Page 22 of Beauty and the Nerd
“At least the guys’ season is almost finished as it is,” Megan said giving Emma a smile as they moved through the cafeteria on Monday. They’d kept her in the hospital until yesterday afternoon, and despite the assurance from her parents that she didn’t have to come to school today, she was here.
“I know, it’s just two concussions in three months, is so not what I had planned for this year,” Emma said with a light sigh.
Thanks to the mild concussion from hitting her head, her doctor had her banned her from performing with the squad, even regular cheers.
There was some swelling from this new hit that he didn’t like and combined with the last one, even now knowing she’d never actually suffered any memory loss, he was adamant that she not participate until her CT was completely clear and she was clear all of concussion symptoms. She was likely to miss the state cheer competition as well, but she’d rather that than have any additional issues come up.
“Hi baby,” Ben said, sliding in next to her at the table.
His lips pressed the softest kiss to her temple, and she smiled, adoring the way he was behaving with her.
He hadn’t left her side the whole time while she was in the hospital, even stayed the night with her, and she woke to a surprise of the third of the Anne movies as a present for her.
She didn’t have the heart to tell him that she didn’t love that movie because he’d actually sent his dad three towns over to buy it at a resale shop for him to give to her.
“Where were you?” she asked, reading the answer in his expression before the words appeared.
“Crystal grabbed me from class to go down to Mr. Browning’s classroom for information for the academic bowl sectionals.
I stayed back an extra minute once he’d given us our information to ask him to keep her separated from me.
She’s been too much of a pain lately to let it go,” Ben assured her, pressing another kiss to her temple and she didn’t let it get to her this time.
After this weekend, she knew more than ever that he was hers.
“I wish she’d get over it already but I’m not going to let it upset me, not today,” she said, resting against him as the lunch period continued.
Her eyes were heavy, and she smiled when Ben lifted her onto his lap, his lips pressing kisses to her lips, cheeks, nose, and eyes.
She couldn’t stop the giggle that popped up and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him fully in return.
“Miss Watkins, Mr. Morris, I believe you are both well aware of the school’s policy on PDA, are you not?” Ms. Bentley said, breaking them apart and Emma felt her cheeks redden seeing the woman’s curious gaze flowing over them.
“Sorry, Ms. Bentley, I’m just extremely thankful that she’s safe after this most recent incident,” Ben said, his hand running down her arm gently.
“Yes, we all are,” their vice principal agreed. “I actually need to speak with Emma on another matter. Can you come with me to my office? I’ll ensure your teacher knows you’ll be late for next period.”
“Of course,” she said, shrugging in response to Megan’s confused expression.
She pressed a little kiss to Ben’s lips, then grabbed her bag, heading to the office with the woman.
Ms. Bentley was silent until they reached it, guiding her into a conference room rather than the regular offices.
Her breathing relaxed a bit seeing just one person in the room, but only a bit as he was entirely unknown to her.
“Emma, this is Detective Bryson with the Millersburg Police Department. He has some questions he’d like to ask you,” Ms. Bentley said, surprising her.
Millersburg was a town nearly an hour away from them. It was just slightly smaller than theirs, making her curious why someone from there would want to speak to her.
“I don’t know that I’ll be any help on anything but okay,” she stated. She hadn’t done anything wrong. Whatever was going on couldn’t get her in trouble, so she didn’t have any worries about it.
“I’ll be in my office if you need anything else,” Ms. Bentley said, closing the door behind her as the man held out his hand her way.
“I’m sorry about the timing of this,” he stated, when she was seated.
“I wasn’t aware of your accident this weekend until I reached the Cutler Police Department earlier this morning to get some information from the detective there.
I’d like to ask you some questions if that’s alright?
