Easy

as one of them. She and Olivia could have been twins, they looked so much alike—right down to the bitchy sneer.
    “Mindi, sweetie, no one’s blaming you here,” she said, her voice dripping with an insincerity that contradicted her words. “But the thing is, you did go to his room with him. I mean, the expectation was there , you know?”
    Erin put her hand on my thigh when I sucked in a breath—a warning against replying yet. I exhaled through my nose and fumed silently. I was an outsider. I could be removed easily, and that would be no good for Mindi. She needed all the support she could get.
    “You weren’t like, a virgin, either, right?” another girl said.
    “God, Taylor, that’s not material,” another said.
    Taylor shrugged. “It would matter to me .”
    Mindi’s face was pale and she looked like she was either going to vomit or pass out. Erin leaned closer to her and whispered, “Breathe, honey.”
    Several people said more stupid things, and others said more sensible things, and finally it seemed like everyone had spoken their minds except Katie, Erin, and the two people who ultimately held Buck’s fate in their hands: Mindi and me. Finally, Katie banged the gavel lightly, stopping all conversation and turning every head in her direction. Her posture so perfect that she could have been a queen wearing a heavy crown, she fixed her eyes on me. “Jackie, I understand that you’re alleging that Buck attempted to rape you on the night of the Halloween party?”
    A couple of girls mumbled asides and one actually giggled. My hands tightening into fists in my lap, I ignored them, swallowed and nodded. “Yes.”
    “Okay sorry, I don’t see why she’s even here,” a junior class rep said. “If he didn’t actually do it—”
    “He had every intention of doing it,” Erin said through clenched teeth. “He was just stopped before he succeeded .”
    The other girl tossed her hair over her shoulder. “But she didn’t report it that night. Why not? And why now ? I mean, how do we know this isn’t a ploy for attention? Or some sort of vendetta against Buck?”
    Erin growled next to me.
    “He was stopped by a guy who saw the whole thing and is willing to make an official report with me.” My voice wavered, and beneath the table, Erin took my right hand and held it tightly. “As far as why now instead of then… that was my bad judgment. It didn’t occur to me that he’d do this to someone else.” I glanced at Mindi, an apology in my eyes, and then Katie. “I thought it was just me.”
    “What guy? One of the brothers? Because dude, they’re not going to testify against Buck,” Taylor said, and several girls nodded.
    “No. Lucas Maxfield.”
    “Oh, I know him,” Olivia’s sister said. “He’s yummy…”
    “Is he the non-Greek guy who was at the Halloween party without a costume? Cowboy boots? Dark hair? Gorgeous eyes? Total hottie?” the girl next to her asked.
    “Yeah, that’s him.”
    “Mindi,” Katie interrupted, “I understand that Dean and D.J. spoke with you yesterday?”
    Mindi nodded, her still red-rimmed eyes wide. “They want me to drop the charges. They said they would handle it internally.”
    Heads pivoted back and forth between the sorority president and the freshman pledge as they volleyed questions and answers. “What are your plans, now?”
    “I don’t know. I’m really confused.”
    Katie pinned her with a look. “Did Buck do what you said he did?”
    Mindi’s eyes filled with tears, and when she nodded, they spilled down her cheeks.
    “Then what the hell is there to be confused about?”
    Everyone sat in stunned silence for a moment, until the girl who’d pronounced Lucas a total hottie exclaimed, “Are you saying she should press charges?”
    “Absolutely.”
    Gasps sounded around the table, and I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t move.
    “But this will look so bad for—”
    “You know what looks bad?” Katie cut off her VP. “A bunch of women who don’t support each other when a guy pulls some shit like this. I’m sick of it. Less than an hour ago, I told D.J. where he could stick his goddamned fraternal reputation .” She stood up and leaned forward, her hands on the table. “Let me tell you girls a story, short and sweet. In high school, I was a junior varsity cheerleader dating a senior who was up for football scholarships. I’d slept with him several times, willingly. One night I wasn’t in the mood, but he was. So he held me