Work Text:
Erin rolled her eyes when she saw him. She’d done a good job of avoiding him all night but this was a narrow hallway. Turning and going back was an option but she’d never been one to run away from her problems. Max Ryan was a problem. Erin didn’t want him to be but he was. So she took a deep breath, straightened her back, and headed right for him.
“Well, well, well,” he slurred. “Look who it is.”
“Max, I'm not in the mood OK? I'm just here to have a good time.”
“I've heard all about your good times. You pretend to be a good girl but there are rumors about you and Rossi everywhere.”
“I don’t dignify rumors with a response.” Erin said. “Not from you or anyone else.”
She tried to get by but Max slapped his palm against the wall, blocking her path. Erin tried to duck under but he blocked her again.
“Really? Max, just stop it.”
“I bet you don’t tell Dave Rossi to stop it.” his voice turned menacing.
“What's going on between David and I is none of your business. You have no right to interfere with my life.”
Without any warning, Erin barely got the sentence out of her mouth; Max grabbed her by the shoulders and slammed her against the wall. She was startled, letting out a whimper of surprise and pain as she dropped her bottle of Bacardi Silver on the rug. Her heart was pounding so fast Erin was sure it would burst out of her chest.
“Get off me.” she said through clenched teeth. She was holding on to her confidence by the skin of her teeth. Her mind was thinking of ways to get out of the hallway and the situation. It was a crowded party, loud and boisterous. The back hallway was deserted so no one would hear her scream. Max had her right where he wanted her.
“What does he have that I don’t?” he blew his alcoholic breath in her face. “Dave’s fucked everything moving, Princess. I hope you don’t think you're special. Did he tell you were special? Cuz I'm telling you that you don’t mean a damn thing to him.”
“Max, I won't tell you again to get the hell off of me.”
“If you want cock,” he pressed her body harder against the wall with his own. “I can give you cock. I promise you'll like it. Even if you don’t I’ll give it to you anyway.”
“Max, stop! You son of a bitch, just stop it! You disgust me.”
“Aren't you Little Miss Perfect?” his hand started moving up her jean skirt. Erin fought him but he was stronger. “You're so fuckin perfect you think you have a right to deny me. You’ve been denying me for too long. So what are you going to do now?”
“Stop it!” she exclaimed. Erin put all her strength behind her and shoved him hard. She caught Max off guard but it only stopped him for a minute. He was coming at her again and Erin slapped him hard across the face. “You bastard.”
“Bitch!” he slapped her with the back of his hand and Erin saw stars. “You little fuckin bitch you're gonna take it and you're gonna like it.”
She tried to run but he grabbed her hard. There wasn’t enough space in the hallway to get far. Max slammed her chest against the wall, knocking the wind out of her. It was in that moment that Erin knew she was fighting for her life. She couldn’t believe something like this was happening.
Just a few minutes before she and Dave had been laughing together. He was twirling her blonde hair on his finger being flirty and witty. He actually offered to get her drink for her but Erin declined. It was fine…she could get it herself. If only Erin had the power to know the future. There was no way in hell she would've turned down that hallway.
“No!” Erin screamed though only a squeak seemed to come out of her constricted throat.
Max’s arm was across the back of her neck as the other tried to wrestle up her skirt. He was stronger than she was but she wasn’t going to stop fighting. There was a lot of rage in him right now; he wanted something and planned to take it. But he had to be crazy to think Erin would just surrender. He would have to kill her before she ever gave up.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
Dave came barreling down the hall slamming into Max. It nearly sent Erin falling to the ground. Both men fell over and the fight began. Dave was pummeling him.
“David! David please stop! David!”
It was useless; he wasn’t stopping. Max was doing his best to defend the blows but suddenly he was just a weak drunk again. The snarling monster that just stared her down had all but disappeared. So Erin yelled for help before Dave put him in the hospital.
He would deserve it, no doubt, but this wasn’t the way. In a matter of minutes the tiny hallway was filled with Alpha Sig brothers. Erin pressed her back against the wall…she could hardly breathe. Jason pulled Dave off his bloody brother but he was still swinging.
“Dave, stop. Stop.” Jason’s voice was calm in the midst of pure chaos.
