Untamed

I heard something terrible in the library today. A girl I know could end up hurt or even dead because of what a guy is planning. Maybe city kids are used to this stuff, but I didn’t grow up in the city. I’m a small-town girl, and I don’t have a clue what to do. I was sitting in the back of the library, at a table behind the stacks. Two guys were at another table about ten feet away. They kept their voices low, but I could still hear them talking. “This is the weekend, bro,” said the big dude with blonde hair. I recognized him because he’s the football team’s star quarterback and his picture is plastered all over the school. His name is Gary Wells, and he’s a senior. He was talking to another senior guy named Chuck who’s also on the football team. “Lindsey Morris?” asked Chuck. I stifled a gasp. I recognized that name. From the side of my eye, I saw Chuck shake his head. He spoke in a loud whisper. “She’s only a freshman, Gary. What if she doesn’t want to?” “I have these.” Gary held up a little brown bottle and dumped some small white pills into his palm. “But I won’t need them. She’s crazy about me.” “Roofies?” Chuck’s tone was low and hoarse. “Dude, are you nuts? You could go to jail for that.” Roofies! A date-rape drug! My fists clenched, snapping the lead from my pencil and shooting it to the floor. The tiny noise was enough to let them know I was there. That I’d heard. The guys stopped talking. I fumbled in my backpack for another pencil, then bent over my notebook and wrote as fast as I could. Busy. Absorbed in my work. Certainly not listening. A shadow fell across my paper. Someone was standing next to my chair. Swallowing hard, I forced myself to look up. Gary’s eyes were fixed on me, black and empty like the eyes of a robot. “You didn’t hear a thing. Got it?” His hands came down on my shoulders and pinched. “You say a word about this to anyone and you’ll be sorry!” His fingers tightened so hard that I yelped. The librarian must have heard me. She flew down the aisle, sputtering like an old hen. “Gary Wells, let go of that girl. Go to the office, right now!” Gary smirked at Chuck. “Like they’ll do anything to me. The Homecoming game is Friday.” Giving me a narrow-eyed glance, he stalked out. “Are you all right, dear?” I looked up into the librarian’s kind eyes. “Did he hurt you?” I shook my head and told her I was fine. “Well, then…” She broke off, her gaze moving from me to the door and back to me. “I need to tell the principal about this. He might want to speak with you.” She moved away, heading for the door. I wasn’t fine. My shoulders burned where Gary had grabbed me, and I felt like there was a fifty-pound weight on my head. Roofies were dangerous. If a girl drank something with a roofie mixed into it, she could be so tranquilized she couldn’t move. Gary had these pills, and he planned to use them on Lindsey if she wouldn’t have sex with him. How could he even think about doing something so terrible? The bell rang. I pushed myself up from my chair, wobbling and clumsily knocking the books off the table. I squatted down and fumbled around, trying to gather them up. “Let me.” Chuck, the boy Gary had been talking to, stopped to help me. As I pushed myself to my feet the room seemed to rock slightly. Hanging on to the table, I waited while he shoved together my papers, books, and a couple of pencils that had rolled away. Chuck stood up and handed me the pile. “I’m sorry he did that. He’s under a lot of pressure.” “What about Lindsey?” I whispered. “He could hurt her. Those pills are illegal.” Chuck glanced toward the door and then turned back to me. “I know. I don’t think he’d really do something like that. I’ll talk to him. But try to stay away from him, okay? The mood he’s in, I don’t know what he’ll do.” I nodded. Chuck patted me on the back and slipped out the side door of the library. I watched him go, feeling numb. Gary was under a lot of pressure? Chuck didn’t know what Gary might do? What did that mean, exactly? With shaking hands, I tried to put everything back inside my backpack. Folders in back, books in front. Pencils and pens in the side pocket. When I hoisted it to my back, the straps cut into my shoulders, digging into the burning spots. I felt like I was carrying a deadly secret and staggering under its weight. I slid the straps from my shoulders and carried the backpack in front of me. Gary Wells was important at this school. It was almost four times bigger than the high school back home, almost two thousand kids. Football was really important here. Because of Gary, their football team had won the state championship for the past three years. But what about Lindsey? Wasn’t her safety more important than winning a football game? Once I’d heard Mom and Grandma talking about a college football player who had raped a girl. The girl had called the campus police, but when they questioned the young man, he denied the charges. It was her word against his. The guy got off. I asked what happened to the girl, but Mom said no one knew. There was nothing in the paper about that. Nobody seemed to care. The bruises on my shoulders ached and burned. Would the school do anything to Gary for hurting me? Doubtful. Football ruled the world.