Moose and Goose

Chapter Ten

Judith's tears drip down her chin, and she sniffles. They all look at her, and La'Shawna furrows her brows.

"I'm sorry." She buries her face in her palms, and Mary rises from her seat. "I know that - that this is interrupting your plan for us, but I can't."

"You can't what," La'Shawna asks and her response given is a sniffle and head shake. Mary squeezes between Kacey and Judith, then lifts her left hand onto her back to comfort her.

"I wanna tell you all something. I've never spoken a word of it to anyone - not specifically. I tried to tell my mom three years ago about it before it got bad, but she wasn't supportive." She crosses her arms and stares at the floor by her shoes. "My boyfriend's been hurting me."

"Hurting you how?" She turns her head to Kacey.

"Sometimes, when he's angry, he grabs me," she explains with a crack in her voice, her lower lip quivering. "And sometimes, when he's really angry, he--"

"Oh, Judy." Mary wraps her arms around her, then pulls her in for a hug. Judith weeps onto her left shoulder.

"We have to tell someone." Kacey stands to her feet. La'Shawna, William, and Anthony avert their attention to her. "If she's being abused, and no one but us knows, then we should do something."

"No." Judith sniffles and leans out of Mary's embrace. Her face is flushed and dampened with sadness which only fuels the anger in Kacey.

"What do you mean no," she questions with her face scrunched. Judith rises to her level.

"You don't understand," she says. "If he gets in trouble for this, it'll only make him angrier. I have to live near him, Kacey. As far as I know, you all stay on campus, so you don't have to worry about stuff like this."

"Room with me," Mary suggests before Kacey can respond. She pushes herself to her feet as well. "I mean it. My roommate, Ashley, is hardly there, and she's almost at her third strike. She probably doesn't care so long as she can see Brandt whenever she feels like it, so I'll talk with my house mother about getting you in her place."

"If that doesn't work, you can move in with me." They turn to Kacey. "My roommate's graduating soon, so eventually, I'll have the space to myself."

"And whenever you are ready, we can go to the Dean or the campus police and report him," Mary says. Judith nods her head and lowers her eyes onto the floor.

"Thank you both for this," she tells them with a forced smile that fails to hide her frown. "I should go freshen up. I'll be back."

Judith hoists her backpack onto her shoulders, the sympathy in their eyes following her out the room.

***

"I'm like proud of you for telling your story like that, Judy," Mary applauds her though Space Jungle has her attention. She's rapidly taping the red button with her right hand and navigating with the joystick in her left. "It took a set of balls that I sure don't have and if moving out is what you need to be free from all of that bullshit, then I'll gladly help."

"Thanks, Mare," Judith mumbles with a genuine smile. She's holding a glass bottle of pop in her right hand, her eyes watching her left hand's fingers trace the brim of the bottleneck. She takes a deep breath, then pulls her shoulders back. "I do feel lighter than before. Almost like the--"

"Dang it!" Judith flinches when she yells out, which she notices through the reflection on the screen. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you, but this game is just - bogus."

Mary thrusts her right foot against the bottom of the arcade machine, earning a glare from the cashier.

"Sorry," she merely says with her teeth clenched and her lips drawn back to express awkwardness. The man shakes his head before he continues flipping through a sports magazine.