Take It Read online

  "Oh, God. What did he do to her? Is she ok?"

  "I don't know," Eric answered. "She's alive. But there might be brain damage. I'm gonna call her mom." Eric hung up and found Brandi's mom in the phone. The phone rang and went to voicemail. Eric cleared his throat and left a message that Brandi was at the hospital and she needed to get there as soon as possible.

  The ambulance pulled into the hospital and Brandi was wheeled out. Eric sat in the waiting area, looking for either Kayla or Brandi's mom. Kayla came rushing through the door, flying into Eric's arms. "It's all my fault," she sobbed. "I told her not to talk to me unless she broke up with Zack. Who knows what else he did to her after that? What if she wanted to leave and had nowhere to go?"

  Eric hugged her. "Its not your fault, Kayla. He hurt her because she was at my house. If it was anyone's fault, it's mine. But it's not. It's his fault. He's a crazy, pathetic piece of shit."

  Kayla sniffed. "Do you know what happened?"

  Eric sighed. "I got there too late. She was...bloody." He shuddered. "And half naked."

  Kayla closed her eyes. "Did she look...was her face ok? How bad did he beat her?"

  "Bad."

  Kayla and Eric sat in the waiting room, praying that Brandi would be ok.

  Take It Away

  Brandi opened her eyes. Bright white walls made her squint. Where was she? God, it was so bright. She heard a steady beeping sound. She glanced to her left. She must be dreaming. "Dad?"

  Her dad's head snapped up. "Brandi! Oh honey, you're awake!"

  She nodded, confused. "What happened? Where am I?"

  "The hospital." Her dad took her hand and squeezed. "You don't remember?"

  Brandi closed her eyes. The last thing she remembered was Eric. Then driving home. Then...

  She gasped, trying to sit up. "Where is he? Where's Zack?"

  "Shh, lay down, honey. Zack is gone. You're safe here. Your mother is here. And your friends are here too."

  "I don't have any friends," she mumbled. "Mom has to be here. She works here. What are you doing here?"

  He brought her hand to his face. "You're my little girl. I'm sorry I haven't been around lately. Maybe if I was this wouldn't have happened."

  "Yes it would," she said. "Where's mom? Is she mad at me?"

  He kissed her hand. "She's on her shift. I'll have them page her. I'm going to go get your nurse, ok? I'll be right back."

  Brandi nodded, looking at the wall. She knew Zack had hurt her badly. She must be on a lot of painkillers, because she felt nothing.

  Her dad came back with a nurse, followed by her mom, Kayla and Eric. Brandi's eyes filled with tears when she saw that the people that she had pushed away were here. "Mom," she choked out, holding out her arms. Her mom rushed to her side, hugging her gently. "I'm so sorry, baby," she whispered. "You're gonna come home with me when you get out of here. I promise things will be better." Brandi nodded gratefully. "Thanks, mom. I love you."

  "I love you too, honey," she said, smiling and backing away. Kayla walked tentatively over and smiled at Brandi. "I'm sorry, Kayla," Brandi said, tears filling her eyes. "You were right."

  Kayla hugged her as tight as she could without hurting her. "I wish I wasn't," she whispered. "I love you, bitch."

  Brandi laughed through her tears. "I love you too, bitch. Why is Eric here?"

  "He found you," Kayla said softly. "He's been here the whole time."

  "Whole time? How long have I been here?"

  "Three days."

  Brandi closed her eyes. "What happened to Zack?"

  Kayla smiled sympathetically. "No one knows. He left after...after he hurt you. But don't worry. The police are looking for him. He has no money. He can't get far."

  The nurse cleared her throat, and Kayla stepped back. "I'm Fiona," the young, pleasant looking nurse said. She took Brandi's blood pressure while she asked her questions. "What's your name?"

  "Brandi Warner."

  "How old are you?"

  "Seventeen."

  "When's your birthday?"

  "April 22."

  "Do you remember what happened to you?"

  Brandi closed her eyes. "Yes," she whispered.

  The nurse asked her a few basic questions, seeming confident that Brandi didn't have any brain damage.

  "There's an officer outside your door," her dad said. "Just in case."

