Page 57 of Cruise Control

“She was at a party. People I knew, Paige. Fucking disgusting. She was only twenty,” he whispered. Paige swallowed thickly.

“We don’t have to talk about this, Parker. We’re not -”

“Last June. It was a Saturday night. Well, I guess Sunday morning, when I got the call. Like two in the morning. I was dead asleep – I was supposed to catch an early flight to Austin the next day. Some lady was on the phone, blabbering on and on. Took me forever to wake up enough to figure out what she was saying. She tells me my sister is in the hospital, all banged up, police were there, the whole nine yards. And my sister wouldn’t say anything except that they had to call me.”

“Holy shit,” Paige breathed. Parker nodded.

“I’ve never driven like that in my life. I sped through a toll – one of the tickets that I got busted for in Alabama. I got there in like an hour and a half. They took me in to see her. She didn’t look as bad as I'd thought she would, the way the lady on the phone had talked. I mean, she didn’t look like she'd been beaten up or mugged or anything like that. Her hair was all messed up and it was obvious she'd been crying, but that was it.

“When I got into the room, she started crying again. She told me she'd been at some party on the upper eastside. The usual stuff, smoking some weed, drinking a little. Other people doing some harder stuff. Some guy that had been chasing after her was there. She wasn’t into him. She kept trying to tell him that. She’d never really had a boyfriend, you know. Never been with anyone,” Parker started having trouble controlling his voice. Not because he was upset, Paige realized, but because he was angry.

“Oh my god, Parker.”

“She didn’t remember going into the bedroom. She didn’t remember doing anything, really. She just remembered waking up to him on top of her. She said she tried to push him off, but she couldn’t really move. That’s why it had taken so long for her to get to the hospital and have them call me – she was so drugged up. The fucker gave her enough ketamine to knock out a fuckin’ horse. Her cab driver had to carry her into the hospital. She’s lucky her heart didn’t stop or she didn’t slip into a coma. The dude threatened her afterwards, scared her. Said if she told anyone, he would say she'd asked for it, the kind of bullshit guys like that always say,” Parker spit out.

“'Guys like that',” Paige whispered. “When I said that to you, back in ... Mississippi? Wherever. You got upset. I couldn't figure out why. 'Guys like that.'”

Parker swallowed thickly, still embarrassed at his overreaction in that moment.

“To say I got upset is an understatement.I fucking lost my shit. I went insane. I just got up and walked out of the hospital. I didn’t even think about what I was doing – the memories are still fuzzy. It was like being on autopilot. I don’t even remember driving. It was only four in the morning. A good New York party never really stops, and when you’re in Manhattan, all the parties are good parties. I went there. I knew who the guy was. He was laughing, hitting on some other girl. I couldn’t believe it.”

Paige’s breathing got fast. “What did you do?”

“I beat the goddamn shit out of him, Paige. I mean, I just laid into him. I grabbed him by the back of the neck and slammed his face into the wall. When he turned around, I started hammering into him, taking him all the way to the floor. It took two police officers and a taser to get me off him. We both got arrested,” he said quickly, moving his hands away from his eyes and staring at the ceiling.

“Good. Good for you,” she stated in a loud voice. Parker chuckled.

“You don’t get it, Paige. I should sayIgot arrested and taken to jail. He got arrested and carried on a stretcher to a hospital. He didn’t wake up for three days.Three days. I thought I fucking killed him. I've never been so scared,” he told her. Paige swallowed thickly.

“But probably still weren't as scared as your sister was when she woke up in that room with him,” she replied. Parker’s eyes finally cut to her.

“That’s what kept me from feeling guilty – and almost made me wish I'd finished the job. He did wake up –thank god– and didn’t have brain damage –thank god. He did need reconstructive surgery on his face, and as far as I know, his jaw is still wired shut. Apparently I completely shattered it,” Parker explained.

“Should’ve punched him in the dick.”

Parker burst out laughing. It took control of him for a minute and he gasped for breath. Only her, only Paige, could make him laugh when he was reliving one of the darkest moments of his life. He wiped at his eyes.

“True, true. I’ll remember that for next time. Anyway, his family wanted me to rot in jail for aggravated assault. We wanted him to rot in jail for rape. Wasn’t looking good for either of us. But when other girls started stepping forward with similar stories, his family calmed down. They struck a deal. I didn’t want to, I want you to know. I was ready to fight, I was ready to go back to jail. But Pen just wanted it to be over. It was enough to her that other girls were coming forward, that he would be stopped. She wanted to forget it, wanted me to be okay. So they agreed to drop the charges against me if Pen didn’t testify against their son. She agreed to it. I got off the hook.

“I waspissed. And this sounds fucked up, I know, but I was soangryat her. I wanted her to fight, I wanted her to worry about herself for once. But with my mother whispering in her ear, and with me having jail time looming over my head, she cracked. She went back to Washington with my dad, has never come back to New York. I guess she got all the talent in our family, and I got all the fight,” Parker guessed.

They were both silent for a minute. Parker stared at the ceiling and Paige stared at him. He took a couple deep breaths through his nose, calming himself down. Then he finally looked over at her.

“Trinity College was not happy about my almost-felonious actions. I was asked to not return, but both my mother and father intervened, throwing their names and their money around. I was so close to my major. They allowed me to take classes through correspondence and online, switched my internship to a place in a different state. I was gonna graduate. I wouldn’t get to walk, but I would graduate with a masters. Would’ve had my degree this June fifth.”

“So what happened!? Why have you been tooling across the country with me since May?” Paige exclaimed. Parker chuckled darkly.

“My dad died. Beginning of May. Heart attack. I was going to visit him for the fourth of July. No one saw it coming. I'd gone to turn in some paperwork at school when Uncle Richie called me with the news. I just stood there for a while, and then thought, fuck it. I walked out the front doors. Never looked back. I was gonna drive straight to Seattle, but couldn’t stay on course. Then I ran into you in Alabama. The rest is history,” he finished. Paige propped herself up on her forearms and looked down at him.

“Wait a minute. You were a month away from graduating, and you just walked away?” she clarified.

“Yup.”

“You didn’t go to your father’s funeral?”

“Nope.”

“Your sister saved you from jail, and you haven’t gone to see her since?”

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