A white blinding light comes to my eyes as soon as I open them, bringing a loud bang resonating through my skull. I wince in pain, and after a few moments, I try to open my eyes again. Slowly my sight gets used to the bright light as I try to ignore the stabbing pain in my head. Taking in my surroundings, I realize that the blinding light is just a ray of daylight passing through my closed shutters, and half awake, I look absent-mindedly around my room until my eyes stop and widen at an unusual piece of furniture standing by the door: Alex in all his shirtless glory.

It's the first time I see his bare chest, and this is quite a sight. His six-pack that I've felt so often under his shirt is even better than I could have imagined, and the play of shadows and light in the room is highlighting it perfectly. I can't believe he is mine...

On this thought, my brain comes back to the place and time, and I look down abruptly at my clothes, flinching with another pounding in my head. Pushing a little away the covers, I recognize my gray nightshirt.

"Sleep well, Miss Badass Cutie Cookie?" Alex sits down on the edge of my bed, his tenebrous eyes looking at me gently.

My heart wakes up in a restless pace with the closeness of Alex's shirtless presence, his soft gaze, and the blur of it all. I close my eyes, my brain trying to connect the dots and my neurons to remember what has happened last night. I get flashes of the party: the sea of people dancing, the loud beat, the neon lights, the... many drinks... Alex all over me, carrying me in his muscular arms... But after that, it's all blank.

I reopen my eyes and sigh, the inspection of my memory only worsening the throbbing in my head.

"Don't worry, nothing happened." Alex brushes my lips with the pad of his thumb, making me release my bottom lip from the grasp of my teeth.

I don't know if I'm relieved or not by this. I don't remember anything, so I think it's best nothing has happened and he hasn't taken advantage of me, which makes me melt even more for his chivalry and perfection. Yet even though I haven't told him what I'd planned, it has been supposed to be our perfect night, the perfect opportunity, and I've ruined it. It leaves me a bitter-sweet taste in my throat, unless it is the alcohol? Anyway, I recognize exactly the shadow of insecurity and doubt clouding my thoughts because, unlike the hangover, I've already had it before: the sickening idea that maybe he doesn't want me because of my lack of experience.

"You really don't remember last night, do you?" Alex asks, one of his famous smirks playing on his lips.

I shake my head no, wincing with the stabbing, resonating pain in my head.

"Here, take this. It'll help." He hands me a glass of water sparkling with the fizz of paracetamol.

As I drink my life-saving potion, I watch Alex. He is perfection, while I must look like a sewer rat after having been pounded by a cat. He is devilishly handsome, like an angel of darkness in the faint morning light of the room, his chiseled abs, his bed hair with a few unruly curls, his fresh face, his arrogantly hot smirk...

This playful smirk displayed on his perfect face makes my numb brain sound the alarm.

"Oh no! Please! What did I do or say last night?! Don't tell me I made a fool of myself?!"

A devious sparkle lights up his dark eyes and shades my hopes. "No, you just spilled the truth... You praised the 'sexy beast' I am." His cocky smirk widens. "And you were very keen, which I'm not complaining!"

The blood rushes to my cheeks, worsening the hammering in my head, though I'm more preoccupied with hiding my tomato-red cheeks behind the sheets, feeling beyond foolish and ashamed.

Alex pulls on the sheets, pulling me out of my embarrassment shelter and forcing me to look at his twinkling tenebrous eyes.

"You know I was drunk. I was not myself." I try in a small voice that I pray sounds at least a little bit convincing.

"They say 'drunk words are sober thoughts'..." He grins.

I shake my head, biting my lip.

"Let's go get breakfast!" I suggest, getting up quickly to change the subject.

Though a sharp pounding in my head stops me in my tracks, and my hazy eyes land on my yoga mat spread on the floor with a pillow and a thin cover on it. My head might still be spinning and sore, but this detail appears too clearly, almost flashing before my eyes.

"You-you slept on the floor?!" I glance back at Alex who gets up as I'm stammering. "You could have slept in my bed, with me, I-I, I mean–"

"I didn't trust myself around you," His piercing eyes bore into mine seriously. "I didn't want to do something we would both regret," he adds low.

The shadows of doubt and insecurity I've pushed back minutes ago come floating back in my mind, starting to expand to my stomach, but Alex, as if he's sensed them, stops them, leaning closer.

"When we'll share a bed together, I want you to remember everything I do to you, everything I make you feel." He makes it clear in a dangerously hoarse whisper, and a shiver of excitation spreads through my body, annihilating all my doubts on his way.

***

A bad feeling takes place in my stomach, making me almost forget the slight remaining pounding in my head, the next morning, as I'm walking through the school hallways and I glimpse Judy and one of her friends in a corner. Everything and everyone around seems even noisier and more rushed than usual, yet I ignore them. My instinct is guiding my feet toward their corner.

As soon as I see Judy's face, my bad feeling is confirmed; I know something is wrong.

"Hi, are you alright?" I ask, scanning her face. She's wearing make-up and her hair is straightened as always, yet there is something different that even her concealer can't hide.

"Yeah." She tries to give me a small smile, but she barely manages to lift up the corners of her mouth.

"Are you sure?" I insist, not believing her as I see her blue gaze clouded – no, actually, it is empty, expressionless.

"Come on, you can tell me." I search to catch her hollow eyes.

