Page 77 of Drown in You

That night, Juliet wasn’t responding to my texts. We had plans to hang out, but she mentioned earlier that she might want to meet up with Marcus first. When she didn’t answer my calls either, I knew where to find her.

Her parents built a giant treehouse for her when we were in middle school. Truly giant. Like one of those treehouses you see built on reality TV shows. That became our fortress, our castle. Where we’d go when we wanted a place that was just for us. On warm summer nights, we’d even sleep out there.

That’s the first place I went. Maybe she was waiting for me and her phone died. Juliet wasn’t the most reliable texter, but she almost always followed through on plans. If nothing else, Juliet is dependable, even if she’s rarely predictable.

I snuck past the gate onto Juliet’s huge family property. A few lights from the first floor of her massive house trickled onto the pristine, manicured front lawn. A trail of calf-high lamps bordered either side of the stone walkway that led to their front door. Visiting Juliet was like entering a castle. If I didn’t love her so much, I’d envy her for her fantasy life.

But I knew what Juliet had been through, and it wasn’t anything to envy.

Her parents’ Mercedes wasn’t in the driveway, but Juliet’s Audi was. So was Marcus’s Cadillac.

I should’ve turned around then. Waited for Juliet to text me after he left. But I waltzed up to the front door and tried the knob. Locked. I knocked, rang the doorbell. Silence.

So I slunk around the house and into the backyard like a burglar until I was standing at the foot of the ladder that led up to the towering treehouse. I didn’t hear anything, no voices. Probably another dead-end. Juliet and Marcus were likely up in her room fucking, so she’d want to meet me out here anyway. I’d just wait for her.

I climbed the ladder, each rung groaning slightly under my weight. The treehouse was years old now, the ladder aged and better at withstanding the weight of the two twelve-year-olds we were than the nineteen-year-olds we’d become.

This was our safe place. Our sanctuary. It was supposed to stay that way.

Once I reached the top of the ladder, I could make out a person hunched over in the darkness.

Wait. Not one. Two. One of them was bracing on all fours, the other prone on the wooden floor beneath them.

Juliet’s parents had lights built into the treehouse. We always turned them on when we were out here in the dark.

But Marcus kept them off.

His grunts were the first thing my senses registered. Then it was the thrusts of his hips.

My face burned and I was about to climb back down before they noticed me until I spotted the rope he tightened around her neck.

Beneath him, Juliet was silent. I’d overheard her having sex with guys often enough that I knew she wasn’t quiet in bed.

Certainly never silent.

Worse, she wasn’t moving. She was limp beneath him, her head lolled to the side and eyes shut.

My best friend was unconscious. While Marcus?—

After that, there were no thoughts in my head. My body went into panic mode, acting of its own accord like I was watching myself move but my mind wasn’t in control of any of it. “What the hell?”

Marcus dropped the rope and stopped the second he saw me. He scrambled off Juliet, tugging his pants back on with a jangle of his belt.

Her face was red from lack of oxygen. From how hard he’d been choking her with the rope.

“What the fuck are you doing to her?” The scream ripped from my throat so violently, I wondered if the vibration of your vocal chords could scar you.

He held up his hands. “It’s not what it looks like. She wanted it.”

She wanted it. How many fucking times has that been used as a defense for men who take what they want without permission?

No. Not Juliet. Not my best friend. She’d already been through enough. I wouldn’t let this monster get away with it.

Hot tears stung my eyes, but I blinked them away. I’d break down later. Right now, I needed to get this motherfucker far away from her.

Trembling, I moved between them, pointing to the ladder. “Leave.”

He hesitated, and my heart dropped. I came up here without a weapon. I didn’t have anything to defend myself or my best friend. He was a football player. He could hurt both of us.

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