Anna had been talking nonstop for a couple hours and while it wasn’t exactly lunchtime yet, Bill began looking for some place to grab some food. He was starting to feel a grumbling in his stomach.
They soon came across a nice little roadside diner and Bill pulled in. “You ready to get some food and stretch our legs?” he asked Anna.
“Fine with me if you’re ready.” she replied as she got out of the car and went into a full body stretch. She’d been cooped up in the car longer than she thought. She stopped mid-stretch as her eyes spotted the motel across the road and she remembered his statement from last night. ‘Oh no, is that why he chose to stop here?’ she thought to herself as her anxiety level began to rise.
They sat down in opposite sides of a booth and ordered lunch. Each got up to use the restroom just before the food arrived. Anna continued to think about the motel and wondered if Bill would actually demand his payment. If he did, what would happen if she couldn’t go through with it? For being so nervous, Anna was surprised she had such a big appetite.
Bill asked her about what happened last night. “So tell me about last night. If you’re so desperate for this ride back to school, how did you get home in the first place? And why were you even at the party?”
“After my eyes were opened to things outside the cult, I began to live life more closely to what all the other ‘normal’ teenagers were doing at school. I wanted to experience all the things that they did. I still held firm to quite a few of my beliefs from before. I had just ‘de-radicalized them” for lack of a better term. I socialized. I went to parties and tried alcohol. Not a big fan. I was introduced to and hung out with people I never would have met before. I met a guy named George. He was nice to me and my new group of friends convinced me that he was interested in dating me. Dating wasn’t allowed before so I didn’t know how to behave. My friends suggested we get together a few times, just to talk and get to know each other. For a 20 year old with no dating history, I was surprisingly comfortable being alone with him. We discovered that most of my new found beliefs were in line with his. We agreed on pretty much everything except one: no physical intimacy before marriage included everything except for kissing. George tried to convince me otherwise. I told him it was deal breaker so he agreed to my definition and we started officially dating. He knew of my history and ongoing feud with my parents. After the final blow up with them a few weeks ago, George agreed to bring me here to get my things.”
“I overheard people talking about the party when we got gas after arriving in town. I thought maybe I could see some people and offer some apologies. We went and although most people ignored me, I actually got a few to talk to me. Those were some rough conversations.”
“I lost track of George at one point while apologizing to someone so I went to find him. I found him alright. I opened a door and saw him having sex with some woman on a bed while a bunch of other guys stood around naked and cheering him on. One of them looked at me and said ‘Alright, one more slut means less waiting for the rest of us. Come on and get naked, bitch!’ I ran out of the room towards the door. That was when I ran into you. I’m sorry about knocking you down; I didn’t even know you were in town and at the party.”
“Anyway, George’s apologies and pleas for forgiveness quickly turned angry and mean when I wouldn’t give into him. He left me there. I hid in the bushes trying to figure out what I was going to do when I saw you come out of the house. You know the rest because you were there.”
Bill downed the last of his drink and wiped his mouth with his napkin. He dropped it to the table and motioned to the waitress for the check.
The moment that Anna had been dreading for the last 12 hours arrived as Bill looked her in the eye and said, “Pay the woman, Anna, and then meet me in the car. The motel across the way work for you or do you want to head down the road a ways and see what we find?”
Anna paid for lunch and slowly made her way to the car. She closed the door and Bill could hear defeat in her voice as she said, “I guess we might as well get this over with. Across the road is fine.”
Bill drove across the road and told Anna to go into the motel office and get them a room. She returned a few minutes later and told him the clerk said the room is at the far end of the complex. They drove down and parked in front of room 126.
Anna forced herself to not cry as slid the key card into the lock and opened the door. Bill followed her into the room. Thankfully, it was clean and didn’t smell. There was queen sized bed covered with a dark bedspread against the wall to the right of the door with a small table and chairs between it and the window. The television was on the wall across from the foot of the bed. “The clerk said they have free movies if you want to watch something.” she said because she couldn’t think of anything else.
“We’re not here to watch TV, Anna. Do you want me standing up, sitting in the chair, or lying on the bed?” Bill asked her.
Her heart was suddenly racing. She struggled to keep calm. “I don’t know; I’ve never done this before.” she managed to say.
“You’ll probably be more comfortable on the bed; this carpet looks like it could be pretty rough on your knees. Do you need to use the bathroom before we get started?”
“No.” she managed to weakly get out of her mouth.