"It's... Wes... at the party, Saturday..." she whispers faintly, something that does not resemble her because she's always cheerful and loud. "He was really drunk and he became violent. I tried to stop him, but... he forced himself on me." She looks down, yet I can still catch sight of the glossy veil blurring her gaze.

I feel a lump of disgust and revolt forms in my throat. "You mean...." I can't even form the words.

"Yes, she means he raped her," Tory, Judy's friend who has been silently comforting her until now, blurts out.

Judy hardly nods, and I see the confirmation in her eyes.

"Oh my God! This is horrible! It's my fault. I shouldn't have left you alone..." Guilt adds up to the lump in my throat, making it suffocating.

"No! I'm the one who left you alone. It's not your fault, you couldn't know what would happen." Judy shakes her head.

"Did-did you tell anyone?! You need to report him to the police!"

Judy shushes me as I'm raising a little my voice out of shock and revolt.

"It's useless... His Dad is the sheriff. I know now that it's not the first time it happens and they do nothing."

"Yeah, he did the same to Veronica, and when she reported it, they didn't believe her," Tory adds, the same bitterness I feel inside my throat echoing through her tone.

"What?! But it's unfair!" I fume.

"There's nothing to do... He's in the football team, he's popular and he's the sheriff's son. He's untouchable and he knows it." Judy offers me a frail half-smile as I stroke gently her arm. "And Bettany warned me, but I didn't believe her. I thought she was jealous." She sighs.

"There must be something we can do. He can't get away with it like that." I think out loud, feeling powerless in front of Judy's distressed eyes.

"There's nothing we can do. Now, I gotta go to class," she quickly says as the bell rings, and I can see she's just trying to escape the tears threatening at the corner of her eyes.

I grab her arm before she goes. "You're not dating him anymore, are you?"

She shakes her head. "No, no, I broke up with him over text yesterday. And so far, I didn't hear from him."

I let go of her arm and hug her. "Okay, let me know if there's anything I can do."

"Promise me to not tell anyone." Her glistening eyes seem so frail, yet they make me shrink at the same time.

"Okay." I resign myself as she thanks me with the ghost of a smile.

I stand there, on the spot, watching her walk away as my heart tightens for her. Though rapidly, the shock and pity are engulfed by a fire of revolt and wrath, my feminist side outraged by this injustice. I can't let this go, and as I'm racking my brain, whose throbbing has come back fully now, my gaze stops on something, someone exactly: Moose on the other side of the hallway.

He's leaning against the wall, wearing proudly his football team shirt.

Without thinking twice, I go to him, guided by my anger.

"Hi, can I talk to you?" I ask as soon as I reach him. I guess my determination is making me overlook how hard it is to get out those words. "I need your help." I pull him away from his friends and any other ear that could roam.

"Hi, Elena, are you alright?" He offers me one of his golden smiles.

"No, I mean yeah," I reply quickly, shaking my head. "It's–"

"Do you have a problem with your 'gang leader'?" He crinkles his nose.

"No." I frown. "It's not about me. It's about one of my friends," I add curtly, and then I soften, remembering that I do need his help. "I want to talk to you about Wes... I know you're both in the football team..."

"Yeah." He nods, encouraging me to continue, and I try to shut the little voice echoing inside the pounding in my head that tells me it's a bad idea.

"And he did something really grave at the party Saturday... He raped my friend." I let out, swallowing hard the lump that feels even more sour pronouncing the words out loud.

He looks at me with no reaction, so I continue. "Apparently, it's not the first time he does something like that, and no one does anything because he's the sheriff's son and he's in the football team. So I thought that maybe you could do something... I don't know... maybe support the–"

"It's Judy your friend, isn't it?" he cuts me off.

"Maybe," I mutter, my stomach twisting with the promise I've just made her. "It's not the point–"

"Come on, don't tell me you believe her!" he cuts me short once again, which is really starting to get on the few nerves I have left.

"Did you see her at the party? She was completely wasted. She's probably raving! And besides, I thought they were dating? Everyone knows they've fucked plenty of times, and she's always all over him. She's far from being a maiden–"

"So you mean that it's okay what he did?!" I frown, cutting him off this time, which is only fair!

He sighs. "No, I mean that there's no proof of it. It's her words against his, and she isn't the most reliable person! I can't risk my reputation."

I have to take a second to be sure my ears and the hammering in my head aren't deceiving me, but no, I haven't misheard, and when I snap out of it, I snap at him, "Oh, right! I forgot it's all about appearances!" I give him a sarcastic smile. "Thanks for your help!"

I'm about to walk away, boiling even more than before, when he grabs my arm.

"You know I would do anything for you, but Judy..."

"It's not only her. She isn't the first apparently! But if you don't want to help me, I guess I'll have to take matter in my own hands." I jerk his arm away and walk out in a determined and confident pace – actually, it isn't confidence, it is wrath, and this is bursting everything into flames inside.

So... things didn't turn out as you would think, right?

It's horrible what happened to Judy, but the worst is that it sadly happens a lot in real life. 

What do you think Elena will do to 'take matter in her own hands'? Any ideas?

PS: Did you really think Alex would have taken Elena's first time as she was drunk?! NO! He's a knight in shining armor, remember! Well, dark knight in shining armor ;)

I hope you like this chapter, let me know what you think in the comments, vote... Your help and feedbacks are always welcome! :)