“I will kill you.” Dave was seething. “I will kill you, you son of a bitch.”
“What happened?” Greg Sanderson asked.
He was a junior and the Sergeant of Arms. It was his job to always keep the peace. That wasn’t easy in a houseful of men, many competing for the attention of women. But brother on brother fighting was against their biggest unspoken rule. They saw it tear other frats apart at the seams. It wasn’t going to happen with Alpha Sigma Phi.
“That bastard had my girlfriend pressed up against the wall.” Dave shook off Jason but he felt his best friend’s presence close. That was good because he was still about to blow a gasket.
“That’s it, Dave?” Tom Barton asked. He was the chapter Vice-President. A senior biology major, Tom was beating the girls off with a stick.
“What the hell do you mean that’s it? She was fighting him and he was holding her down by the back of her fuckin neck? Do you think that’s OK, Tom? And yeah, it was my girlfriend but I would've kicked his ass if it was any girl. Max gets drunk and he gets stupid. I'm not going to walk by and pretend its not happening like some of you do.”
“Are you alright?” Greg asked Erin.
“I asked Max to stop multiple times and he wouldn’t. Then he turned violent and slapped me.” she said. It was none of Greg’s business if she was alright. Feeling nauseous and faint didn’t constitute fine.
“Don’t lie now cuz your boyfriend caught you.” he slurred. “You liked what you were getting.”
“You think I liked having my face pressed into a wall!” Erin exclaimed. “You're a fuckin psycho, Max.”
“It’s not my fault you're frigid. You always have been. I hope you weren't looking for any ass from this one Rossi…it’s a waste of time.”
“Shut the fuck up.” Dave lunged at him again but Jason held him off. “You just couldn’t take that Erin wouldn’t give you the time of day.”
“We don’t need to air dirty laundry in public.” Tom said. “Dave, you need to take Erin home. The rest of us will discuss this in the sitting room.”
“No way in hell will you discuss me if I'm not there to defend myself.”
“I’ll be here.” Jason said. “You need to get Erin out of here.”
Dave sighed and nodded. He looked at his girlfriend, his heart breaking. Erin looked scared, confused, embarrassed, and angry. Her face was red and he could see a bruise starting to form already.
Her lip wasn’t busted but there was a little blood. The idea that that prick Ryan put his hands on her made Dave want to kill him. When he held out his hand, Erin didn’t even take it. He had to tell her to come on for her to follow him.
“I'm taking Erin home.” He said.
“Goodnight, Erin.” Max smiled at her. He looked even more sinister with a bloody mouth.
“Fuck you.” she walked away with Dave.
“We need to find your jacket.” Dave said as they moved back into the thick of the party.
What a difference a few feet made. They went from virtual seclusion to something out of a teen party movie. Though he saw something he never wanted to see, Dave was so glad he turned that corner. She was all alone with that monster. It must have been a terrifying experience.
“I don’t give a damn about the jacket, David.” She replied. “Get me out of here.”
He nodded, moving her toward the front door. In the hall closet, Dave grabbed an orange windbreaker he knew was Jason’s. He told her to put it on and she did. Once they were outside on the porch, Erin tried to take a deep breath. It was ragged, painful, but Erin refused to cry. At least she refused to cry in front of Dave.
Instead she pulled a slim cigarette case from the pocket of her skirt. Lighting one, she walked down the steps with Dave in tow. The walk home was quiet and tense. He wanted to hold her, hold her hand, but she wasn’t going for that. So they just walked.
It was a nice spring night; the fragrance of rain was in the air. As far as Erin was concerned, the storm of the century was brewing. All she wanted to do was get home to shower. Her skin was crawling from Max Ryan’s dirty hands all over her. Her neck hurt, so did her back, chest, and face. How the hell did it go so bad so quickly?
She knew she would never set foot in the Alpha Sigma Phi house again as long as he was a brother there. He pushed it with her a lot; it seemed to be his specialty. Tonight he took it to the point of no return. Erin was positive if Dave wouldn’t have showed up when he did then she would've been sexually assaulted. She would've fought him but probably lost. In just a few moments Erin Strauss would've become a frat house statistic.
