Page 31 of Serpentine Valentine

“Thanks,” she breathed, smiling tremulously. “I-I can’t even believe I said anything.”

“I’m glad you did,” Courtney muttered, not looking at any of us, scuffing her bare foot on the floor. “I was being a dick.”

No one argued with her.

“I think you should go to the director of student life,” I said, curling my hand around one of hers. “She should know what Jerrod did. Even if you can’t press charges, they’ll start a file on him. It’ll be harder for him to get away with that bullshit.”

“Yeah,” she said, but her lower lip trembled.

“We’ll go with you if you want?” I offered, looking around at the pale faces of my teammates. “Right?”

As one, they nodded.

“Really?” Taya asked, startled, eyes wide. “I don’t want you guys to have to get involved.”

“We’re already involved,” I said because it was true. “Whatever youneed, whatever you want, we’ll be here, okay?”

“I thought you might think I was a s-slut like L-Lex Gorgon,” she admitted on a hiccough.

My stomach fisted, and I was mute with sadness and rage.

“Never,” Courtney assured with a tender smile.

I tried to feel happy about the way the team had come together. About Courtney and Flora realizing how wrong they’d been not to consider the validity of a rape accusation just because they knew the guy and thought he was cool and hot and popular. I was happy when we all finished dressing and walked as an ensemble through campus to the admin building so Taya could speak her truth.

But mostly, I felt like there was a pit of snakes in my belly, coiling tighter and tighter, hissing out one name.

Lex.

And I couldn’t help but feel a sense of devastation knowing she’d never feel the same sense of community comfort after her tragedy.

As I sat outside the office waiting for Taya, I wished I had Lex’s number to text her, but what would I have said?

I’m sorry no one believes you.

I’m sorry you’ve become an example of what not to be. I’m sorry your beauty made you dangerous.

How could I be the only one to empathize with her?

It occurred to me only when I looked at the girls waiting beside me, at their struck expression and horrified eyes. At the very real stink of their fear in the air.

They were imagining what happened to Taya happening to them, or maybe even reliving their own traumas.

What had happened to Lex was horrible not just because of her sexual assault but also because of thepunishmentshe’d been doled out because of it. Suspended from Acheron for months, condemned by herpeers as a slut. It was every girl’s worst nightmare.

Maybe that was why they ridiculed her and kept her at a distance.

They feared what had happened to her so badly they almost didn’t want to get close enough to catch whatever fate had done to her.

I thought it was a good theory, but it didn’t explain why I reacted so contradictorily.

When I saw Lex, all I saw was awe-inspiring strength. I wanted to be closer to her so I might catch whatever made her so fearless even after she’d been through a woman’s worst nightmare.

I was an overthinker by nature, but this drove me mad.

So I decided right there, as Taya emerged from the office with a tremulous smile, and the entire team surged around her in a show of gorgeous unity, that for once, I’d stop thinking, and I’d follow my gut.

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”