Unconditional Love Ch. 05

Becca spoke first, "hey guys! You guys have a party like everybody else?"

"Fuck off. This party's private."

"All right. Well fuck you to you too. I'm just looking for my sister. She looks like me only less sober."

This elicited a bit of a chuckle from the guys, but their answer didn't change.

"We said fuck off."

"Listen, my roommate is in there too and I have to bring her back to our room. She forgot to call her boyfriend."

"Nobody in this house has a boyfriend, you can trust me on that."

Right about now was when I became legitimately concerned for Erin's safety. I flipped them both off and started to walk further down the sidewalk. When Becca and I were out of sight, we doubled back and headed to the backyard to look for a way in. They weren't the best watchmen ever; we just headed up the back steps and were in a deserted kitchen in no time at all. We heard some commotion going on upstairs, but we were being extra careful, so we moved through the space slowly and guardedly. We got to the foot of the stairs up to the next level and saw the basement steps through a door to the right of the landing. We decided that splitting up was not the way to go here. I grabbed Becca's shoulder and guided her to the landing so we could go up the steps. We took it one stair at a time and spotted the guys on the porch through the window on our left. We heard voices as we reached the top of the stairs, but they sounded echoey and we couldn't see anybody from where we were. We took a right and headed down the long hallway that greeted us when we poked our heads around the corner. I thought it was very strange that we didn't hear any music or any celebration of any kind. Not only strange, but very unnerving to put too fine a point on it.

We explored all the rooms upstairs and didn't find anyone, so now it was off to the basement. I hadn't noticed any other buildings on the lot when we were out back, so I assumed the basement was our last option. We retraced our steps and headed through the door to the basement. We chatted briefly at the top of the basement stairs and decided that trying to be sneaky wasn't going to work here, we'd have to walk in confidently, like we belonged there.

Arriving at the bottom of the stairs, we saw what all the commotion was. There was a loud game of beer pong going on in the middle of the basement floor and the table was surrounded by men and women of all shapes and sizes. There were two teams on either side of the table, two men and two women, and judging by the tenor of the crowd they were probably pretty close to the end of the game.

Becca walked in ahead of me and saw someone she recognized right away. She called out to them and walked quickly over to that side of the room. I followed her closely behind and we found that her friend (who I found out later was called Ashley) was due to play in the next game. Looking on the wall, we saw a giant bulletin board with probably 60 names on it laid out in your typical March Madness style. Glancing around the room, I only saw about 25 people so naturally I wanted to know where everybody else was. I took a closer look at the board to see if Erin or Kristi's names were up there. Sure enough, Kristi and Erin's names were up there on two separate lines with the names of two people I didn't recognize next to them, both men's names. I quietly urged Becca to ask her friend if she knew where Erin and Kristi were.

"So have you guys seen these two anywhere?"

The guy that was sitting with Ashley piped up before she could, "who wants to know?"

"I'm her sister and she told me to meet her here, but now I can't find her."

"Who the fuck let you in here?"

"We were invited by Erik."

"Ooooh, so you know Erik?"

To be clear, I didn't know Erik from a hole in the goddamn wall, but if this was going to help me prevent my girlfriend from getting date-raped then Erik was about to be my new best friend.

"Yeah! I met him in the commuter cafeteria last week and he invited me along."

"Nice. I can see why he'd want you over."

The name wasn't one I was familiar with, but as I glanced back up to the names on the wall, Erik's was the one next to Kristi's, so it would probably be an important one to know right about now. I wasn't convinced that this guy chatting up Becca had the best of intentions either judging by how he was continually eye-fucking her as we were speaking. I didn't really have much of a choice to go along with things right that instant, so I kept my mouth shut.

"So what're the rules?"

"You guys are too late to get in on the bracket."

"Oh oh, I didn't mean to play, I just wanted to know what the prizes are. It looks like Erik and Kristi are doing really well, are they gonna win anything?"

"Yeah, you win something all right. Somebody wins something every round. You said she's your sister right?"

"Yeah, she came to visit from another school."

"Oh that's too fuckin' good. Yeah they win something. The winners get to pick something the losers have to do. You should've seen what Erik made your sister do."

That was all I needed to hear. I had to find Erin and fast. I didn't know where to start looking and I didn't know how I was going to get her out of whatever it was she was doing right that second, but I knew I had to do something. I looked around some more in the basement and saw that there were two other rooms just off the main one. The first was clearly a bathroom because people were coming and going from there the whole time we were downstairs. The other room I wasn't sure about, but there was definitely some sound coming from there, but nothing that was loud enough to be able to tell what was up. That was probably the best clue I had had to that point. Only problem with that was, there were two guys sitting on either side of the door and they hadn't let anyone come in or leave since we arrived.

I had an idea that would at least send me in the right direction if it worked, so I pulled out my phone and sent a text to Erin. Right after I sent it, I walked over to the door with two guys outside of it and tried to listen. I didn't hear anything from her phone, but I clearly heard someone say 'oh shit' inside. It didn't sound much like Erin, so I tried again. This time I heard a female voice behind the door say something in an urgent tone and a male voice respond pretty nonchalantly. One of the guys outside the door looked at me when I pulled my phone out again and watched what I was up to.

"Do you need some help, dude? Are you lost?"

"No, I'm just trying to track this girl down. She's my connect and I don't see anybody else getting blunted, so I need her over here."

"Oh shit, that's a good idea. You're gonna hook a brother up, right?"

