behind a large pine tree, Rhonda grabbed Alessa’s arm. “Okay, let’s spruce you up a bit. Turn around,” Rhonda instructed.
Alessa eagerly complied. Her new friend tugged hard on the back of the shapeless black T-shirt, twisting the fabric into a knot. Alessa was amazed at how snugly the shirt now fit and at the way she had gathered it at the back so it was short enough in the front to expose the top of her navel. Then Rhonda turned Alessa around to face her and reached into her purse. She applied a dab of blue eyeshadow on her eyelids and defined her top and lower eyelids with black eyeliner. She took out two bobby pins from her purse and pinned Alessa’s hair back on the sides. As a final touch, she rolled on lip gloss.
Rhonda took one step back and gave Alessa a critical scan. “There, now we can go,” she said, smiling.
They were headed for a keg party at the Rope, which was in a wooded area in Plymouth Meeting, the small town in Pennsylvania where the girls lived. The girls were talking about school and the teachers that they liked.
“Why do they call it the Rope?” Alessa asked.
“Because there’s a creek that runs through the woods in the place where we hang out, and someone tied a thick rope on a huge tree limb hanging over the creek. When people are messed up, they jump on the rope and swing. The problem is, you have to make sure you get off before it stops swinging because the creek is a ten-foot drop. It’s so cool! Wait until you see it.”
When they arrived, a crowd of twenty other teenagers had already gathered. They were all standing in a loose circle around a keg of beer that stood in the center of the dirt floor. Alessa was terrified that the crowd of teenagers would either reject her because she didn’t fit in or somehow know her dirty secret. Instead, they seemed not to notice her.
Rhonda greeted several boys, who immediately closed in and circled her. Alessa noticed how the girls stared at her friend and whispered to each other, giggling and poking one another. Clearly, they had an issue with Rhonda.
Must be jealousy, Alessa thought.
Rhonda approached Alessa and grabbed her by the hand and led her to the keg. The girls filled up two plastic cups with beer, and Rhonda offered up a toast. “To new friends!” she said. “We are going to have so much fun together.”
Alessa sipped on the beer while her friend chugged it down and filled another cup for herself. As the night wore on, Alessa watched as Rhonda worked the boys in the wooded area. They were all obviously enamored by her. It was easy to see why. Rhonda was beautiful. Alessa sat on a log and took it all in.
Finally, one of the other girls came over and sat on the log with her. “You know that Rhonda is a slut, right?” she remarked.
“No, I didn’t know that,” Alessa responded.
“Well, if you hang with her, everyone is going to think you’re a slut, too.”
Alessa glared at the girl. “Maybe I’m a slut, too, what’s wrong with being a slut? Just because people have sex doesn’t mean they’re bad. Maybe you should try it sometime. Another thing—Rhonda is my friend. So don’t say mean things about her to me. You and those girls are jealous of her.”
Enraged by the tone of Alessa’s voice, the stranger lifted her hand and slapped her across the face, sending her flying backward off the log. The girl came around to where she lay sprawled on her back, reached down, and pulled her to her feet by the collar of her T-shirt. Then she backhanded her across the face again. Alessa collapsed on the dirt and lay flat on her back. After a swift kick to her right thigh, she straddled Alessa, looking into her face with a sinister grin. Alessa noticed the dark gums around her two front teeth. The bully moved to the side and stood, watching her with malice.
Stunned, Alessa picked herself up and kept her eyes on the ground, afraid to make eye contact with her assailant. She was petrified by the violence she had faced. She hadn’t seen it coming and regretted that she hadn’t kept her mouth shut and her opinions to herself.
When Alessa finally looked up at the girl to gauge her intentions, Rhonda ran over with two boys on her heels.
“Denise, cut her a break. She doesn’t even know you!” she said sharply.
Denise stared back at Rhonda with contempt.
“Come on, Denise,” one boy cut in, “she’s a loser. Leave her alone. Look at her. She’s scared to death. You made your point.”
Studying Alessa, Denise seemed satisfied that she had terrorized her sufficiently. Then she turned back to the crowd of teenagers.
The boy who had spoken up turned to Rhonda. “Come on, Rho! Let’s go into the woods.”
Rhonda turned and followed him onto a trail, leaving Alessa there by herself with the other kids who had gathered around to gawk at the scene that had taken place.
Her thigh still throbbing from Denise’s kick and her face burning from the slaps she had received, Alessa went over to the keg and filled her cup with beer. She stood there and guzzled it down. Then she filled the cup again and walked back to the log she had been sitting on earlier. She sat alone and continued to drink her beer, wishing she could disappear.
One boy came over and sat beside her. He was tall and thin, with black hair down to his shoulders. He had a nice smile and his voice was husky and tender when he spoke. “Hey, I’m Carl. You doing okay?”
“Yeah, I guess,” Alessa conceded. “I’m not sure why that girl got so mad. She was talking shit about Rhonda, so I defended her. The next thing I knew, she was pounding on me. Who is she?”
