Chuxi had never felt this tense while conducting a Facebook conversation. It felt like Bruce Lee was training inside of his chest cavity; his heart constricted so violently it hurt. Chuxi licked his lips.

Chuxi Zhao: Are you ok?

Mixed emotions warred inside of him, and with each passing moment those emotions intensified. Julie certainly took her time with her responses. They were like two nervous teenagers on AIM.

Julie Hall: yeah. why?

Chuxi Zhao: Oh. It’s just that I can hear you from Haley’s room.

Julie responded immediately this time. While Chuxi had no way of knowing, he thought she might be getting angry.

Julie Hall: its none of your business

Chuxi Zhao: Ok.

Chuxi hit send and then made a running start before leaping back onto Haley’s bed and diving under his makeshift covers, not unlike a child running from the dark after flipping the light switch. He lay there, trying in vain to calm his racing heart, willing his breathing to come in slow, steady intervals. Boy, had he done it this time. If he thought Julie was hard on him before, he couldn’t imagine what new forms of hell she had in store for him. He must’ve been lying there for five minutes when his screen lit up: a new Facebook message.

Julie Hall: its just…

Julie Hall: ive never seen Haley like that

Tentatively, Chuxi crawled back to the iPad, as if he were walking into the gaping maw of some great beast – or really, Julie’s maw, as the case may be. He shook his head vigorously, trying to dispel the terrifying mental image. He chose his next words carefully.

Chuxi Zhao: You want to talk about it?

Chuxi barely breathed at all as he waited for her response. He wasn’t even sure what he hoped for, but this felt like progress; any interaction with Julie – and not her feet – had to be a good thing. Julie was a person, a person with feelings and goals and dreams. Surely she couldn’t turn his attempts at consoling her into another opportunity to humiliate him. With this in mind, he proceeded to commit the unthinkable.

Chuxi Zhao: Why don’t you come over here and get me? We can talk in your room.

He exhaled explosively. This had disaster written all over it.

When he heard the sound of Julie’s door creaking open, all of the strength in his muscles drained out of him as if he was made of jelly. Her decisive footsteps rang through the short hall between the bedrooms, and a second later Haley’s door swung open silently. Chuxi silently cursed her for her scrupulousness: unlike Julie, Haley would never stand for a squeaky hinge.

There she stood, a dark silhouette in a shadowy doorway, and Chuxi felt the sharp sting of regret as he beheld the truest thing to a real and present threat on his life that he’d ever come across. Without speaking a word, Julie strode across the room and snatched him up. Chuxi considered screaming for help, but then decided against it: as scared as he was, he had come this far – he might as well see it through. He made a mental note to remember how he felt in this moment; perhaps his steadfast decision-making would provide him some cold comfort when he was made to lick the filth from between Julie’s toes.

By this point, Chuxi had grown accustomed to traveling in Julie’s grip. The trip back to her room barely registered at all, such was the anxiety he currently felt. He landed in a nerveless heap on the surface of Julie’s desk – a glance behind him revealed their Facebook conversation on the comparatively gigantic screen. It mocked him like an ironic billboard.

That same screen provided the only light in the room, illuminating Julie’s face in pale blue. Her eyes and features took on an otherworldly aspect, an effect accentuated by her inscrutable expression. They stared at each other in this fashion for an indeterminate time – then sparkling moisture began to well in her eyes.

Almost reflexively, Chuxi tried to console her. “Hey,” he said softly. This only made it worse: Julie’s body began to heave with poorly suppressed sobs. He took a different tack: putting on a winning smile, he cracked a joke. “Would it make you feel better if I licked your feet?” Julie began coughing mid-sob, as if his remark had caught her so off-guard that she had aspirated some saliva. Feeling a shift in tone, Chuxi pressed forward. “I bet they smell really bad right now,” he said in a goofy, sing-song voice.

Now Julie began to laugh in earnest, if only for a bit. She actually smiled, a genuine, warm smile – it was the first time Chuxi had ever seen that expression on her. She pressed the palms of her hands into her swollen eyes and heaved a massive sigh.

“I’m so fucking stupid,” she said at last.

Chuxi began to hope. “What do you mean?” he asked gently.

“Haley is my best friend in the whole world.” Her voice quivered. “My only friend; and now she hates me.” Julie could barely get that last part out, and an awkward hiccup punctuated the end. Fleetingly, Chuxi speculated that she was still drunk.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Chuxi said firmly. Even as the words tumbled out of his mouth, he wondered what his end goal was. He pushed the thought out of his mind; best not to think too much about the conversation he was having with a sociopathic dominatrix many times his size. “Haley loves you; she’d forgive you for anything. Hell,” he blurted, “she’d probably forgive you if you stomped me to death right here and now.”

Julie looked at him sharply. He had meant it as a joke, but at some point it dawned on him that he was advocating his own death. He trailed off lamely. Then she laughed, a deep, full laugh from the belly. Blood roared in Chuxi’s ears.

“I don’t understand why you’re being so nice to me,” Julie shook her head ruefully. “After everything I’ve done to you.”

“Oh?” he panned. “In America friends don’t make friends lick their sweaty feet? I thought it was a cultural thing.”

Julie smiled, but it was a sad, timid smile. Chuxi had never seen this side of her before; he felt like an explorer landing on some unknown continent. His life these last few days had just been a shocking development followed by an astounding turn of events followed by an unforeseen twist and more, but Julie’s change in character really took the prize for most unexpected. He fought the urge to pinch himself. “But you really think Haley will still be my friend?” she asked, her voice weakening again. “I just… I really need…” She broke down.

In a flash of intuition, Chuxi suddenly realized that something else was going on. He sensed something deeper and darker beneath, like a great sea monster lurking beneath the waves. “What is it? You can tell me – I mean, I can clearly keep secrets.”

Julie’s disposition deteriorated before his eyes, and she began to shake with quiet, wracking sobs. She sounded so hurt – like an abused puppy. For the first time in a long while, Chuxi felt bigger than someone. With slow, tentative steps, Chuxi walked over to where Julie’s hand rested on the desk, and in as sincere a way as he could manage, he stroked her thumb. He had been in some pretty surreal moments up to this point… but this was another level.

Slowly but surely, Julie pulled herself together, but her expression and voice remained bleak when she spoke again.

“Sushi… I think… I think I…”

“It’s okay… what is it?”

Julie sobbed once more, and her words came out in a thin whisper.

“…I think I was raped.”