  Brandi glanced at Eric, who cracked his knuckles. She smiled softly, feeling better that Eric would probably beat Zack in a fight. The thought of Zack brought on a rush of memories, and it was too much for Brandi to bear. She started crying, burying her face in her hands. "I want to be alone," she sobbed. Everyone left her alone and she cried until she fell asleep.

  "So tell me about yourself, Brandi."

  Brandi sighed, looking at the therapist. "What do you want to know?"

  "Anything you want to tell me."

  Brandi's physical scars were healing, but the hospital wouldn't discharge her until she went through therapy recommended for rape and abuse victims. Unless her parents demanded she be released, but they wouldn't. They were convinced that she needed it.

  "My name is Brandi. I'm seventeen. I like to dance. I like ice cream. Happy?"

  Dr. Lavery raised her eyebrows at Brandi. "Yes, actually. Getting a patient to talk to me at all is sometimes the hardest part of this process. Why don't you tell me about Zack?"

  "No," Brandi said immediately.

  "Why not?"

  "Because I don't want to," Brandi snapped.

  Dr. Lavery nodded. "That's fine. We don't have to talk about him today. But we're going to have to talk about it before you get out of here. Why don't you tell me about your parents?"

  Brandi shrugged. "I live with my mom. Or I did, before I moved in with Zack. My parents got divorced last year."

  "That must have been hard for you."

  "Well, yeah. Especially because my dad got his secretary pregnant. It's like a bad soap opera. My mom took it pretty hard. She kind of shut down. She never really recovered."

  Dr. Lavery tapped her pen on her notepad. "How so?"

  "Well, she works a lot. She doesn't have to. She just does. She works and sleeps. And cries. I do all the cooking and cleaning and chores. Some days she's clingy, and some days she doesn't even know I'm there. It's been pretty hard."

  "That must be tough. Where's your dad in all this?"

  "My dad moved on with his life. I'm actually shocked that he's even here, honestly. He doesn't want anything to do with me or my mom anymore."

  "Why do you say that?"

  "Because it's true," Brandi said, stretching out on the couch. "After the divorce, he kept telling me that I could come stay with him for the weekend, he would take me out for dinner, blah blah blah. And he would always cancel at the last minute. Eventually he just stopped offering. He stopped even talking to me. He gives me money every month instead."

  "So who do you talk to when you need advice or help?"

  "Usually Kayla. She's my best friend. I mean, she was. Before Zack."

  "What happened with that?"

  "She didn't like him."

  "Why?"

  Brandi sat up. "I told you I don't want to talk about him."

  "That's fine," Dr. Lavery said gently. "We're about done for today anyway. Good job, Brandi."

  Brandi got up left the room. She smiled at Officer Hartt, who walked her back to her room. "Any news?" She asked nervously. He shook his head. "Not yet. Don't worry. We'll get him. In the meantime, there's a boy waiting in your room with flowers. What's that all about?"

  She rolled her eyes. Officer Hartt was assigned to watch her while she was in the hospital. She had taken to him right away. He looked to be in his mid fifties, but was still handsome in a rugged way. He had a fatherly vibe about him, and Brandi liked the way he was protective over her. "That's just Eric. He's a friend. He's been really nice to me. I think he feels bad."

  "I think he has a crush on you."

  Brandi la
ughed. "Please. Do I look like I'm ready for a relationship any time soon?" Her face was healing, but her nose had been broken. She at least hoped it would be cuter when it healed. Her eyes were black and blue, though most of the swelling had gone down. Worse than that, the idea of sex made her physically nauseous. She was pretty sure she'd never be able to do it again.

  "I'm not saying you have to go out with him. But I think he's a good guy. I'm pretty good at reading people."

  "I'm sure you are," Brandi said as he sat in the chair outside her room. "See you later."

  Brandi smiled at Eric and sat on her bed. "God, I'm sick of this room. Are those for me?"

  "Of course they are," he said, handing her the flowers. "How was therapy?"

  She shrugged. "It was therapy. She keeps trying to get me to talk about Zack. It's really annoying."

  "I get it. But you need to talk about him before you get out of here. Don't you want to go back to school?"

  "Yeah. Not until my face heals. But I'm so freaking sick of this place. I never want to see fluorescent lights again. How bad are the rumors?"

  "They're not bad, Brandi. Really. Just that Zack beat you up. Nothing about...you know."

  "Thank god," she muttered. "I don't want anyone to know about that."