“Her name is Denise. Nobody messes with her. She can kick most of the guys’ asses here.” Carl lowered his voice to a soft, deep whisper. “She’s a really good fighter. She learned how to fight after she got her ass beat in seventh grade and lost her front teeth. She took boxing and karate lessons. She’s crazy, and you should never disagree with anything she says. No matter what insane stuff she tells you, pretend to agree with it. That’s what the rest of us do. We let her think she’s right.”
“I wish I’d known,” Alessa said regretfully.
“What did you say to her that made her freak out on you?” he persisted.
“She called Rhonda a slut and I stuck up for her.”
“Oh, that will do it!” Carl shook his head, indicating to Alessa she was guilty of a serious infraction. “Denise can’t stand Rhonda, but she doesn’t mess with her because she knows all the boys will stick up for her. She hates everything about Rhonda.”
“Why does she hate her so much?”
“Rhonda gets a lot of attention from the guys in our group,” Carl explained. “She will do stuff that the other girls won’t.”
“Like what?” Alessa asked.
“You know, she’ll mess around with us.” He looked at Alessa for a moment, gauging her reaction. “Rho will have sex with any of us if we want her to. She likes to have sex, and that pisses the other girls off because they’re all a bunch of prudes. So Rhonda gets more attention from us guys than the other girls do. Not to mention she’s hot and has great boobs!”
Alessa blushed at his infatuation with her friend’s breasts. “So, is that why she went into the woods with that other guy?” she asked curiously.
“Pretty much. She’ll be back. In the meantime, you want to smoke a joint?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never smoked a joint.”
Carl reached into his shirt pocket, pulled out a joint, and lit it. He took a long, hard drag on it and held his breath. Then he handed it to Alessa, who mimicked what he had done.
Denise was watching them as she walked over to Alessa. “Gimme a hit,” she said with authority.
Alessa didn’t know what she was talking about, and Carl quickly leaned into her. “She wants you to pass her the joint.”
Alessa quickly handed the joint to Denise. Afraid to even look at her, she kept her eyes fixed on the ground.
“You know, we’re cool now,” Denise said, handing back the joint. “You pissed me off with what you said before. So are we cool?”
Alessa lifted her head and looked at her. “Yeah, we’re cool,” she replied. Though she wanted to scream, Sure, we’re cool! Screw you and the horse you rode in on, you bitch! I’ve survived torture and pain from the inside out, and you’re nothing more than an annoying fly buzzing near my ear!
She would never dare say all that aloud to Denise, fearing she’d provoke her into violence again, but in her mind, she could think it and find refuge from Denise’s fury.
Alessa had been sitting with Carl on the log and talking for an hour by the time Rhonda reappeared. Her hair was tousled, and the rainbow on her tube top now sat off-center.
“You doing okay?” Rhonda asked Alessa, throwing Carl a suspicious glance.
“She’s doing fine, Rho,” he retorted. “Fix your tube top, will ya?”
Rhonda looked down at herself and giggled as she readjusted the rainbow to center it on her perfect, B-cup breasts. When it was time to leave the Rope and walk home, Carl got up and accompanied the two girls to the end of the woods, where he stopped. Rhonda looked at him, nodded, and moved off to wait for Alessa.
Carl looked down at Alessa. “I liked talking to you tonight. You’re pretty cool.”
With that, he bent down and kissed her. Alessa was seasoned and knew how to kiss him back. As he felt the depth of her kiss, Carl reached down between her legs and gently drew his hand across the outside of her jeans. His touch was different. Alessa was confused and unsure of whether it was the effect of the joint she had smoked or Carl causing a rush of excitement, making her dizzy and warm inside.
Just then, Rhonda called out, “Come on, Alessa. We need to get home.”
Alessa said goodbye to Carl and ran toward her friend. They chatted on their walk home.
“Carl is pretty cool, huh?” Rhonda asked.
“Yeah, I like him. At least, he was willing to talk to me while you were off with that guy. So, what were you doing in the woods with him anyway?”
Rhonda beamed and turned to Alessa excitedly. “Giving him a blow job?”
Alessa blushed a deep red, sorry she had asked the question.
On their way home, they talked incessantly with each other. Rhonda had observed there was something different about Alessa. Unlike the other girls in her grade, Alessa didn’t seem jealous of her or disgusted with her for going into the woods with a boy. This girl seemed to understand her. Rhonda liked her a lot and hoped that they would become the best of friends.
When they got to Alessa’s house, Rhonda gave her new friend a quick hug. “I’ll call you tomorrow. There’s another party at the Rope. If you want to come, you can.”
Relieved that she finally had a person her age to hang out with, Alessa didn’t hesitate. “That would be great! I had fun tonight . . . after my ass-beating was over.”
The two girls giggled and hugged. After Rhonda walked away, Alessa pulled open the screen door and took a deep breath as she headed back into her house of horrors.
