Chapter 25

*Justin's POV *

I took a deep breath as I marched up the front steps to the Alpha Sigma Sigma house. I had a million things running through my mind at the moment but the thing on the forefront of that was Kellin. I felt so genuinely awful about what had happened to him. However, I had no idea that rape was a part of their plan all along. I never would have invited him to that stupid party if I had known. That was just sick.

I barged into the house and stormed into the living room to find Jack and Alex sitting on the couch playing each other in some stupid video game. In my bad mood, it just infuriated me even more that they were just playing fucking video games like nothing was wrong when they had something as big as this on their consciences.

"Hey!" I shouted, cutting them off from their game by walking in front of them.

"Dude, get out of the way!" Alex scoffed, leaning over to try and see around me. I glared hard at them and made the executive decision to reach over and press the power button on the system.

"What the fuck!" Zack yelled, slamming the controller down. I knew it was a bold move, but I had to do something to get their attention.

"You knew Kellin was going to get raped that night!" I said, accusingly. God, I was even angrier just speaking those words out loud. I didn't even say anything else, I wanted to get right down to it.

"Who the fuck is Kellin?" Alex wanted to know. I couldn't tell if he was just playing stupid or if he actually that insensitive. Probably some combination of both. I couldn't believe this. I couldn't believe I actually trusted these guys.

"He's my fucking best friend and you guys fucking raped him!" I shouted, my throat straining as a more concrete realization of the situation hit me hard.

"Dude, we didn't do anything," Alex insisted. I groaned, frustrated. It was in that moment that the bathroom door opened down the hallway and footsteps made their way into the living room. I looked over to see none other than Zack Merrick standing there, and I swear everything went red.

"Did I miss something?" He asked, looking confused. I couldn't believe it. Couldn't believe he could act this normal, like he wasn't guilty of something so heinous.

I didn't even give him any warning; I just launched myself forward, and punched him as hard as I could. "What the fuck!" he yelled, angrily, obviously not expecting my assault.

"You sick piece of shit! What ? You like to rape people, Zack? You think this is a fucking joke?" I screamed, reeling my arm back in for another punch, when Alex and Jack immediately leapt up from the couch. God, I wanted to kill him.

"Whoa, whoa, guys, chill," Alex said, conveniently assuming his role as president. "You know we have a zero tolerance policy for-"

"Shut up!" I yelled, causing Alex to hit me with a venomous glare. "This whole organization is fucking corrupt. I know you planned this out. I know you had him rape my friend and I'm here to say that this shit is unacceptable."

"Oh, yeah, I remember that," Zack chuckled. The grin on his face made me sick. I was absolutely repulsed by his attitude- by everyone's attitude. My dad always spoke so highly of Alpha Sigma Sigma that I never would have imagined that it would end up being a group of assholes to this degree.

"Fuck you," I growled, before lurching towards him again.

But the downfall of that was that Zack was a very strong guy. I, on the other hand, was not a very strong guy in comparison. I was bigger than him, but not stronger. So, when I went for him, he firmly knocked me backwards, causing me to struggle to regain my footing.

"What the hell?" I heard another voice say as they entered the scene. I looked over to see Mike walking in, completely confused. I glared at him too, because he was the one that caused the drama with Kellin and Vic. It made me angry, too, because in all of the years that I had known Kellin, I had never seen him as upset as I saw him back in our room. I had never seen him so depressed .

"He's the one who raped Kellin," I told Mike, viciously. Mike just rolled his eyes, which I should have seen coming.

"And Kellin's the shit that cheated on my brother," he said, in disgust. I groaned out loud . As if that was worse than raping someone.

"No he fucking didn't," I insisted. "Kellin is like, madly in love with your brother. He was out to lunch with one of his TA's that he fucking sees as an older brother figure or something, okay? I promise you Kellin is not a liar or a cheater."

"Well this is great and all, but I'd like to finish this," Zack said, looking pissed. I mean, of course he was pissed. I punched him in the face.

"Luckily, so would I," I said, through gritted teeth.

And that was about all I got out before Zack punched me square in the face and sent me toppling backwards into Mike. I swore loudly as pain radiated from me cheekbone to the rest of my face. Fuck.

"Guys, cut it out," Alex insisted. "I'm not dealing with this petty shit today. Justin, get out. . . you too, Mike."

"He's a goddamned rapist ; it's not fucking petty," I insisted, getting up again and trying to tackle him again. It was pretty freaking pathetic, to be honest. All Zack had to do was block my arm, grab it, and twist it backwards. I gasped, trying not to resist too much so he didn't actually break his arm. I struggled, trying to at least get a shred of my dignity left.

"I said enough!" Alex finally yelled, pushing Zack away and turning back to me. "Now get the fuck out so we can decide what to do about you two."

"Come on, Justin," Mike said, darkly. He put his hand on my back and steered me out of the building. I was fuming by that point. I couldn't believe that they were actually trying to brush off rape like it was no big deal. They violated my best friend, crushed his spirit, and were acting like nothing was wrong. They weren't the ones listening to Kellin screaming in his sleep every night from post-traumatic stress.

"I'm reporting them. I'm totally going to do it," I said to Mike as we headed back to my dorm building. I was still seething

"You should ask Kellin about that first . . . and speaking of which, I'm so sorry . . . fuck, I'm an idiot. Look, I'll call Vic when we get back to the room and set things straight, okay? Is Kellin there? I'll apologize to him, too," Mike explained. At least he was able to admit that he was in the wrong. I always knew Mike was at least a good guy. "It hasn't been that long, I'm sure we can get everything cleared up, okay?"

We had to take a bus to get back to my dorm room, and I realized I was gone longer than I told Kellin I would be. He would be okay with that, though, once I told him that I set things straight with Mike. He'd get his Vic back, and everything would be okay . . . right? I could show him that I tried to fight for him, that I'm ready to quit that fucking disaster of a fraternity.

Mike and I got back to the dorm room and I knew something was wrong as soon as I opened the door. Something was just off, but I couldn't put a finger on it.

Kellin sat there, looking up at us with this dazed expression. His pupils were constricted and his face was totally flushed. At first I thought it was just from crying, and I felt like going over and giving him a hug because he was still so sad.

"Kells, are you okay?" I asked, evenly. He insisted that he was and went to stand up, but as soon as he did, his legs gave out and he collapsed.

"Shit," Mike muttered, being the first to dive to try and help him up. I gasped in shock and moved to try and help, because I wasn't quite sure what was going on. It all happened so fast. "He's out."

"What the fuck? What happened? Is he breathing?" I asked, panicked. God, Kellin, what did you do? My heart raced in my chest as my mind immediately jumped to the worst-case scenario.

"Yeah, he's breathing, but what the- should we call 911?" he asked, as I searched around the room. My eyes immediately fell on the empty prescription pill bottle that was toppled over on my desk. I knew for a fact that there were several in there when I left. My stomach churned as I picked it up, verifying that it was indeed empty.

" Oh no ," I whispered, pulling out my phone as quickly as I could and calling an ambulance.