  He looked away awkwardly. "Kayla said she'd stop by later. I should get going. I just wanted to see how you were doing."

  "Thanks, Eric. I really appreciate you spending time with me in here."

  "I like spending time with you, Brandi. Maybe when you get out of here we can go out or something."

  Brandi looked at him, horrified. "I mean as friends," he said quickly. "Shit, I'm sorry Brandi. I didn't mean...I don't want you to think I was hitting on you after..."

  "It's ok," Brandi quickly said. "I know what you meant. I'd love to go out. As friends."

  Eric grinned at her. "Great. Well...see you later."

  Brandi smiled after him. His awkwardness had a strange way of making her feel comfortable.

  "Dinner!" Fiona announced, rolling a cart into the room. "Please eat something tonight. I'd like to be able to give Dr. Lavery a good report."

  Brandi looked at the bland chicken and rice. "If they want me to eat, why don't they try harder to make the food edible?"

  "Well how do you know it's inedible if you don't try it?"

  Brandi pushed around the chicken with her fork.

  Get your fat ass over here.

  Her eyes filled with tears and she put her fork down. "I can't. Can you please take it away before I get sick?"

  Fiona sighed. "I'll leave it here for a bit in case you change your mind, ok?"

  "Hey, Brandi. Hey Fiona," Kayla said, strolling in the room. She stopped when she saw Brandi's tears. "What happened?"

  "Nothing," Brandi said, smiling. "How was school?"

  "Same old crap," Kayla said. "And don't worry. Nobody knows what happened other than Zack beat you up."

  "I know," Brandi said. "Eric was just here. He told me."

  "He seems like a nice guy," Kayla said, sitting down. "I kind of feel bad for calling him Nerd Alert."

  Brandi laughed. "He's a self proclaimed nerd. But yeah, he's been really nice. I'm glad he's in most of my classes. He brings my homework so I have something to entertain myself."

  "That chicken looks gnarly," Kayla said, wrinkling her nose at the plate in front of Brandi.

  "I know!" Brandi exclaimed. "It's disgusting. I swear to god they take raw chicken and microwave it for five minutes. Then they get mad that I won't eat."

  Kayla laughed. "So if I brought you sushi, you'd eat it?"

  "Hell yeah. That sounds amazing."

  "Well, you're in luck," Kayla said, pulling two containers of sushi out of her bag. "Ta da!"

  Brandi smiled weakly. "I didn't think you actually had it."

  "I know," Kayla said. "But sushi is super low calorie and good. You need to eat something."

  Brandi opened the container of spicy tuna roll and smiled. "It does smell pretty good."

  "There's like, 300 calories in this roll. And almost no fat. I already checked. And if you don't eat anything, you gain even more weight. Just try to eat, Brandi," Kayla pleaded. "Why is it so hard for you?"

  Brandi picked up the chopsticks. "It's just that every time I try to eat or look at food I think of him. Telling me that I'm fat and disgusting. Then I completely lose my appetite."

  Kayla sighed. "Brandi, you know he didn't really think you were fat, right? That was just another way for him to make you feel bad about yourself."

  Brandi shrugged. "I guess. It's just hard to get his words out of my head."

  "I know. I get it. But the alternative is that they shove a feeding tube up your nose. Does that sound better than a delicious spicy tuna roll?"

  Brandi picked up a piece of sushi. "You're right. I really don't want them to do that. God, that's good," she groaned, eating the piece of sushi. Kayla laughed and ate her own roll. Brandi ended up eating more than half of the roll, which was a big improvement considering she hadn't really been eating at all.

  "Tell Fiona I ate. She won't believe me."

  "Yeah, sure," Kayla said. "How's therapy going?"

  Brandi shrugged, sick of talking about it. "Therapy's therapy. I don't want to talk about it."

  "That's fine," Kayla said. "Has your dad been by?"

  "Yeah, he was here yesterday," Brandi said softly. She had been in the hospital for over a week and her dad had come to visit her a few times. "I'm glad that he cares enough to come to see me. But I feel like we have nothing to talk about. Our conversation is so strained. I know he thinks I'm stupid for getting involved with Zack."

  Kayla shook her head. "He doesn't think you're stupid, Brandi. No one thinks you're stupid."

