Ivey finally persuaded Dru to come in with her.  Her family’s new house was quite nice.  Nobody would ever know they had not been living here for more than a week;  everything was organized perfectly.  Ivey gave Dru a tour of the house, which was laid out much like the Bassey’s.  When Dru walked in the front door she saw the living room where there were two hallways leaving the room.  One led to the kitchen, den, and a bedroom;  the other brought them to two more bedrooms and a bathroom.  The only difference in Ivey’s house from Dru’s was that Dru’s house had a study built on off the living room.

While they were eating Dru found herself telling Ivey all about her home situation.  “So they decided to have me.  I was born when Mother was thirty-six and when Father was thirty-eight.  Then Father had to leave for South Africa and I have visited him during summer break ever since,” Dru finished.

“Wow,” Ivey said.  “My family was pretty normal until a couple of years ago.  Mom and Dad started fighting a lot and got a divorce.  Cade and Drake didn’t take it very well.  I figure that I can’t change it so I might as well deal with it and let it be.”

“Who’s Drake?”

“My other brother.  He’s twenty, goes to the univerity.”

Dru remembered seeing him once when she had dropped Ivey off; she only remembered because he had looked very familiar.  “He looks nothing like you or Cade,” Dru commented.
“He looks like Dad, Cade and I look like our mom.”

“He looks familiar.”

It was at that moment Dru happened to spill the iced tea she was drinking.  It got all over the table and her hand, but thankfully not on the floor or their clothes.  It also got on Dru’s sapphire ring.  She took the ring off and started drying it as Ivey mopped up the mess on the table.

They heard a door at the front of the house open.

“That’s beautiful,” Ivey said pointing to the ring.  “Where did you get it?”  Someone had walked into the kitchen, but Dru could not see who because they were hunched over hunting in the refrigerator.

“When I was in South Africa my father gave it to me as a birthday present,” Dru answered.

“You’ve been to South Africa?” the person behind refrigerator said.  He came around and sat down next to Ivey at the table.  It was obviously her brother,  Drake.  Now Dru knew why Ivey had not admitted to being his sister before, he looked dreadful!  His eyes were bloodshot and he hadn’t shaved this morning.  He had a very scraggly appearance.  It was horrible of her to think this, but she thought he looked like a drug addict!

His eyes ran brazenly up and down Dru’s body, assessing her.  She felt uncomfortable sitting at the same table as him.

Ivey said,  “Dru, this is my brother, Drake.  Drake, this is a friend from school, Dru Bassey.”

“What are you doing tonight?” Drake asked Dru.

“Drake!” Ivey appeared embarrassed.  “She won’t give you what you’re interested in.”  Then she turned to Dru.  “C’mon, lets go to my room.”

Ivey got up and Dru followed her, but not before she glanced back at Drake. He sat there, his eyes following her every move with a self-assured smile.  Dru could not get that look he gave out of her head.

“I am so sorry,” Ivey said.

“It’s okay, it wasn’t your fault,” Dru replied.

“I know...  But he’s so...”

Knavish?  Seductive?  Plausible? “Shifty?”

“That’s it.  He didn’t used to be like that.  He always used to be like my mother: cheerful and one of those people who tried to not do things wrong.”

“Like Meredith?” Dru asked.

“I didn’t think of it like that, but yeah.  Then he saw how much good it did Mom.”

“What happened to her?”

“Nothing directly to her . . .  One day when Drake came home from school he saw Dad’s car in the driveway.  He thought Dad was sick and went to check on him in his bedroom.  What Drake found was Dad in bed with another women, Marjorie.”

“And decided if being good did not work for your mother it would not work for him either,” Dru finished.

She nodded her head yes.  “Now he’s almost roguish.”

“I can see exactly how it is.”

“I try to tell him not to be like that.  He doesn’t listen to me.  He listens to me about everything else, but not that.  It’s funny.  There are only two things he won’t listen to me about, but those are two most important issues in my life,” Ivey trailed off.

Dru changed the subject.  “You and Cade are pretty close, aren’t you?”

“Yup.  When we were little and all the other kids were talking about how much they hated their siblings Cade and I just laughed, because we never fought.  We were always best friends.”

“Sounds fun.”

There was silence.

“Well, I better go now; thanks for the food,” Dru said.