"She's got enough for everybody in here, I just gotta get her ass outta bed!"

We shared a laugh at this fictional lazy weed dealer's expense, but now I had a good alibi for why I was trying to hard to be near the door. He started to lean in to see the screen on my phone, but I stashed it back in my pocket and told him she isn't answering.

"Why don't you call her up? Let's get ass over here!"

Not a bad plan. I figured I could call her and I might hear something a little more clearly then. I punched up her number and while I didn't hear her ringtone, I did hear the buzz of the phone vibrating. Once I heard that, I also heard that same panicky female voice.

"She says she's at the door upstairs, but those guys on the porch won't let her in. Can you get her down here for me?"

"Nice. Fives on the seat!"

He left hurriedly and I knew I didn't have any more time to think on what to do next. The other guy guarding the door was still there and the jig would be up in no time, so I walked right up to the door and tried to open it.

"The fuck you doin'? The fuck outta here."

I got shoved out of the way when I tried to barge past him, but as I did the door opened a crack and a girl peeked through to talk to the guy left posted at the door. He pointed toward me, I saw the girl's eyes go wide and she shut the door quickly behind her.

I turned toward Becca to see if she had any more ideas.

"Did you notice who that was at the door?"

"No idea, but I bet that's where Becca is."

The guy at the door saw us eyeing the door and whispering conspiratorially and a light must have gone off in his brain because he walked up to me pretty aggressively and asked me what the fuck was up.

"Nothing man. Just trying to figure out where my connect is at."

Just then the two guys from the porch and the other guy guarding the door came down the stairs and looked right at me. It was now or never. I pushed the guy in front of me hard and ran for the door. I swung the door open and saw a scene I wished I never had to see again. Erin was on her back on the bed with another guy standing over her and taking pictures with his phone. She was babbling and having no luck holding her head up for any length of time. She was sick, she was out of it, and she needed help. In the corner of the room, I saw a girl with very little in the way of clothing on trying to cover herself with a blanket. I didn't wait to find out who was who, I didn't hesitate at all, I took a quick look around the room, spotted a three foot high glass bong behind the door and smashed it right on the back of the guy's head. The glass made a tinkling sound as it covered Erin's chest and torso and the guy pitched ass over teakettle right onto the floor next to the bed. Nobody moved for half a beat, especially not the guy who just got knocked over and then silence was broken by one of the guys from the porch.

"Oooooh shit! You got knocked the fuck out!"

The rest of the room laughed at the Friday reference and the girl hiding behind the blanket started yelling and crying. She was crying about how 'he made me do it,' but Becca called bullshit right away and then let everybody know that the cops were on their way. Never have I seen a room empty so quickly. People were literally falling all over each other to get out of that basement.

Becca and I waited patiently for the police to arrive. When they did, they called for an ambulance for both Erin and who we now knew was Erik. Erik had only stirred since I first hit him and I think we were all concerned for his health if not exactly his well-being. Becca and I followed the ambulance to the hospital after we were done giving our info to a campus police officer. When we got to the hospital we were told she was in the ED and I should head over there to see if she's awake yet or not.

We ended up waiting about two hours or so before we could see her, and while we did I was absolutely beside myself. I couldn't believe I almost let something so terrible happen to one of my favorite people in the entire world. I didn't even know what did or didn't happen to her at that point and my imagination was running away with me. I started to get panicky and I couldn't sit still while I waited. I wanted to cry, I wanted to kill something, I wanted to just get even, I didn't even know how. I started rocking back and forth and muttering to myself. I was so terrified about what I would hear next, I just needed somebody to take my hand and tell me to get a grip.

While I tried my hardest to contain the little ball of fury eating away at my chest, Becca was crying continuously and quietly. She didn't want to draw attention to herself and she didn't want to make anyone uncomfortable so she just cried to herself and avoided eye contact with everybody. Every nurse that walked by saw what messes we both were, but nobody stopped to help. I felt like Erin was the only thing in the world that mattered at that moment. I just needed her to be okay and I needed to hear that right this second. I started looking frantically for a doctor to come down the hall and tell us everything would be fine. I jerked my head around looking from end of the waiting room to the other and started rocking back and forth in my seat more rapidly and more urgently. The chaotic waiting room was moving quickly around us too, so much so that I wasn't sure I could handle being in there even one more second. People coming and going, nurses acting like nothing was wrong, don't they understand? Don't they get it?! My girlfriend might've been raped, she might've been poisoned, anything could've happened! Why weren't they paying any attention? Why wasn't anyone fixing this? RIGHT NOW!?!

At that, I felt a hand on mine. It was a delicate hand. One with thin fingers and soft skin. One that felt like an anchor. One that felt like a feather. One that felt like salvation.

"She's going to be okay…okay?"

- Salvation -

"But how do you know?" I mewled.

"I don't. But what else can I tell myself right now? What else can keep my heart from jumping out of my chest? What else can I say that will allow me to think that she's coming back to me as perfect as she was when she left?"

"She was perfect, wasn't she?"

"She probably still is. Just be strong right now, for me okay?"

With that, Becca laid her head on my shoulder and we both cried silently for a time. We were so lost in each other right then that we missed the nurse calling out for us. We didn't even hear her say Erin's name. We kissed. I had never felt so in love.

But I had also never felt so adrift. Or so alone. Nobody could understand my loss right then. Nobody except Becca. God bless her. She let me keep my Erin and she let me keep my sanity. Everything was going to be okay. Everything except Becca.