Dani and Brian drove home in silence.  Music played lightly on Brian's cd player, but neither of them paid it much attention, both of them were recalling the evening, from the talk in the park, the screaming match that resulted in Brian's now very swollen lip, to sitting quietly on the couch wrapped in Brian's arms, feeling calm and safe.  But the main thing that stayed on their minds was the sound of the door flying open and the shrill screaming that came from the doorway.  Both she and Brian had flown off the couch as the person Dani could only assume was Brian's 'friend' Sofie came barging in, catching  Dani still in Brian's embrace.  The minute she saw them sitting together she began screaming at Brian, telling him she knew he was cheating on her and saying he was a lying bastard.  Dani couldn't help but smile as she thought about it, her ever-present jealousy over Brian still looming even considering what they had just been through, but he wasn't talking now, and Dani was relieved.   She hadn't forgotten what he had told her, and although she desperately wanted to believe him, she still had to hear Lauren's side.  She wanted to be able to blame the whole thing on someone else besides Brian,  but she didn't really want that person to be Lauren.  But if Lauren had been the cause of this whole mess, why did she do it?  Why would she do that to me?

    They pulled into her driveway and Dani made a quick goodbye, a goodbye made even quicker when she saw Lauren crawling around the front porch in a skirt and platform shoes.

    "What are you doing?" She half whispered as she came closer.  Lauren turned around and smiled broadly,

    "I'm ahhhh..." She tried to stand up but toppled sideways.  "I'm looking."  She fell back on her side and pulled off her shoes, tossing them to the side, finally standing up.  "I'm looking for the key."

    "It's above the door, inside the light fixture.  Remember?"  Lauren stood on her tip-toes and retrieved the key, almost running towards Dani and tackling her with a hug, sending them both tumbling to the grass below.  "Thank you." She mumbled with a laugh, a wide smile splashed across her face.

    "Are you drunk?" Dani said incredulously, looking into her sisters very bloodshot eyes.

    "Something like that!" Lauren replied, getting up off her sister.  Dani was a little more than freaked out, she never saw her sister so loving and happy, it seemed unnatural. But Dani didn't have the patience to dwell on her sisters wild mood change or her apparent drunkenness, she had things she needed to say to her.

    "Laur, I talked to Brian tonight, he told me what happened."

    "Didn't he tell you last week?  Isn't that why you aren't talking to me?  But wait, you just talked to me?"  She said, the blankest expression coming over her face as she sat on the curb of the road in front of their house.  "I'm fucked up!" She laughed, laying back on the grass, staring up at the street light.

    "Lauren get up!" Dani yelled.  "He told me you instigated everything that night.  Was he telling me the truth?  Did you start it?"  Lauren started laughing as she got up off of the grass, shaking her head and spinning under the orange glow of the  lamp, her laugh unending.

    "It wasn't easy ya know......practically had to rape the guy!"  Dani's mouth dropped open.

    "So he was telling the truth? You did it all?"  Lauren stopped spinning and ran over to her sister, grabbing ahold of her arm.

    "Why what did he tell you we did?" Her eyes were wide with worry.

    "That's not what I mean.  God I can't talk to you like this!" She said with frustration.  She couldn't tell if Lauren even knew what she was saying.

    "Happy?" She smiled.

    "No, drunk!"

    "He was little ya know!" She giggled, holding up her pinkie finger and waving it up and down. "Small.  Don't know what you saw in that guy, he's a stuck up idiot."  Lauren continued talking as she walked towards the front door.

    "Hello little Brian!" She said in a child's voice, waving to the pinkie on her left had and laughing hysterically as she entered the house, not caring if she woke up her parents.  When Dani caught up to her, Lauren was all ready passed out on her bed, snoring softly, she hadn't even bothered  to change out of her clothes.  Dani rolled her eyes and went to her own room, still unsure of how she was supposed to feel, wanting to wake her up and make her say she did it, but not wanting to know if it was actually true.
 
 

    "What are you doing up so early?" She said when her sister walked, or rather moped down the stairs in her bathrobe.  it was only a little after ten in the morning, and Lauren usually slept well into the afternoon.

    "I couldn't sleep, I feel like shit." She grumbled.  "Wait.  Why are you talking to me?" She said almost deja-vu like as she made her way to the kitchen.

    "Lauren, don't you remember talking to me last night."

    "Vaguely, it's all kinda fuzzy after the......" She mumbled.

    "What?"

    "After....all the just...crazy stuff that happened with Bobby." She said, pulling orange juice from the fridge but quickly returning it as she looked at the pulp filled orange liquid.

    "You told me Lauren." Dani stared at her with cold hard eyes, she had stewed over the betrayal all night long.

    "I told you what?" She grumbled.