“See you tomorrow.”  Ivey stood up to walk Dru to the door.

“You don’t have to see me to the door, I will get there by myself,” Dru said.  She opened the door and left her room.
 

As Dru walked out of the room Ivey couldn’t help allow the feeling of fear overpower her.  The FAX from her dad on Christmas had given specific orders.  From Ivey’s viewpoint, Drake was following them.  Ivey couldn’t help feeling afraid for Dru.

“She’s so innocent; this is going to kill her,” Ivey thought.

Dru walked down the hall and into the living room.  Drake was lying on the couch drinking something.  “Wait,” he protested as Dru was about to open the front door.

She turned around and waited while he walked over to where she was standing.  “What do you want?” she demanded in a tone that said she only barely tolerated him.

He reached out and pulled her against him so rapidly she didn’t have time to resist.  He pushed his lips down on hers with such a ferocity it almost hurt!  His unshaven chin scratched hers.

Dru turned her head away from his and said,  “Let me go.”

“Why, don’t you like it?” he whispered in her ear.

Like it? How could she possibly like being forced against her will to embrace him! Her thoughts continued, and she forgot to answer. By the time she remembered, it was too late. “I--”

He responded by moving his mouth towards hers. She squeezed her elbows out of his hold and pushed as hard as she could.  It did not do anything;  she was too small.  He was a full foot taller than her, plus broader and stronger.

“Let go of me!” she shrieked.

Drake did not let go of her.  She tried pushing him again and he moved back a little bit, but she still could not get out of his tight hold.

“Let her go now, Drake,” a voice Dru knew as Cade’s said.  He must have gotten home while she was in Ivey’s room.

Drake finally stopped and looked up at the owner of the voice.  Drake started yelling, presumably at Dru, punctuating whatever he was yelling with a few choice expletives. He pushed Dru away from him as hard as he could.  Dru screamed as something hitting her from behind.

Ivey ran into the room as Dru went flying across the room, screaming.  Ivey winced at the sound she heard as Dru’s head connected with the cruel hardness of the wooden table.

Drake saw the blood seeping through the girl’s hair onto the carpet.  What have I done? he wondered.  As he turned to flee from the room, he heard Cade’s biting words come from behind him.

“I guess things didn’t go according to your plan, Drake,” Cade said.  “You know, I tried to stop something like this from happening by refusing to do it.  Maybe I should have done it.  If I had, she wouldn’t be lying on floor with blood spilling from her head.

Drake slowly turned, his face drained of any hints of color.  “I didn’t mean for it to happen.  You weren’t supposed to come in-”

“Drake!  This isn’t my fault.  We don’t even know if she’s alive anymore!” Cade exclaimed.  Then, gesturing to Dru, he said,  “Look what you did!”

Ivey’s voice startled both Drake and Cade.  “Drake,” she said,  “you had better hope she’s alive for both your sake and Daddy’s.  If she is dead, I’m going to the police.  I’ll tell them everything.  I don’t care if Daddy goes to jail, I don’t care if you go to jail.  Heck, I don’t even care if I do, but Dru better be okay.  She is the first person I’ve met that I’ve really liked and she’s a good friend of mine.  And she trusts me, which is even more amazing!  You better start praying, Drake, because its your hide that will get whipped in the end.”

Ivey shuddered and turned toward Dru as Drake fled the room.  They heard a car roar off into the night as Ivey checked for a pulse.

“Well, she’s not dead.”  When Ivey didn’t hear a response from Cade she turned around and faced him.  His face was even whiter than Drake’s had been moments ago.  “Cade!  I need your help here.  I’ve never done anything like this before!”

But Cade wasn’t listening.  When he was still a young boy, his father had read to him many of the great poetic works along with plays and songs.  By the age of eight, Cade had been an expert on quoting excerpts from them.  To this day, his brain was still filled with them.  At this particular moment something William Blackstone once said came to his mind.  Cade whispered,  “It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.”

“How true,” Ivey said.

“It’s not fair, Ivey.  I tried to prevent anything from happening, and now this!”  Cade leaned down and carefully inspected Dru’s head, making sure he didn’t jar it.  He went into the kitchen and got a washcloth so the blood wouldn’t run on the carpet.  Ivey gently pressed it into Dru’s head.
 

