Page 2 of My One and Only

“Just wanna make sure you don’t stumble. Ground’s pretty uneven here.”

As they walked, she realized Michaels was leading her away from the crowd and toward a darkened part of the park. She yanked her arm away from him and backed away. “I don’t want to go back there. It’s too dark. The fun is all out here, near the campfires.”

Michaels leaned close, his beery breath washing over her face. “You’ll have lots of fun back there, Finster,” he said, grabbing her arm again and tightening his grip. “We all will. You, me, Reiters and Teller.”

Those were the jocks. The stars of the football team. And dickheads, every one of them. “No, thanks,” she said. “I’ll wait for Pierce.”

“Pierce isn’t coming,” he said, jerking his head behind him. “He’s busy right now.”

Jo turned around to look and saw two guys pounding on Cam, beating him with their hands and kicking him with their feet. She had no idea who the guys were -- all she saw was their backs.

“No!”she yelled, yanking her hand away from Michaels. She began to run toward Cam, but Michaels grabbed her arm and tightened his fingers painfully.

“He doesn’t need your help,” he said, and all of a sudden, Michael’s voice sounded mean. Threatening. “We have some fun planned for you, Finster.”

He began to drag her toward a stand of trees that was screened from the lake, and Jo knew exactly what he meant by ‘fun’. Michaels and his buddies intended to rape her.

She tried to knee him in the nuts, but he laughed and turned so she hit his thigh. “We like ‘em feisty, Finster,” he said, squeezing her breast hard. Pain shot through her chest as he dragged her along the rutted tracks.

Panic closed her throat and she struggled to hold back the urge to vomit. She had to keep her head, or she was going to be gang-raped. Drawing a deep breath, she drove the heel of her palm up into Michaels’ nose. When he screamed and let her go, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the pepper spray her mother had given her when she got her driver’s license. ‘Just in case’ her mom had said. And Jo knew this was exactly the situation her mother had been worried about.

Covering her eyes and nose with her arm, she sprayed a shot into Michaels’ face. He shrieked and stumbled backward. From the direction of the woods, footsteps pounded the dirt. Reiters and Teller ran toward them. Teller tried to grab her, and she sprayed him, as well. Then Reiters. When all three of them were writhing on the ground, she ran toward Cam, now lying motionless on the rutted trail.

His face was almost unrecognizable, cut and bruised and bleeding. He had a cut over his left temple, and a bloody nose. “Cam,” she cried, crouching beside him. “Wake up. You’re hurt.”

But Cam didn’t move.

She reached for her phone, usually in her pocket, to call an ambulance, but came up empty. She hadn’t brought the damn phone. Didn’t want to be traced to the party in case her parents woke up and realized she was missing. Last time she’d ever leave the house without her phone, she vowed. But that wouldn’t help Cam tonight.

The pounding of feet on the dirt track made Jo stand up. Donnie Kincaid was rushing toward her. When he reached her, he dropped to one knee. “Hey, Cam, wake up,” he said, nudging his shoulder. But Cam didn’t move.

“Do you have a phone?”Jo asked. “He needs an ambulance.” She edged away from Donnie -- he was a nasty piece of work who’d always given her the creeps.

Ignoring him and her instinct to get away from him, she touched Cam’s head, and her fingers came back red.

“Yeah,” he said, pulling a phone out of his pocket. He hit 911. After a moment, said, “We need an ambulance out at Ogden Lake. Guy was beat up. He’s in bad shape.”

Kincaid narrowed his eyes at her. “You see who did this to Cam?”he asked.

Jo shook her head. “Two guys. Only saw their backs.” Her mouth trembled as she struggled to keep the tears from falling. “Michaels, Reiter and Teller were… harassing me. Holding my arm. When I used my pepper spray on them, they let me go.”

“You sure you don’t know?”

“If I knew, I’d say. Cam’s my friend. I want whoever did this to him to pay for it.”

“You gonna stay with him until the ambulance comes?”Don Kincaid asked.

Jo began backing away, looking over her shoulder for Reiter, Michaels and Tiller. “You have to stay with him. I can’t. I have to… I have to leave. Right now.” Before the pepper spray she’d used on Reiter, Michaels and Tiller wore off.

“I thought you were Cam’s friend,” Kincaid said.

“I am. But you’re here now. You live with him. Better if you stay with him.”

She was stuttering because her teeth were chattering. “I’ve gotta go.”

She turned and began sprinting toward the road and the safety of her car. Michaels, Teller and Reiters were rolling on the ground, rubbing their eyes as she ran past. When they saw her, all three of them stumbled to their feet and chased her.

She made it to her car a handful of steps ahead of them. Opened the door, dove in, then hit the door lock. As one of the boys tugged at the door handle, Jo started the car, her hands shaking and her chest pounding. Throwing the car into gear, she stomped on the gas. Tiller, who was grabbing the door handle, tumbled to the asphalt. Michaels and Reiter stood in front of the car, and her shoulders tensed. Did they really think she was going to stop? After they’d as much as told her they were going to rape her?

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