted it, man!” Chester tries to pull James away with both hands, but James doesn’t let go. He’s shaking with anger, and even his wild curls look electrified.

“James,” I say again, but I don’t think he hears me. The shrill sound of the alarm echoes off the walls, filling the entire room. With my heart pounding, I look around and spot the pin at James’ feet. I quickly pick it up and put it back into its slot on the signal device.

The silence seems deafeningly loud. Only now do I notice how much my knees are shaking. How much everything about me is shaking. Oh my God!

I brace myself against the wall with one hand and hear James’s ragged breathing.

“Did he do that at your school, too, Kans? Was he one of those who always tormented you?”

Tears are welling up in my eyes now. Probably because someone finally knows the whole truth. The struggle is over.

I have no idea whether my nod or my distraught expression is enough of an answer for James. He curses and strikes again. There’s an ugly crash, and the door flies open.

I turn, startled. It’s a man from security, neatly dressed in a dark blue uniform and baseball cap. Behind him, the blonde receptionist and another employee push through the door.

“What’s going on here? Miss—are you okay?” the guard asks in a strong Southern accent.

I just stare at him.

“Miss?”

I don’t want this to turn into an internal hotel problem. I don’t want anyone to know at all. I merely want to help River and nothing else. “It’s been taken care of,” I reply weakly.

At that moment, Chester pushes James out of the stall and approaches the officer. “I was attacked,” I hear him say as if through a haze. He seems battered, his neatly blow-dried hair is messy, and there is a butterfly-shaped bloodstain on his blue and white polo shirt.

“Did you set off an alarm?” the guard looks at Chester in disbelief.

“It’s been resolved. Let me through, guard,” Chester demands, his head held high. “My father is waiting for me in the lobby. Dr. Clark Davenport. Also, Senator...”

“Even if Saint Peter was waiting for you, I wouldn’t care.

” The security guard, a black man with broad shoulders and alert eyes, looks us over one by one.

When his gaze rests on me, his stern expression softens.

“I assume you set off the alarm,” he says, pointing to the alarm device on my waistband. On River’s waistband.

“He forced himself on my sister,” James growls before I can nod.

I instinctively press my nails into the palm of my hand and stare at the floor, my cheeks burning.

“It was a misunderstanding. He completely misinterpreted the situation,” I hear Chester explain. “She sent me the wrong signals!”

At that moment, I want to hit him. No, I want to hammer my fists against his face. I jerk my head up. “I didn’t send any signals at all,” I respond quietly but firmly. “And it wasn’t a misunderstanding!”

Chester looks at me in shock, as if he still can’t believe that so many words are coming out of my mouth.

“Sir, I gotta say, there might be some fallout from this,” the security guard says, addressing Chester. “If the young lady presses charges...”

“He attacked me for no reason!” Chester’s face is as red as a tomato, and he looks so outraged, as if he’s honestly been wronged.

“Nothing happened here! It was a misunderstanding. What about him? Won’t he be charged with assault?

” He points to his face, where swelling has already formed around his bloodshot eye.

“We’ll see.”

Chester purposefully soaks several paper towels in water and presses them against the swollen area under his eye.

He glares at James. “Your sister is a slut. She’s been screwing half the school.

Everyone knows that! Montgomery can’t open her mouth, but she spreads her legs for everyone.

She looked at me in the lobby and nodded toward the bathroom sign. She wanted what she usually wants!”

Silence follows his words.

Everyone stares at me. James stares at me. His hands are clenched. Chester looks at himself in the mirror and dabs his eyebrow with the paper. “It’s not my fault she suddenly changed her mind... I demand to speak to my father. Immediately! And I won’t say another word without my lawyer.”

“He’s lying!” I whisper, choking and clinging to the sink so I don’t fall over. Please, James, don’t believe him!

“Miss, you’re hurt,” I suddenly hear a woman say.

I’m standing there, everything whooshing past me. Someone is going to search for my dad.

I notice she’s examining the wound on my forehead.

It must have been from when Chester grabbed me by the neck and slammed my head against the wall.

A young employee in black trousers and a white blouse presses an ice pack into my hand and looks at me with pity.

They want to know if Chester did this and what James saw.

So many questions bombard me, but at this moment, all I can think about is River.

I clutch the signaling device, tears welling up in my eyes.

Since you can’t protect yourself, someone else has to do it for you. Especially when I’m...

When you’re sleeping.

Where are you?

I’m shaking all over. Maybe that’s why someone is placing a blanket over my shoulders, like they do with people in shock. I realize that all of us will have to give a statement. The hotel manager, a burly red-haired giant, has called the police, who are on their way.

Because of nothing . At least it feels that way because hardly anything happened. I don’t understand. Today was nothing compared to last year, when I was constantly beaten, corralled, dunked underwater, and finally assaulted.

All of a sudden, everything is too much for me.

The neat receptionist with the high voice who is speaking to me, the security guard who means well, Dad, who, since he got here, keeps asking questions.

“Is James telling the truth? This wasn’t the first time?

Has Chester been harassing you for a while?

Why didn’t you ever say anything?” The last one sounds accusatory, as if it’s my fault.

And I did tell them, at least about the incident at the Davenport mansion, but they didn’t believe me—because Arizona saw something that she misinterpreted.

Because she can express herself better. Because it would have seemed so unlikely to everyone that Chester would do something like that.

And yes, when the attacks started at school, I should have confided in someone much sooner, but I just couldn’t.

And even though I never wanted my family to find out, and I’m still embarrassed, I’m relieved. Now there’s no dark secret separating me from them. They know the truth.

Despite that, or perhaps because of that, I decide to leave, especially when I hear Clark Davenport’s deep bass roaring in the hallway.

With the blanket wrapped around my shoulders, I break away from the crowd of people with the excuse that I want to get some fresh air alone.

Nobody stops me. Everyone lets me be alone.

I impatiently wipe a few tears from the corners of my eyes. Maybe it wasn’t nothing. Maybe that’s just my perspective because I’ve experienced so much crap in the last year.

Before leaving the hotel, I glance at my phone because I remember the message from Zozoo. That text is why I went to the bathroom in the first place. Maybe River contacted him.

Kansas, girl who was with River for a summer. We found River’s cell phone at an intersection on the way to Death Valley. But there’s no sign of him. His GPS was suddenly back on. I guess he wanted us to find it. Or he didn’t care. Do you know where he is?

Now I understand what he meant. I told them I was going to Death Valley. And I gave them a good reason to believe me .

Okay. So I can stop texting like a mad woman. He used the phone to mislead his friends. I’m sure he took the phone there while I was at the hotel and then turned on the GPS.

I have no idea what that means. Do any of his friends know he’s planning to set up a highline in Yosemite? Did he ever talk to them about it?

I try to call Zozoo several times, but he doesn’t answer, so I leave a voicemail and tell him everything I know.

What happened to the last girl? I type after sending the first message. I just want to hear it from them. I’m sure Chester is twisting the truth. I put the phone back in my pocket, and the loud voices in the background pierce my awareness.

I go outside, where there’s an open-air corridor covered with wood. I walk until the noise from the hotel fades and it’s quiet.