Halloween

When they were all ready, they walked down to the lounge, which was sparsely decorated. Someone had gone to the trouble of getting purple and orange string lights, but that was about it. There were some pumpkin and skeleton cutouts hanging in the windows, and on a table were cans of soda and sugar cookies in "spooky" shapes. Despite the low effort put into the decoration, the room was packed. College students were everywhere. You couldn't be in the room and not be touching another person. Everyone was dressed up, or down, considering many were wearing as few clothes as possible. Loud Halloween music was playing from somewhere in the room, making conversation nearly impossible.

"So what do you guys even do at parties?" Remy yelled.

"What?" Emmitt yelled back.

"I said, what do we do now?"

"Just dance!" Renee shouted.

"Like the Lady Gaga song!" Landon clarified, singing the chorus to himself.

Remy would've gone outside for some air, but it was about 40 degrees, and he was wearing a vest that covered nothing. So instead, he just watched his friends dance stupidly and make fools of themselves. So naturally, after a minute or two, Remy joined in.

"You're a maniac, Remy!" Landon yelled. "Yes! Show off those moves!"

Remy's "moves" mainly consisted of limbs moving frantically every which way... which was pretty much what everyone else was doing.

After the room got sweaty and hot and unbearable, which took all of 20 minutes, the group took the stairs to Renee's room, and plopped down right outside in the hallway.

"That was terrible," Remy said, panting. "And I also kind of loved it."

"I told you it was fun," Landon said, wiping the sweat from his face.

At that moment, Remy noticed that Renee was sort of just staring down. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. It's just, when we were walking out of the lounge, some perv grabbed my ass. And it just pisses me off, ya know? Like, why do guys think it's okay to do that?"

Trying to keep the mood light, Remy said, "Well, when you're dressed like that, it's almost like you're asking for it."

Landon gave him a sharp glare that cut deep into Remy's chest. "You can't say that. Women should be allowed to dress however they want without fear of being harassed. And comments like that don't help."

Landon's sudden anger at Remy hurt, and he felt like crying. He hated when people were upset with him, hated when he did something wrong. His voice shaky, he said, "I'm so sorry, Renee. I didn't know... I didn't mean to..."

Renee just shook her head as if to say it was no big deal, then walked into her room, closing it on the rest of them so that they were locked out.

Remy turned his pleading eyes to Landon, "Seriously, I didn't mean to hurt her."

"Look, it's fine, Remy. Well, I mean, what you said isn't. But she'll be okay."

Emmitt, who just stayed silent throughout that whole exchange, stood up and said, "Welp, I think it's time that I go. I'll see you guys later."

They waved him a spiritless goodbye as he walked back down the steps. Remy turned towards Renee's door and knocked.

"Go away, please," she called in an annoyed tone.

"Renee, I really am sorry about what I said. I just want to talk."

"I don't feel like talking."

Landon tugged at Remy's vest and said quietly, "Come on, let's just go."

Ignoring him, he persisted. "Renee, please. I-I know what happened to you, so it was way out of line for me to say something like that. For me to imply that that was your fault, it was... it was just cruel. And I'm sorry." Somehow Remy felt that it was time to tell Renee the truth.

She opened the door, looking shocked. "H-How do you know about what happened?" She whispered and glanced at Landon, looking betrayed. "You promised not to tell anyone."

"No, Landon didn't say anything," Remy assured. "Come on. We have to talk."

She let them in, closing the door securely behind her. Remy sat on the bed across from Renee and Landon and told her the story.

When he got to the part where he and Landon bumped into each other, she asked Landon, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I thought we'd never see each other again, and I didn't want you to worry about some loose end that could screw us over by telling the police."

"But why did you wait so long to tell me?"

"Well, at first it was because I didn't know what his deal was. I thought he might've tried to blackmail us, so I wanted to keep you out of it. And after that was all cleared up, I thought that maybe it just didn't matter. Or maybe it was because I didn't want to have to bring up that night to you. I know you already have enough nightmares as it is, and bringing it up again wouldn't help."

"Landon. You don't have to keep anything from me. Everything that happened, it was bad... but it's not like I'm going to break if something else happens. I want you to be able to talk to me. That's what couples are supposed to do."

Landon nodded, unable to meet her eyes.

Watching this scene, Remy grew anxious. He didn't want to ruin the moment, but he felt a sudden urge and was unable to stop himself from asking, "What happened after, Renee? What did the police do?" He only whispered it, but he felt like it bounced around the room, ringing and echoing through the air so no one could forget it or ignore that it was there.

Renee looked at him. She said bitterly, "They didn't do anything, Remy. I told them what happened. We went to court. But there wasn't enough evidence, and the jury found Mark not guilty."

"...What? But... how?"

Her face seemed to crumble and her apathetic tone was lost. Her voice got higher as a sob escaped her throat, "I don't know! It's like they didn't believe me. And I just feel so angry. And please don't hate me for saying this, but I feel like it was because I'm black. And I'm not trying to use that as an excuse; it's just the only thing I can think of that would explain why Mark got away with what he did. Like, I don't mean to say that race played a part in that decision, but almost all of the jurors were white." She shook her head. "I'm sorry, I'm not trying to make up excuses, and I'm not trying to say that all white people are racist. It's just..."

Landon spoke up, tears in his eyes as he relived that moment in the courtroom where they announced the verdict. "Renee, don't fucking apologize for that. Race could have had everything to do with the result. When they hear that a white man supposedly raped a black woman, they think, 'Oh, she led him on. It was really her fault if he didn't get the message.' And that fucking sucks. People will tell you that that kind of stuff doesn't happen today, that everything's equal for everyone, but that's not true. So don't apologize for those people who let a rapist get away. And don't apologize to us because we're white. There are some terrible, prejudiced people out there, and you don't have to apologize for any of them."

A heavy weight lying in his heart, Remy whispered, "I'm sorry for making you talk about that, Renee. I didn't mean to ruin the night."

"It's okay," she sniffled. "At least Mark got what he had coming."

They all just sat there for a few minutes, processing everything they just discussed. Landon's arms were around Renee, her head against his chest.

Feeling that it was time for him to go, Remy silently walked out of the room, feeling very lonely. His heart ached; he wanted someone to hold him like Landon had with Renee. So he called his only other friend, the only other person who he thought could possibly make him feel okay.

When he picked up, all Remy could manage to get out was, "I need you right now." So Emmitt told him to swing by his room; no one else was there since his roommate was still at the Halloween party, which seemed like forever ago after that conversation.