Dru woke up feeling a throbbing pain near her ear.  She opened her eyes and saw that she was lying on the wood floor of the living room looking up into the faces of Ivey and Cade.  Ivey had a worried look on her face, Cade had one of anger.

“I . . . What . . .” Dru tried to say.

“You hit the living room table and fell in a heap on the floor,” Cade explained.

Ivey wiped a damp cloth near Dru’s ear and pulled it away, showing Dru it was full of blood.  “Drake took one look at the blood seeping through your hair and ran.”

At the mention of Drake, Dru winced.  “It was so awful, he wouldn’t stop-”

“Lets not talk about that yet,” Cade cut off Dru.  “Can you get up?”

Dru tried, none too gracefully.  She found her back hurt nearly as much as her head.

“My back!” Dru exclaimed.

“Where does it hurt?” Cade asked gently.

Dru pointed and Ivey said,  “That’s where you fell.”

Dru felt blood trickling down her neck.  Ivey mopped it up with the cloth and turned to Cade.  “She’s going to need to be bandaged up.”

Cade was silent for a moment.  “It’s not enough to bring her to the hospital for, we’ll just do it here.  Go get the first aid kit.”

Ivey left and soon returned with it.  She held back the hair that was closest to the wound.  Cade cleaned it with disinfectant and bandaged it gently.

Cade picked Dru up and carried her to the couch.  “How much did you see?” Dru asked them.  She desperately hoped neither of them had seen too much.  It was so embarrassing. . . .

Ivey answered Dru first.  “I heard you yelling and ran out of my room.  I heard Cade say something, then Drake yelled something back.  By the time I was in the living room you were screaming and flying through the air.”

“I saw everything,” Cade said.  “Everything.”

Cade’s eyes hardened.  “I was in the kitchen when I heard Drake tell you to wait.  I didn’t know who else was in the house but him so I went to find out.  I saw him walk over to the door where you were standing.  Then he grabbed you and started kissing you-”

“He what!?” Ivey cut him off.  “I’m gonna kill him, I had already told him he wasn’t to touch my friends!”

It was hard for Cade not to burst out into cynical laughter.  Ivey was too good.  But then, she had already been acting for four months.

Cade continued.  “I couldn’t bear to watch you give in and kiss him back so I turned away.  And then you told him to let you go and he asked what was the matter, didn’t you like it?  Then you said-”

Dru was mortified.  “Stop!  Oh, please, stop.  I don’t want to hear anymore!”

Ivey told Cade to go away because he was upsetting Dru.  She did not know that it wasn’t Cade that was causing Dru to become upset, because she was actually grateful that Cade had been there.  Dru looked at Cade and felt herself flush. “He thinks I liked it when Drake kissed me,” she thought belligerently.

“It’s okay, Ivey,” Dru said.  “Cade isn’t upsetting me. He just reminded me of something that was probably misunderstood by both of your brothers.”  Dru said that looking at Ivey. Now she looked at Cade, whose look of anger had finally left his face.

“What time is it?” Dru asked.

Ivey looked at her watch.  “5:00.”

“I’d better get home.  Mom is going to be home in about an hour and I want to be home before her.  I don’t want her to know what happened, so I better be able to at least walk.”  Dru tried to stand up and swayed; she would have fallen had Cade not steadied her.

“You can hardly walk, let alone drive!” Ivey exclaimed.

“I’m driving you home,” Cade decided.

“You can’t,” Dru protested.  “How will you get home?  You can’t walk home in this freezing weather, it’s after dark!”

“I’ll drive your car back to our house and pick you up for school in the morning,” he said simply.

“I’m coming, too,” Ivey said.

Ivey got Dru’s jacket and backpack from the floor.  She asked Dru,  “Where are your keys?”

“In the left inside pocket,” Dru replied.

Dru walked slowly to the front door and opened it.  Cade walked close beside her until they got in the car, should she need any help.

“You should probably sit in the back where there is more room,” Cade advised Dru.

“I’ll sit with her,” Ivey said.

Cade helped Dru into the seat kiddy-corner to the driver’s seat, then got in the driver’s seat and put the key in the ignition.  Ivey directed him to Dru’s house; she had been there a number of times since September.