“This is probably a really dumb question,” Dave said as her sorority house came into view. “But are you alright?”
“I'm shaken up.” She replied. “I'm sore from where I was grabbed and shoved.”
“I'm so sorry, Erin.”
“You don’t have to apologize David.” She walked up the steps to the porch. Sitting down on the top step, he sat beside her. “If you wouldn’t have come along…I'm grateful you were there.”
“What happened?”
“Max turned into a monster.” Erin replied. She took another deep inhale of her cigarette, fighting back tears. She needed to go in soon…she wouldn’t be able to hold them off much longer. “I mean that literally. I saw something in his eyes tonight and it wasn’t a good thing. I know he was drunk but he was a stark raving lunatic.”
“Why does he harass you?” Dave asked. “Don’t get me wrong, I know he's an asshole by nature. He bugs a lot of girls and some giggle at the attention. You don’t and it just makes him do it more.”
“When I pledged Tri Sig as a freshman, Max kept asking me out. I wasn’t interested but he never gave up. The more I rejected him, the pushier he got. So I had to stop being nice. I told him if he didn’t stop bothering me I would report him to campus police for harassment and file a restraining order.
“That did the trick. Ever since then he's been nothing but venomous to me when I’m ever unfortunate enough to be close to him. After we started dating, it got worse. He is so jealous of you, David.”
“Why didn’t you tell me it was so bad? I thought he was just being a prick. He's pretty much always a prick. I didn’t realize it was personal.”
Erin shrugged. She plucked one cigarette and went for another. She was trembling too much now…Dave took the lighter from her.
“I know you don’t like him, David. I'm sure you have plenty of reasons since he's an asshole. But I didn’t want you two coming to blows because of me. I know the unspoken rule.”
“Has he ever touched you before?” Dave asked.
Just asking the question made his blood boil. He needed to calm down; this wasn’t Erin’s fault. Dave wished she would've told him that Max was bothering her. But one thing he knew about his woman was that she wanted to take care of herself. Still, he shuddered to think what might have happened if he hadn't rounded that corner.
“Nothing like that has ever happened before.” she took a deep inhale of her cigarette. “I would've told you if it had.”
“OK. I just…you're my girlfriend, Erin. I'm sure you want nothing to do with caveman mentality but no one will ever hurt you while I'm around. I want to protect you because I care about you.”
There was a long silence after he said what he said. Erin slipped her hand in his, lacing their fingers. He just stared at her out of his peripheral vision. Dave wanted to say more but he didn’t know quite what or how.
He’d already said something big; the girlfriend bomb was dropped. As monumental as that was it was overshadowed by something bigger tonight. Dave needed to make sure that Erin was alright. He just wanted to know how to do that.
“I am so damn sorry this happened.” He said. It sounded stupid but was still the truth.
“Me too. God, it’s a little insane how fast your life can spin out of control. I refuse to step foot in that house while he's still a brother there.”
“I don’t blame you. I just hope his disgusting behavior doesn’t change your thoughts on every man you know.”
Erin shook her head. She just really needed to go inside and shower. Plucking the second cigarette away, she stood and took off Jason’s jacket.
“Goodnight, David.” She handed it back. “I hope you understand that I'm going to need a few days to myself.”
“I do.” he nodded. He didn’t, not fully anyway, but he planned to respect it. “Call me next week, OK? If you don’t call by Monday I will call to check on you. It’s important to me to know you're alright but I won't invade your space.”
Erin nodded. She gave him a quick hug; he barely got a chance to hold her back, and then disappeared behind the large front door. Dave had no idea how long he stood on the porch or what he was thinking about. It was late April so they'd been dating for almost three months. It had been magical but as he watched her close the door it seemed all but over.
Sighing, Dave started the walk back to his frat house. This night was far from over. He had to go back, face his brothers, and call Max Ryan exactly what he was. He was a drunk, a menace, and possibly a rapist.
Just thinking about it made Dave want to lose it. Ryan would surely weasel out of this like he did everything else. But Dave knew…he knew what the good time guy was underneath all the bravado and bullshit. If everyone else refused to see, he would constantly hold up a mirror so Max Ryan never forgot.
***