Night of Reckoning

    A week or so later a whole group of us were watching “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” at Paul’s house when once again Dena needed to be home. I asked Rich if he could give Dena a ride home and Dena kind of freaked out. It was bizarre and it was enough to make me seriously question what the hell was going on. Over the next day or so, I started to press her on the subject. Finally, she admitted that Rich had tried to kiss her.

  Initially, I was angry, but that was short lived. Rich had most recently helped me find a new Red Chevy Nova this one was a 1977. I reasoned that Rich was a nice guy, and he would come clean and apologize. Dena said he wouldn’t. When he didn’t apologize on his own right away, I decided to speed the process up by making Rich feel a little guilty by suggesting that I thought Dena was hiding something from me and that she may tell me at any moment. He was visibly uncomfortable, but still no confession. The more he didn’t confess or apologize, the more I questioned Dena about it. It turns out he may have also tried grabbing her boob as well. I told Dena to tell Jean about it just so she can talk to someone about it because talking to me about it made her uncomfortable. I went to pick up Jean from school and take her to work shortly after Dena did tell Jean. She was furious. I mean, absolutely livid. I tried to calm her down saying it wasn’t that bad. Jean was now saying he was not going to apologize and that she wanted to kill him. That was a pretty drastic punishment for the crime, if that was all the crime was… in which I was quickly having some serious doubts.

   I started grilling Dena more forcefully than I had before and had even become more ruthless in getting Rich to apologize. It finally hit its peak, when (I believe it was New Year’s Eve because there were multiple parties going on) I convinced Dena to talk to George about it. Jean was being tight lipped, but George would cave. We were having our New Year’s party at Paul’s house. George and Dena went off to talk in the garage.

  I took this opportunity to take Jean with me to a co-workers party that I knew Rich would be in attendance.

  When we got there, I assured Jean that Rich would tell me tonight. Jean insisted he would not. At one point we were all sitting around in a circle and I started up this sob story about Dena being really different and hiding something… blah blah blah and that right now as we speak she’s telling George what her problem is and that I would find out soon enough. The whole time I was watching Rich’s reaction, which at time showed shear panic. When I finished my tale, a girl named Allison was like “Awww, I’m so sorry. She’s cheating on you.” I faked this totally hurt and heartbroken reaction and she quickly added. “But hey, at least you have your good friend, Rich” and grabbed him by the shoulders. Rich just died. I would have kissed Allison right there if it didn’t give my ruse away. I couldn’t have planned that better and afterwards thanked her and told Allison the whole back story.

  At that point we announced that we had to get back to Paul’s party and get the low-down. Jean asked Rich if he’d be showing up there later and he was unsure.

  Back at Paul’s house, Dena was still talking to George. We hung out for a bit and Rich showed up. He asked if Dena said anything. I said no, but she will. By this time Dena had to or wanted to go home. George came along for the ride. I got Dena to her place and walked her to the door and she whispered that she told George.

  As I got back into the car and drove back to the party, I started to talk to George, he had been drinking all night and was still sitting in the back seat of my two door Nova.

   “Soooo… you talked to Dena?”

   Slowly, “yeah”

  “What’d she tell you?” I inquired casually.

  He knew what I knew and what I didn’t know, but quickly I filled in the blanks.

  There was a blow job. That much was known. 

I had a pain in my stomach that made me feel nauseous. I drove back as quickly as I could. I was able to see George studying me through the rear view mirror.

  By the time I got to Paul’s, I seemed calm and collected. George knew better and kept watching me intently. I quietly took the keys out of the ignition and put them in my pocket. Suddenly without warning I flung the car door open sprang out and ran for the house yelling, “I’ve gotta save Jean.” George tried in vain to catch me. As I reached the house, He had been struggling to get the front seat up to get out from the back, causing my car horn to blare. Meanwhile, I raced through the open garage door down the staircase to the basement where the party was. As I got to the bottom of the stairs I was thinking to myself how hard George was trying to catch me. Upon my arrival into the room everyone stopped and stared. I casually walked over to the bar and poured myself some blue

soda while my hands were trembling. People were asking what was wrong. Just then, George came flying down the stairs. Shocked when he saw me just pouring a soda, he told me later had immediately debated whether to kill me or Rich first.

  Jean immediately knew what had occurred and said “Kerry. George. Upstairs. Right now”. As we were going upstairs, Rich asked me if everything was okay. I just told him I didn’t want to talk about it. He pressed again, and I looked at him and said “You don’t want to talk to me right now.” At that point he knew that I knew.

  Jean, George and I talked in Paul’s bedroom. Jean was in tears feeling horrible that she couldn’t tell me. Seeing her upset hurt me more. She promised Dena she wouldn’t say anything because Dena didn’t want it to ruin my friendship with Rich or whatever. When asked why George had no reservation about breaking the promise he just said “Meh. I never cared for the guy.”

  When I finally calmed down enough, we came out into the living room. It was unfortunate that the spectacle gave most people at the party the impression that something had happened between George and Dena earlier in the garage, which looking back was comical. After clearing that misconception up, people informed us that Rich was out sulking in his car. After a little bit, I said “Jean, lets go talk to him. George, you can kill him when we get back.”

  We went out to his car and Rich jumped out saying he was so sorry. I asked him why. He didn’t know. Jean was pacing and muttering “I’m gonna hit you, Rich”.

  I asked him what happened. He asked me “what did she tell you?”

  There was another “I’m gonna hit you, Rich” and at one point Jean punched the side of his camaro hard.

  “It doesn’t matter what she told me. I want to hear it from you.” I may be naïve, but nothing was going to tell me Dena was innocent in all this. Rich claimed he didn’t remember. When Jean hit the car a second time, I told Jean that wasn’t necessary. I told Rich when he did remember, to let me know. I went into the house. It was too cold to be dealing with this.

  Jean however, continued to scream and berate him, while in a t-shirt, for the next 45 minutes in the street proving once again why she is such a great friend. She probably would have continued longer had we not fetched her and got her back in.

  Rich left and I was in no mood to party, so I too left. However, I did not go home. I went to Dena’s. I wanted answers…