September Fall. Jenny Plumb

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СКАЧАТЬ to help you find new ways to cope with the anger you feel during certain situations. Roughly eighty percent of the people who take this course are here because they've assaulted someone, so don't worry too much about judgments from your fellow classmates, either."

      She gestured to the left side of the front row, to a middle-aged man in a suit. "We're going to start with you. Please tell us all why you're here."

      "I got in a fight with a valet at a restaurant. He brought my car back with a big scratch on the driver's door, and then when I yelled at him, he told me it was there before he parked it."

      Dr. Stryker nodded. "That's an understandable reason to be angry with someone. Not only did he damage your property, but then he also lied about it."

      "Exactly."

      "What did you do when he lied?" she asked.

      "I demanded to see the manager, and when the asshole said he was the manager, I shoved him. He stumbled back, tripped on the curb, and fell on the cement. There were bystanders. They called the cops."

      "Okay, thank you for sharing." Dr. Stryker gestured to the next person in the row and asked for her story.

      At first, while Sadie was listening, she was worried that her story would make everyone hate her. But by the time Dr. Stryker got to the back of the room, she was no longer ashamed of her story in this group of people. After the child abusers in rows three and seven told their stories, nothing she did could compare. And the spousal abusers in rows two, five, and seven weren't much better.

      But it was still a little nerve wracking when Dr. Stryker gave her an encouraging smile and said, "Please tell us why you're here."

      "A few weeks ago, after reconstructive surgery on my foot, my doctor said that there's no chance I'll ever play competitive sports again. I was upset. A little later that same day, one of the nurses said I should look on the positive side—the doctor was able to save my foot, and I'm still going to be able to walk and function normally. I slapped her. She said she wouldn't press charges if I took this class."

      Dr. Stryker nodded. "Those were pretty extreme circumstances and not something that is likely to happen again. I assume you were taking pain medication at the time?"

      "I was."

      "Thank you for sharing." She turned to Adam. "Last one. Please tell us why you're here."

      Adam scowled and said defensively, "I found out that someone matching my neighbor's description was not only suspected of raping women, but suspected of doing it at Sigma Alpha Kappa, the frat house I'm p… the frat house I was president of. So I invited him over, and when he started acting dodgy, I beat a confession out of him. I got arrested for assault. My lawyer said taking this class would help the judge go easier on me when I have my court date."

      Sadie couldn't believe she hadn't heard about this yet. That's what she got for avoiding all social media and all of her friends for the past couple of weeks.

      "Did the rapist get arrested too?" Sadie asked.

      Adam nodded. "He did. And a few days later, his request for bail was denied at his arraignment. I've already been subpoenaed to be a witness for the prosecution."

      Dr. Stryker nodded. "I can understand why you'd be upset after hearing that your neighbor was suspected of rape. Everyone in this room can agree that rape is vile. The question for you is going to be why did you invite your neighbor over, instead of calling the police?" She moved back behind the podium and addressed the class as a whole. "And that leads us straight into our first lesson, identifying your true feelings."

      While she was bringing up the next image on the television, Sadie leaned closer to Adam and whispered, "I personally think beating up a rapist is heroic."

      Adam's eyebrows went up in surprise. "Yeah?"

      She smirked at him. "Oh, yeah."

      His lips turned up before she focused back on the teacher.

      Forty-five minutes in, at the halfway point of the class, Dr. Stryker announced a ten-minute break and told people that the bathrooms and water fountains were down the hall.

      Sadie noticed Adam getting out his phone and said, "Will you tell me about it?"

      "About what?"

      "The whole story of your neighbor, the rapes at SAK, and your arrest."

      "Sure." He set his phone down and turned slightly to face her. "It was two weeks ago today, on August eighteenth. The cops came by early that morning to tell me… Well, I guess I have to start a little earlier. The week before that, the cops came by and told me that they'd had reports of women getting raped at SAK during our parties. I hadn't heard anything about it until that point, and we canceled the party for that weekend. Then on the eighteenth, they came by early in the morning to tell me that they had a basic description of the guy. They said he was Hispanic, with a crooked nose and a lazy eye. My neighbor, Rubin, matched that description, and I'd given him a standing invitation to come to all of our parties."

      Adam shook his head, and his hands balled into fists. "He'd been doing all the yardwork for SAK for a while, and he just seemed like a really nice guy. Everyone liked him, and I felt bad about his lazy eye. I figured that would make it hard for him to meet a girl, and I wanted to help him out." He looked at her with pleading eyes. "He didn't give off any kind of creepy vibes. He seemed like a normal guy."

      A rush of sympathy washed over her, and she put a hand on his knee. "You couldn't have known."

      He took a deep breath and nodded. "Thanks. So anyway, when the cops gave me that description, I just… didn't want to believe it, you know? I'd known this guy all summer. We'd shared a few beers, we'd talked about sports, we'd laughed at the same jokes, and I'd even seen him break up an argument between two of the other guys. So I didn't want to implicate him if he was innocent."

      "That's understandable," she said.

      He glared off into the distance, as if reliving it while he told the story. "I called and asked him to come do some yard work for us. When he got there, later that day, I handed him a beer like usual, and we chatted in the kitchen about the work I wanted him to do. Then I mentioned that the cops had been there that morning and that they were looking for a rapist. Rubin got really still, like a deer caught in headlights. Then when I said the cops would be back anytime with a police sketch of the rapist, Rubin dropped the beer I'd given him and ran towards the front door."

      Adam looked into her eyes, and she could see the fury. "I wanted to kill him in that moment."

      A shiver of fear ran down her spine, but she nodded. She understood the difference between the desire to do something violent and actually carrying out that violence.

      He looked down at his lap to confess the rest. "Rubin's not a big guy. I caught him before he made it to the door. Shoved him down, sat on top of him, and punched him in the stomach until some of my brothers pulled me off him. Rubin stayed down. I demanded a confession and told him I'd have another go at him if he didn't give me one. He immediately wheezed out that he'd roofied and raped eleven women." Adam looked up at her, and his eyes were narrowed into dangerous little slits. "Eleven."

      She moved her hand from his knee and covered his tightly clenched fist with both of her hands. "That's awful."

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