She Will Be Loved- Ben Tyler Cook

Chapter 35

Kasey's POV

January 10th, 2019

I looked down at the sneakers on my feet, and watched as I anxiously tapped my left foot. I hadn't expected to ever be here. I hadn't even expected to be here this morning. I hadn't expected to be here 20 minutes ago. It was a decision I'd impulsively made after class was over, barely 10 minutes ago. All I remember is my feet carrying me here as anger boiled within me. So here I was, in the company director's office, waiting to tell him everything about Zane. It had been 4 months since that party, and it had been 4 months of the same nightmare. 4 months of trying to forget everything, only to remember vividly everyday. 4 months of so much pain.

My mind had still not erased the sickening feeling of his hands all over me, and it seemed almost impossible to erase when he tried to talk to me like normal every single day. Today, he'd asked to partner up with me in class and after that, I realized I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't bear to see him anymore and pretend like I wasn't so exhausted of keeping it all in. I heard the door open, and I turned my head to see our director Marco walk in, smiling at me. I smiled at him, and silently took a breath. I started to get nervous, because this was the first time breaking my silence and I wasn't sure what was going to happen.

"Good to see you, Kasey. I'm always happy to talk with any company member, I hope everything's okay," he said as he shut the door to his office and sat down at his desk.

"Um, unfortunately not everything's okay, honestly," I replied quietly. He raised his eyebrows.

"I'm sorry to hear that. What's going on?" My heart started pounding as he asked that. You can do it Kasey. Tell him.

"It's about Zane Agosti." I hated even speaking his name.

"You two were supposed to be partners, right? What happened?"

"So, um... Back in September, Zane sexually assaulted me at a party." I said quietly, getting more and more anxious as it all started to come out. His face was filled with uncertainty, so I kept going.

"He invited me to a party, claiming everyone from the company was coming. He said it was to celebrate the opening season. But it wasn't. It was this huge party at a penthouse, and nobody I knew was there. And then, he gave me edibles without telling me so I was really drugged up." I realized I had been looking down at the ground while I spoke, so I looked up and his face still hadn't changed, and he didn't say anything. I swallowed the lump in my throat, and kept going, even with the panic rising in me as I walked through that night like my mind did everyday.

"I was really high and he kept touching me and tried to take off my clothes, and he wouldn't let me move and I couldn't get him off of me. He was going to go further until somebody interrupted," I finally finished, and held the tears back as I felt them sting my eyes. I took a deep breath to calm myself down and tried to push away all the images of that night away. I blinked away the tears, and noticed he was still silent. I didn't know what else to say, so I sat in the silence with him.

"Well what were you wearing?" Marco questioned, and I felt everything inside of me sink.

"What?"

"If you were wearing something revealing, can't help you there. That's basically an open invitation." Anger boiled within me.

"I was wearing a sweater. And even if I was wearing something revealing, my outfit isn't the problem. Zane is." my voice started to rise. "I wear fucking tights and a leotard almost everyday and I'm surrounded by men. I've been doing this for a long time, and I have never had an issue."

"Clearly you were doing something to make him do that. You're saying this happened in September, right? Why didn't you tell me when this happened?"