  "I do," Brandi said quietly. "Looking back it's like…I knew he was awful to me. But he would twist it around and blame it on me and make me feel like it was my fault. And I believed him. I lost everybody because of him. I'm so sorry, Kayla. I didn't mean to choose him over you."

  Kayla hugged her tightly. "You don't have to apologize, Brandi. I get it. That's what guys like him do. He's a manipulator. And if I ever see him again, I'll kick his ass."

  Brandi smiled. "Thanks, Kayla. Love you."

  "Love you too," Kayla said, standing up. "I'm gonna head home. I'll tell Fiona you ate. I'll stop by tomorrow."

  Kayla left and Brandi was left feeling incredibly alone.

  "I'm ready to talk about Zack," Brandi announced to Dr. Lavery the next day. Dr. Lavery raised her eyebrows. "Already? What brought this on?"

  Brandi hesitated, then decided to tell the truth. "You're not gonna let me out of here until I do. And I want to get out of here. So what do you want to know?"

  Dr. Lavery studied her for a minute. "Why don't you start from the beginning? When did you meet Zack?"

  "At a party. I don't really like parties but Kayla dragged me with her."

  "Oh? Why don't you like parties?"

  Brandi shrugged. "It's just...I'm not really comfortable being in a room with eighty people smashing into each other drunkenly. That's more of Kayla's thing. I guess I'm more of an introvert."

  "Interesting. So you met Zack at the party. Then what?"

  "I don't know. He seemed nice. And he was really, really hot. Like, way too hot for me. So I couldn't really figure out why he liked me. Even when I kept messing up, he still stuck with me. His family situation is a lot like mine. So he understood me, you know?"

  Dr. Lavery nodded. "Tell me what you mean when you said you kept messing up?"

  "I just made him mad. I always said stupid things and overreacted."

  Dr. Lavery looked at her thoughtfully. "Tell me about one time you made him mad."

  Brandi thought. "When we were living at the motel. He wanted to have sex and I didn't. I started crying. So he called me a baby and said he didn't know why put up with me. I told him I was leaving him and he laughed at me because I had nowhere to go. Nobody wanted me. I star
ted screaming at him to get out."

  "And did he?"

  "No. He said that he wasn't going anywhere because his name was on the motel, even though I was paying for it."

  "So why do you think that fight was your fault?"

  Brandi was silent for a minute. "I guess I don’t. At the time, he made it seem like I was being unreasonable and selfish. Like I was starting a fight for no reason. But looking back, I can see that it wasn’t my fault. I feel so stupid though. How could I let him control me and treat me like that?"

  "And did you end up having sex?"

  "Well yeah, but I told him I would."

  "Did you enjoy the sex?"

  Brandi’s eyes filled with tears. "The sex was horrible. It was always horrible. He was rough with me and called me names. When we had sex it was like…he didn’t care who I was. He just wanted to use my body to get off. I felt worthless and used every time he finished."

  "Why don't you tell me what happened to put you in the hospital?"

  Brandi shut her eyes and told Dr. Lavery about her and Eric's history project. She told her about how Zack had forbade her from going to Eric's, but then had gone out with his friends.

  "It's not even like me and Eric were hanging out as friends. We were working on a stupid project. One that's worth 25% of our grade. I couldn't just not do it. My grades were suffering already. So I waited until he went to work and I went to Eric's. I didn't think he'd find out cause he was supposed to be working until six. But he texted me around two and knew where I was. So I went back to the motel and tried to talk to him but..."

  "But what?"

  "You know what," Brandi said, shifting uncomfortably. "You've read my chart."

  "Did you expect him to be violent with you?"

  "I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I just wanted to smooth things over as soon as I could. I mean, he had never hit me before then. Not really. He just squeezed and grabbed me too tightly sometimes. But I thought he would realize that he had nothing to be jealous of."

  "Did you explain that to him?"

  "I didn't have a chance. As soon as I opened the door, he started yelling."

  "Do you remember the attack?"

  Brandi wiped away her tears. "Parts of it. I remember him saying "get your fat ass over here." I remember that every time I try to eat. I remember him telling me that I belonged to him. And him hitting me. And him pulling down my pants..." she put her head in her hands and stared sobbing. Dr. Lavery gave her a minute to collect herself. "Sorry," Brandi said, wiping tears from her eyes.