When Cade pulled up into the driveway of Dru’s house, Dru said,  “Ivey, will you go into my bedroom and get a pillow and one of the blankets off my bed?  You can put them on the couch in the den while Cade helps me out of the jeep and up the steps.”

“Sure,” she said.  She grabbed the keys from Cade and started walking towards the house.  Cade got out of the front seat and climbed into the back so he was sitting next to me.

“What are you doing?” Dru asked him, surprised.

“We’re going to talk,” he said.  “What happened between you and Drake?”

“When I was talking to Drake, he asked me what was the matter,” Dru said slowly.

“And he also asked you if you liked it.”

“I didn’t answer.”

“So you liked him kissing you,” Cade said strangely.

“No!  I was too involved with coming up with a biting response and getting myself under control, I forgot completely to answer at all.”

Cade didn’t say anything.

“Look, I found out tonight that I liked being kissed.  Before today I had never been really and truly kissed.”

Cade still did not say anything.

Ivey appeared in the doorway of the house.  “What’s wrong, why aren’t you coming in?” she yelled.

“She just knocked her head a little and is waiting for the pain to subside!” Cade lied.  “We’ll be there in a couple minutes.”

“What a cool liar you are, Cade,” Dru said, her tone full of disbelief.

“I’m going to make you some tea, okay?” Ivey yelled to Dru.

“That’s fine,” Dru said softly.

“Dru says okay,” Cade yelled back to Ivey.

He turned to Dru.  “Unfortunately for you, your first kiss was given to you by a slimeball.”

“Yeah, I’ll make sure it’s someone better next time,” Dru smiled.  “Oww!” she yelped.

“What’s wrong!?”

“Relax, it just hurts when I smile.  You know, the old saying, it only hurts when I laugh?  I never understood it until today.”

“Just making sure nothing is hurting you too bad.”

“I was thrown against a table, I’m going to hurt bad!” Dru said with lots of sarcasm.

“You know, Drake must have really liked you to disobey Ivey.  He usually listens to her.  I don’t know what it is about you, Dru, but you’re really appealing to the people in our family.”

Cade started to say something else and then stopped abruptly.  He moved over to the other side of her jeep and got out of the car.  He came around to the other side and opened Dru’s door.  He moved his arms toward her to help her out of the jeep.  She slid out of the vehicle and reached for the ground with her toes.  As soon as she touched the ground she slid on the slick January ice that covered the driveway, and would have fallen had Cade not caught her.

“There is no way you are going to be able to walk on this in the condition you are in,” Cade commented.  He picked her up and carried her, so her legs were draped over one of his arms and her back resting against the other, baby style.  When they got inside he asked her where the den was.

“You see that doorway,” she said moving her free arm to point to the left.  “That’s the den.  There are two doorways in the den, leading to other rooms.  The one without a door on it is the kitchen, where you’ll find Ivey.”

Cade set Dru down on the couch where Ivey had left the pillows and blankets.  He took one of the blankets and spread it over Dru’s body.  “I never realized how small you were,” he commented.

Right he was, she was small, especially when compared to him.  He had made the varsity football team, and when you looked at him you could see it. Dru was 5'3" and at least a full foot shorter than him.  She was built with small shoulders, a short body, and long, thin legs.  He was proportioned generously, from his broad shoulders to his sturdy feet.

Ivey walked into the den carrying two mugs.  She handed one to Dru and sat down and started drinking the other.  “I figured we would wait here for a couple of minutes to make sure you’re okay,” she said to Dru.

Cade walked in with another mug.  They all sat there in silence for five minutes.  Dru was getting drowsy.  Ivey motioned to Cade and put their empty mugs in the dishwasher.  She said they were leaving and that Dru should get her rest, then went into the living room.  Dru heard the door open.

“We’ll be by to pick you up at 8:15 tomorrow morning,” Cade said.  He stopped by the couch and stared at Dru before he left.  Dru could sense him leaning down toward her.  She opened her eyes just as Cade started tucking the blanket around her.  Instinctively and unintentionally she drew back even further into the sofa, away from him.  If  there was anything good that had happened that night, it was that she was a little bit more cautious now.

Cade caught her gaze, his eyes probing hers.  They stared at each other for a moment until he shook his head, leaving the room.

Dru heard the front door slam and the jeep start.  Then she fell asleep.
 

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