    "That what happened between you and Brian was because of you!" Lauren's eyes went wide as she shot her head to look at her sister, her gaze turning suddenly to one of disbelief.

    "Did I also tell you that purple elephants were marching around my room last night?" She snapped.

    "Don't try to cover it up now Lauren, it's too late."

    "God Dani I was out of it last night, I don't know what I said."

    "Well then tell me now.  Is it true?" She pressed, her sisters visible annoyance not stopping her.

    "I don't want to talk about this now, I'm tired.  So back off,  I'm going to bed." She said taking a small drink of milk straight from the carton and putting it back into the fridge.

    "I thought you couldn't sleep."

    "Would you PLEASE go back to ignoring me and shut the hell up!" She yelled, slamming the door of the refrigerator shut and walking past Dani, shoving her hard to the side and throwing her off balance.

    "Do you have some sort of crush on Brian or something? Is that why you did it?" She yelled as she followed  Lauren stopping as she walked up the stairs.

    "You mean like your pathetic crush on him?"  Lauren turned around as she reached the top, looking down at her sister.  "No, sorry, he just doesn't do it for me."

    "THEN WHY?" Dani yelled as Lauren walked to her room.

    "Why not!" She shrugged slamming her bedroom door shut.  Dani bounded the stairs two at a time, barging into her sisters room.

    "Get the fuck out Dani!"  Lauren mumbled as she pulled the covers over herself on the bed.

    "Not until you tell me why it had to be Brian that night!" She screamed, seeing her sisters betrayal plastered on her face, betrayal she wasn't even trying to cover up anymore.

    "So..." Lauren sighed.  "When he was telling you about how it was all my fault, did he also tell you how much he enjoyed it Dani?" She hissed, her eyes growing thin.  "Did he tell you about every moan and touch? About where he put his... "

    "Fuck you Lauren!" Dani spat, cutting off her sister.

    "Ooh such bad language out of sweet innocent Dani.  What would mom and dad think?" She laughed.

    "What would they think of you being a total slut and forcing Brian to sleep with you?" She said, for lack of any good rebuttal.

    "First of all; I hardly had to force the guy, and second; all I would have to do is cry rape and Brian would be hanging from his dick in jail!" She seethed.  "I mean I was just a naive sixteen year old, taken advantage of by a college guy at a party." Lauren shot her sister a puppy dog look, talking like she was the victim of the whole situation.

    "You wouldn't."

    "Try me!" She dared.  "How do you think I managed to keep Brian's mouth shut about this for five years?  I can even shed a few tears if I need to, no one would believe his story!"  She laughed.

    "Now get out of my room." Lauren said flatly, pulling the duvet over her head and shutting her eyes.

Dani bit down on her tongue, desperately holding back the urge to beat the piss out of her sister, and trying to think of something, or anything she could say to her, but nothing came out.  Dani left the room, slamming the door behind herself and dashing back down the stairs.  She didn't know what to do, or what to think, her anger was overwhelming.

But over all the anger she held for her sister, she felt something stronger, the shame and regret she felt for blaming Brian.  She knew he had a part in it, and that he probably could have stopped it if he had tried, but that wasn't what was bothering her.  She had blatantly flat out blamed Brian for taking advantage of Lauren, she had practically accused him of rape and the urge to apologize overtook her.   Dani sat down at the kitchen table stretching the phone cord across the room as she pulled her legs to her chest on the wooden chair.  She dialed the numbers she already knew by heart, ready to gush her apologies to him and to breath fire over her anger towards Lauren, but when he answered the phone all it took was hearing his voice to calm her.

    "So how did it go?" She asked, wanting to apologize, but no wanting to bring last nights events back.

    "Um, okay I guess!"

    "Is she pissed."

    "Yeah, especially because I left to drive you home."

    "Sorry." She said meekly.

    "Don't worry about it, that drive was like my stay of execution."

    "Was she that mad?" Dani said incredulously, trying not to feel jealous of Sofie.

    "She yelled and cried all night." He whined.  "I told her you were a good friend of mine, that  we hadn't talked for years, and we were going through some shit and it took her almost all night to finally believe that I wasn't cheating on her.  She still doesn't like you though, you can blame that one on the swollen lip, and my aching jaw." He laughed.

    "You do know I'm sorry about that." She said sheepishly.  "Is she still there? I wouldn't want to get you into more trouble."

    "She just left." He sighed.  Dani smiled mischievously at the reason Brian had been up all night, her jealousy over who she had just found out was Brian's girlfriend Sofie had taken over.

    "You sound tired."

    "I am."

    "I'm gonna let you go then, get some sleep, okay!"

    "Wait, Dan?"

    "Yeah?" She asked.

    "Why'd you really call?"

    "It's not important."

    "I don't care, what's up?"

    "I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry."