"Ned"

He stirred slowly. Opening his eyes and glancing around his room. He spotted a tall figure standing in front of his closed door, too tall to be his petite mother and too slender to be his robust father.

"Jen?" He asked, sitting up. He rubbed his eyes as they adjusted to the darkness of his room. He glanced at the clock; it was just past midnight. He looked over at his best friend of twelve years, Moze. She inched closer to his bed and slowly sat down across from him.

Something was wrong. It was late, they had argued yesterday over something stupid, and he had called her 'Jen' in his sleepy reverie and she hadn't even yelled at him yet.

"What happened?" Ned asked slowly.

"I don't want to talk about it," she shivered. Ned noticed her t-shirt was torn down the side…and was that blood?

"Moze," He jumped up, but she recoiled backwards. His hands groped for the light switch on his wall, and all too quickly a blinding light filled the room.

She scrambled away from him and collapsed on his bed, quickly pulling her knees up to her chest. Her shirt was caked in blood and her left eye was turning a light shade of purple. She was missing a shoe and her hair was knotted and matted with sweat.

"Turn it off," she pressed her palms into her eyes, "please turn it off"

"Okay," Ned said, quickly bringing his room back into a state of darkness, "I should call your mom."

"No," she said, her voice quivering.

"My mom?" He asked.

"I just want to go to sleep," she began to cry, "I'll be okay in the morning."

"Okay," Ned said slowly, not sure if he was making the right decision.

"I need you to be with me," she said softly. Ned nodded in the darkness and slowly made his way over to her. He wrapped an arm around her waist like he used to do when she would spend the night in elementary school; when they had started middle school last year their sleepovers had dramatically decreased.

"I'm sorry," Moze muttered.

"For what?" Ned asked, his mind racing. But, she was already asleep.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The morning came quickly for Ned. He had spent half of the night wondering what had happened to Moze before falling into a restless sleep. Had she been beaten up? Although, it was far more likely that she had beaten someone else up. But, she was a mess. A glance at her sleeping figure let him know that something bad had happened last night; something terrible by the looks of her black eye and her chin that quivered even as she slept.

Ned wondered if he should wake her or let her have a few more hours of tortured sleep. Tears were coming from the corners of her eyes and she was grapping his sheets like they were the only things keeping her rooted to the bed. "Wake up, Moze."

She flinched, opened her eyes, and in a second was across his room. Her back was pressed against his wall and her eyes searched around the room. She seemed to calm down when she realized where she was.

"What happened to you last night?" Ned asked, fearing it was something awful. He had no tips for rape or murder or hate crimes. He felt at a complete loss as for what to do.

"After volleyball, I r-ran into," she began, but before she got any further she had slumped down against the floor and was crying into her knees.

"Who did this to you?" Ned asked, glancing at his door. He knew his mom was downstairs somewhere and felt like this may be the kind of thing he should have an adult help with. Moze seemed like she was in an adult sort of trouble.

"I-I," she stuttered, looking around his room and then back down at herself. "I feel dirty."

"Do you want to go home and change?" Ned asked, "or shower?"

"I don't want to go home yet." She shook her head. She continued to stare down at her shirt, disgusted by the blood and smeared dirt from the road by the bus stop a few blocks from the school.

"Lets get you to my shower." Ned decided. Moze nodded, and lifted her shirt slowly over her head. She threw it as far from her as she could as if even the sight of it made her sick.

Ned tried not to stare at her obviously vulnerable form sitting on his floor in just a bra and jeans. She must have lost her single shoe sometime well she was sleeping.

He stood up and offered her his hand. She took it reluctantly and pulled herself up. Ned pushed open the door of the bathroom that was adjoined to his room and began to run a bath for her. He didn't really know what to do, but he knew she felt dirty and girls liked baths, didn't they? He tried to calm the tide of bile that seemed to want to make its way up his throat.

Moze sat on the lid of his toilet seat and pealed off her socks.

"Could you stay with me, please?" She asked, not able to look at him directly.

"Whatever you want." Ned said, also trying not to watch her. A pair of jeans landed by his feat followed by his friend's underwear and a training bra.

He heard a splash of water and looked up to see Moze sitting in his bathtub hugging her knees. The water quickly turned a grimy brown color and the dried blood began to seep off her creating pink swirls.

"Did he" Ned hesitated not really sure if there was a better way to phrase what he had to ask, "rape you?"

Moze took a shaky breath and nodded without looking at him.

"We need to call the cops, Jen." Nate began to panic. How could someone do this to his best friend? They were only kids.

Ned grabbed a washcloth from his counter to help her clean up. "Did you know him?" Ned asked, reaching out a hand to rub the washcloth against her scraped up arm.

She nodded again without taking her eyes off her knees.

"Who was it?" Ned asked, not being able to fathom anyone they knew doing something so awful to someone so nice.

She began to cry and slowly turned her head towards him. She looked so hurt, so broken. "You can't tell anyone."

"Jen," Ned answered softly.

"You have to promise," she said, her lips quivering.

"I promise," Ned sighed.

"It was Billy Loomer," Moze sobbed. She brought her head under the water and rubbed at her face. She brought it up a moment later and stared down at the water her body had turned brown. She still felt filthy.

"I'm done," she said, standing up with tears still pouring down her face.

Ned got up quickly, grapping for a towel. This was not how he'd pictured seeing a girl naked for the first time, and he was too stunned over her confession to think of anything other than what he wanted to do to Loomer.

"You can't tell anyone," Moze repeated, wrapping herself in Ned's towel.

"We have to, Jen." Ned spoke after too long of a silence for his own comfort.

"No," she snapped, "and stop calling me Jen." She turned and left his bathroom. Ned followed her, and watched her climb back into his bed.

"What do you need?" he asked, not quite sure of how to act.

"I need it all to stop," she said, wrapping her arms around her head, "everything hurts."