It’s entirely voluntary to talk with me and if you’d like to have your parents present, I can arrange a time to do this later today. ”
“It’s alright, I don’t need them here. I’m feeling fine other than a few bouts of sleepiness here and there.” She looked at the man, wondering what exactly he was here for, especially if he wasn’t asking about the creep that tried to hurt her this weekend. “Can you tell me what this is about?”
“I’m working to gather information to help support an arrest warrant for Carter Donovan,” the detective said, making her eyes widen in shock. “You’re acquainted with him from what I’ve learnt.”
“We were dating, last semester, until we were involved in a car accident.”
“Where you were injured due to his attempt to force you into performing a sexual act on him?” he asked, and she shut her eyes for a moment, shuddering, recalling it.
“Emma, I assure you that whatever you say will stay between us unless you give me permission to share it. I was called to the hospital in Millersburg this weekend for a sixteen-year-old assault victim. She named her assailant as the boy she had been seeing the last two weeks—Carter Donovan. In running his background, the complaint that you filed against him for the accident as well as for spraining your newly healed wrist came up and it can help in getting the arrest warrant issued. He claims he has an alibi and that he wasn’t with the victim when the assault happened.
To get DNA to confirm he was in fact the assailant, we need to be able to issue the arrest warrant.
What happened to you shows that he has a precedence for violent sexual behavior and should allow us to get that DNA, especially as his alibi is weak—that he was home alone watching a basketball game on TV. ”
“What do you need to know?” Emma asked, her heart hurting knowing someone else out there had to deal with Carter in that way. Or from the sound of it, worse.
“I need to know about that night. You said in the complaint that you asked him to take you home because he made sexual overtures that you were not comfortable with, and then in the vehicle, he grabbed you, pulling you towards him when the accident happened, resulting in your injuries. To get a signature on an arrest warrant or order for DNA, I need to know in more detail what happened. If you allow, I can record it and hopefully, not have to ask any follow-up questions later.”
She agreed to it, before telling him the whole story and not the condensed, light version she’d given the police in front of her dad.
“We’d been at the lake for hours, probably at least four by the time I demanded Carter take me home.
It was no more than twenty, maybe thirty minutes after we’d arrived that he started to try and sway me into sleeping with him.
At first, it was just attempting deeper kisses, some attempts at groping, but as the hours went by, it became constant.
His hands were always touching me somewhere, his arm over my shoulder, around me, trying to sneak in grabs.
When I would tell him to stop, he’d get angry.
“Twice, he’d grabbed me and shoved me against the wall.
That was when I knew I needed to get out of there.
The last time he grabbed me was enough to leave a bruise on my arm.
Even when I told him to take me home, he was still trying to talk me into the bedroom with him.
It wasn’t until we were around others, and I demanded to go home that he relented.
I thought I’d be safe in the truck, so I didn’t tell my friends what he’d done in the house.
I was going to break up with him when I got home, tell him to stay away or I’d tell my dad what he tried.
We’d been on the road for maybe ten minutes.
He was still furious and then he grabbed me.
“He pushed the seatbelt out of the way so he could pull me towards him. His hand was tight on the back of my neck, forcing me down. His pants were undone, and he shoved my face into his groin, rubbing it against…” Emma stopped, forcing back the absolute disgust that hit, recalling the feel of his hand on her neck, forcing her lips against his skin.
“He rubbed my face against his penis, until he had it against my lips. I pushed on his leg with my hands, fighting against his hold on my neck. He let go of the wheel and jerked my head up by the hair, a sick smile on his lips. Then pushed my face back against his penis again, his hold on my neck tightening. The next thing I knew, I was flying forward, my head smashing into the steering wheel, it sent me further upward and I crashed into the dash first with my head and then with my arm as it came down, causing a small break in it. I didn’t even care how much I hurt in that moment because I knew the crash had kept me from anything worse happening with him. ”
“Why didn’t you tell the police this when it first happened?” the man asked her after a couple other questions to clarify a couple pieces, and she sighed, not about to admit the duplicity of her relationship with Ben and have anyone call her a liar.