Reading the same words over and over again drained the life
out of Selena Gray and Jasmine Shelley’s eyes to where they could just fall
asleep at the library. Every letter of their textbooks looked as dull and gray
as rainy weather. They had been cramming this useless information for hours
while hunched over their table drifting in and out of slumber.
“Jesus Christ, what time is it?” asked the dark-haired
Selena with no life in her voice.
“Time to go to bed. This is ridiculous,” said the
blond-haired Jasmine with a yawn punctuating her sentence. “I swear to god, if I
don’t pass this test, I’m going to be pissed. I dumped way too much money into
this damn college to just let it all go to waste.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” said Selena as she stretched out her arms
and squinted.
When the two students stood up, pushed their chairs in, and
stretched some more, Jasmine had a quizzical look on her face while walking
toward the library window. “Do you hear that? There’s something going on
outside. It’s like some yelling or something.” She thought about it some more
and then her sleepy eyes widened to alertness. “Oh, no, no ,no, not this!”
Jasmine and Selena headed over to the window and cracked it
open just a pinch. The boisterous voices outside belonged to the Sigma Alpha
Alpha (ASS) Fraternity, all of them barrel-chested, all of them wearing red
sweaters with their logo, and all of them holding a banner that emulated their
chant. “No means yes! Yes means anal!”
“Oh my god…oh my god…” said Jasmine with tears in her eyes
as she slid down the wall and parked her rump on the floor. She kept repeating
herself while holding her head and rocking back and forth. When Selena knelt
down to put a comforting hand on her shoulder, Jasmine finally said, “There’s a
boy down there that I used to date. Max Tyler. He’s the one with the blond hair
combed back. I can’t let him see me up here. We’ve got to get out of this
fucking library!”
Selena hugged her friend around the head and said in a
soothing voice, “Okay, calm down, we’ll get out of here. I think there’s a back
exit in this library that leads to the woods. Once we get there, we’re hitting
the ground running. Hell, I think our physics books called this velocity or
some shit like that. Come on, let’s go.”
The two students stood up and left their books behind when
they speed-walked their way to the back exit. Once they touched the door handle
together, they stopped and took deep breaths in preparation for what came next.
Selena asked, “Are you ready? One, two, three!”
On three the door burst open and the two female students
bolted out to the woods at the highest velocity with no regard for their
tiredness or physical wellbeing. If they had to drain every ounce of energy
running through these woods, they would keep going until their feet were
bleeding. They weaved throughout the trees and foliage and were already
breathing heavily. Only a few seconds later, they were hunched over. Their
tongues were aching and their ribs felt like they were on fire. But keep
running they did.
In this mad sprint to nowhere in particular, there wasn’t
much time to take in the dark surroundings. Because of that, Selena didn’t
notice an oncoming deer when it got excited and kicked its hind legs into her
stomach, driving the air from her body like a deflated balloon. After the deer
ran off, Selena found herself on her knees trying to suck in as much air as she
possibly could. She coughed violently while blood poured from her lips.
Jasmine rushed to her friend’s aid and knelt beside her with
a light hug. “Are you okay? Do I need to call an ambulance?”
Once Selena was done coughing and puking up blood, she
rolled over on her back holding her stomach and said, “What good is 9-1-1 going
to do? There aren’t even any police watching those assholes at the college!
What the hell’s going on here?” She pounded the ground in frustration, but that
only sent a flood of pain through her stomach and caused her to heave more
blood.
In the midst of this first aid excitement, Jasmine still
managed to hear leaves crunching and twigs snapping under somebody’s boot. She
immediately thought the worst and pulled her wounded friend as far away from
the noises as possible. In her exhausted state, Jasmine still managed to find a
hollow log to take temporary shelter in alongside Selena.
Once the two crawled inside, Jasmine placed a gentle finger
on Selena’s lips and whispered, “You have to be quiet, there’s somebody out
there. Try not to cough.” Selena couldn’t help it and let out a drop of blood
before Jasmine shushed her again.
The leaves and sticks crunching grew louder and closer to
the hollow log. A familiar male voice said in a singsong voice, “Oh, Jasmine. I
know you’re out here. I can still hear you saying no from a mile away, babe.
Well, you can say no all you want, but you know what no really means, right?
Forget all that feminist bullshit for one night and just let me have some of
that action!”
Jasmine felt her breathing getting heavy as the memories of
dating Max Tyler flooded back to numb her mind. The vaginal groping in the
movie theater. The breast grabbing in public. The smacks on the ass. The
persistent requests for sex and the increased aggressiveness in Max’s voice
each time Jasmine said no. Each of these frightening scenes made her wonder why
she would even date such a caveman in the first place. Her heavy breathing
became even heavier as anger mixed in with her anxiety. If it wasn’t for Selena
giving a slight shush, Jasmine wouldn’t have put her own hand over her mouth.
