In answer, Bella only closed her eyes.
I took the opportunity to examine the words marked on her limbs. Two or three different pens had been used. The lines weren’t all the same width, and some of the handwriting was different.
The only consistent feature was how awful it was. DANGER someone had written. And that was just about the only word in the bunch you could say in church. A lot of it wasn’t coherent, which may have been a blessing. But even misspelled, FILTY PUSSY was unfortunately legible.
As I looked her over, the creepy tingle returned to my spine. Someone had done this to Bella. No — several someones. It was almost impossible to picture. They must have stood around her passed-out body, egging each other on.
I tasted bile imagining it. And I couldn’t help wondering what else they might have done to her.
Shit. I’d gotten Bella home safely. But it occurred to me that the job wasn’t over. “Bella,” I whispered. “Do you need to go to the police? Or the hospital?”
Her eyes flew open again. “No,” she ground out. “They didn’t… It wasn’t about that.”
“Then…” I grasped for the right question. “What was it about?”
“EMBARRASSING me!” She sat up. “It worked. You’re staring!”
I sat back on my heels and took a deep breath. It wouldn’t be right to just let this go. “I don’t know what happened to you, but this is disgusting, and you need to tell someone.” I slipped my iPod out of its sports sleeve. I opened up the camera app and aimed my device at Bella’s leg.
“What are you doing?” she gasped, swatting at my iPod.
I held it out for her to take. “When you’re ready to talk, you’re going to want proof.”
For the first time since I’d found her on fraternity row, she squared her shoulders. Then, before I even knew what was happening, she grabbed my iPod and threw it across the room. I heard a sickening crack as it crashed into the plaster wall. Sections of my fancy toy flung themselves in opposite directions on Bella’s floor.
“OUT!” Bella yelled. She dragged herself onto her feet and pointed her body toward the little bathroom.
I stood up to follow because she still looked unsteady.
She gripped the door frame and swung an angry face toward mine. “Don’t you dare follow me into the bathroom.”
I heard the sound of another door opening. I looked past Bella into the bathroom and saw the neighbor’s face peering at me again, this time with shocked, wide-open eyes.
Fantastico. I took a step back, hoping to look nonthreatening. “Listen. If you don’t want me here, that’s fine. But who can I call for you? I don’t think you should be alone right now.”
Bella gave her head a single shake. “Just GO!” Bella’s head swiveled to take in Lianne’s curious gaze. “What are you staring at?”
The other girl’s bathroom door closed quickly. That was a shame, because now was really the perfect time for a girlfriend to step in.
“I’m showering,” Bella said, her hand on the bathroom door. The expression on her face was fierce.
I took a couple steps backward, still unsure what to do.
“Get out of here,” Bella slurred. Then she shut the bathroom door in my face.
Standing there, staring at the wooden panels, I didn’t know what to do. After a moment, I heard the sound of the shower. Still, I was not going to leave her alone here. Not in her condition.
I left Bella’s room, as she’d asked me to, but I didn’t go downstairs. Instead, I knocked on the neighbor’s door.
She opened it warily. “Hi,” she said through the narrow opening.
“Hi. I’m Rafe. I’m your downstairs neighbor.”
“I know,” she whispered.
Fair enough. “So… Bella is not doing so well, and she won’t tell me why. Are the two of you close?”
Slowly, the girl shook her head, a look of regret in her eyes.
“Okay.” I cleared my throat. “That makes two of us. She’s in the shower now I think.”
Lianne tipped her head toward her own bathroom door, and nodded.
“Can you just… check on her in a few minutes?”
“Okay,” she whispered. “What’s the deal with…?” She gestured toward her arms and legs.
“I really don’t know. I was out running when I found her. And she won’t talk about it.”
Lianne cringed.
“Just check on her, okay? Are you going to be home for a while? I’ll come back upstairs later to see how she is.”