“Oh, Jasmine-Pie, come out, come out wherever you are! If I
don’t find you, my buds will. I didn’t like the idea of sharing you at first,
but I could see it happening one day. I totally could!” Max’s combat boots were
at the opening of the hollow log facing the left direction, a scene which almost
made Jasmine gasp in fear. She resisted the urge yet again when she felt
something furry crawling up her leg. No! It wouldn’t happen like this!
Jasmine petted the furry animal that was mounted on her leg
and suffered a few blood-drawing bites on her finger. She didn’t scream as the
little guy ran inside her hoodie pockets. In fact, she crawled out of the
hollow log with him. “Jasmine, what are you doing?!” Selena whispered
aggressively. “Get back here!”
Outside the log, Max was still strolling around the woods
with a goofy grin on his face and his hands in his sweater pockets. “Come on,
baby girl, give me a kiss!” he said while making lip smacking noises.
“Kiss this, you pervert! No means no!” shouted Jasmine. When
Max turned around to face his ex-girlfriend, a squirrel jumped out of her hands
and into his face, chewing his cheeks and nose with a voracious appetite. The
frat boy backpedaled and screamed curses when he tried to pull the little
munchkin off his face.
The squirrel was about to finish his delicious dessert and
then it jumped off when Max tripped over another log and rolled down the hill.
He crashed head first against one of the trees and was unconscious and bleeding
almost instantly. He might have even been dead.
Jasmine breathed heavy sighs of relief as she knelt down on
a pile of leaves and let the floodgates pour like rain. It was finally over. No
truly meant no this time. Her moment of victory was ruined when she heard
Selena cough up more blood as she crawled out of the hollow log. Jasmine rushed
to her aid and petted her hair before saying, “It’s okay. We’re going to get
you to the hospital. It’s all over.”
“Woo-hoo! Lesbian make-out scene, yeah!” shouted one of the
male voices from the crowd. A whole group of frat boys dressed in sweaters and
khakis were standing only a few feet away from where Jasmine and Selena were.
“Go away! Get out of here! Can’t you see she’s hurt!”
shouted a sobbing Jasmine.
“Yeah, we know. You know who else is hurt? Max! I don’t see
you doing anything for him! Maybe you should go down that hill and give him
mouth-to-mouth!” said one of the frat boys before the whole group of them
laughed like donkeys.
Selena managed to roll over onto her stomach and get on her
hands and knees. In a raspy voice, she said, “Go to hell!” and then spit a wad
of blood at one of the frat boy’s feet. That one guy formed an angry face and
marched over to get his “free pussy” when he felt the world’s deadliest kick to
the nuts. He crumpled over and spat up even more blood than Selena did.
The other frat boys began scurrying away when they saw that
the same wild deer from before had reared its head again, kicking, bucking, and
being a wild warrior in general. Jasmine got a good look at the deer’s face and
saw that it was foaming at the mouth when it took a big bite out of the frat
boy’s arm, causing him to squeal in pain.
The deer danced and flailed around some more before curling
inward and flopping on the ground in death. Its foaming mouth was flooding with
even more poison now that it was dead.
“Hey, Jasmine,” said Selena before coughing some more.
“Remember how I said calling 9-1-1 would be useless? I may have lied a little
bit. It maybe useless, it may not be. But it’s our only fucking hope.”
Jasmine tenderly held Selena’s head in her arms while
dialing 9-1-1 on her smart phone. “Yeah, I need an ambulance to come out to
Braxton Woods. My best friend was kicked by a deer.” She looked empathetically
at the frat boy and Max Tyler before saying, “There are two other people who need
medical attention too.”
“Just let them die, Jasmine!” shouted Selena.
“Shut up!” whispered Jasmine angrily. She talked back into
the phone, “Oh, and one more thing. The deer died of rabies. Okay, thanks!
Bye!” The stresses of the day caused the exhausted Jasmine Shelley to roll over
on her back and gaze at the night sky. It wasn’t long before tiny raindrops
pricked her skin, but she didn’t care. She never felt safer than in this moment
of victory.
“We’re supposed to be better than those guys, Selena,” said
Jasmine. “That’s why I included them in the ambulance call. Besides, if you
really want them to learn what “no means no” stands for, wait until they go to
prison!” Jasmine and Selena’s smiles were brighter than any full moon out this
evening.
