*TRIGGER WARNING: DESCRIPTIONS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT*
*HARLEY'S POV*
Peter's right. I need to go to the police and have a trial. I really don't want to but I know I need to.
I need to look out for everyone else that Eric could assault too.
I walked over to Felicity's desk. "Hey," I ran my fingers through my hair. "I think I'm going to take off early today."
"Why?"
"I've got some stuff to do."
She sighed. "Okay. Let me know if you find anything out about Eric."
"I will."
I grabbed my stuff and ran out the door of the office, took the elevator, and then busted out into the NYC atmosphere.
I hailed a taxi and jumped inside. "3471 E 51st Street," I said as I buckled in. He drove me to my apartment.
When I got inside, I changed clothes into something more fancy than my casual work clothes. I decided to change into khakis, a navy blue button down shirt, and my everyday Converse sneakers. I was taking off my shirt when I noticed the dark bruises on my wrists for the first time. I pulled my shirt off slowly and my mouth dropped open. There were purple and blue bruises spotting my arms all the way down to my hands. I ran to the mirror in my bathroom. There were spots on my lower neck and shoulders, too.
I pulled my pants off and turned around. A line of bruises ran across my thighs from where he had pushed me into the desk.
I had no idea it was this bad...
I felt tears burn my eyes but fought them away. I finished getting dressed, brushed my tangled hair, and exited my apartment.
This is the right thing to do, I thought as I jogged down the stairs, you're doing the right thing. Peter was right. You're right.
I kept telling myself that all the way to the police station, but when I finally stood in front of the intimidating NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT sign, my breath hitched. I couldn't breathe.
Why am I doing this?! I could just let it go. Save tons of money, humiliation, and time. There's no real reason I should be doing this.
But then I thought of what Peter said:
"What about all the other possible targets out there, completely unaware that they might end up exactly like you?"
I took a deep breath and clenched my fists. I need to do this for those future victims, who might not have to go through this if he gets put behind bars now. I need to do this for my family, friends, and Peter who would all want this. And I need to do this for me.
Quietly and slowly, I push open the door to the police station.
There's a lady at the reception desk with her hair in a bun. Nobody else is in the room except a couple of officers talking and laughing and a few people sitting in the chairs against the walls. I gulp as I look at all of them. My heart is thumping against my chest and I feel nauseous.
Why do I feel like the one that has committed the crime?
"Can I help you with something?" The woman at the desk has a thick Brooklyn accent. She smacks her bubblegum and looks at me with restless eyes.
"Um, yeah." I go up to the desk, "I need to report a crime." I notice her name badge: Suzanne.
Suzanne thrusts a clipboard at me. "Fill this out and give it back to me."
I take it and sit down to fill it out.
Under the BASIC INFORMATION category, I write in my name, age, gender, and address—in New York and back in Tennessee. I also have to put down whether I am the assailant, the victim, a witness, or someone else. I check off victim.
I move on to the next column which is called PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE VICTIM.
I check off white skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. Then I mark down my height and weight.
The next section is about the crime I'm reporting.
PLEASE CHECK OFF ONE OR MORE OPTIONS:
☐ VOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER
☐ INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER
☐ BRIBERY
☐ BURGLARY
☐ CHILD ABUSE/ENDANGERMENT
☐ AGGRAVATED ASSAULT
☐ KIDNAPPING
☐ CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
☐ FRAUD
☐ DRUG POSSESSION
☐ HARASSMENT
☐ IDENTITY THEFT
And then I see it, near the middle of the list:
☐ SEXUAL ASSAULT
My eyes fill with tears again. I don't even know why I'm crying. I never cry.
My mind wanders to the dark office, completely silent, not a sound in the world. I remember the feeling of his skin on top of me, pushing me down against my will. His hands clawing at my clothes and tearing them off. Me, trying to stay strong despite feeling so weak.
I check the box off quickly and wipe my eyes with my sleeve. I glance up and there are people staring at me. I take a deep breath and continue.
The next column: PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE ASSAILANT.
White skin, dark brown hair, green eyes. I don't know how tall he is or how much he weighs so I estimate.
All I know is I'm 6'1 and he's about my size, maybe a little taller.
I give the form back to Suzanne and she takes it off the clipboard and reads it.
My hands feel sweaty as her eyes scan the page.
"Sexual assault, huh?"
I nod slowly with my head down.
"Sorry to hear that." She dials a number on her phone. "Yeah, I got a report of sexual assault." She pauses. "He's in the lobby."
"He?" A female voice from over the phone says.
"Yeah, it's a guy. He's..." She scans my paper again, "17."
"A minor? That's terrible."
"Yeah," she blows a bubble with her gum, "are you going to take it or should I call Joe?"
I can't hear what the woman on the phone says next but the Suzanne hangs up shortly after.
"Go sit, baby," she says. "A police officer is coming to take you in to questioning soon."
"Okay," I nod and sit down again.
10 minutes later, a woman with dark skin, green eyes, and long black hair arrives. She has a brief conversation with Suzanne, glances at me a couple of times, then walks my way.
"Hi Harley, I'm Detective Turner." She shakes my head. "If it's okay with you I want to ask you a few questions."
I smile weakly and follow her down a dark corridor of windows and doors. "After you," she holds a metal door open for me.
There's a plain table in the middle of the small, empty room and two wooden chairs sitting across from each other. "Go ahead and take a seat," she said and smiled as she got her files ready.
I sat down on one side of the table and she sat across from me and stared at me.
"Your name is Harley James Keener?"
"Yes ma'am."
"And you're 17?"
"Yes ma'am."
"You... live in Rose Hill, Tennessee but you're here for the summer due to an internship?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Where is the internship?"
"Stark Industries, ma'am."
"Ooh, the big leagues," she smiles. "When did you get to New York?"
"About 4 weeks ago."
"Okay," she marks something down. "And when do you leave?"
"August 1."
She writes something down again, the pen cap clenched between her teeth. "Okay," she closes her notepad. "So you're here for sexual assault, correct?"
"Yes ma'am."
She frowns. "How are you?"
"I'm..." I think for a second. "As good as I can be, I guess."
She nods and continues. "Can you tell me about it?"
"Sure," I swallow. "Um... where should I start?"
"Start before it happened. What were you doing before it happened, where were you, did you talk to anyone...?" She waited for me to begin.
"Okay, um... it was about 5:00 in the afternoon. I was at Stark Industries. Everyone in the office had gone except for Eric."
"And this guy, Eric, he's the rapist?"
"Yes."
She opened a file. "His last name?"
"Barden. Eric Barden."
Her eyes widened. "Yes, I know him. He just got fired from there today, yeah?"
I nodded.
"I had heard something about misconduct... anyway please continue."
"So... he came over to me and started telling me things about my boyfriend, Peter. Things that weren't true."
"What kinds of things?"
"He told me that Peter only dates people for sex and that he had dated like 6 people in the past year and stuff... none of that is true. Peter's not like that."
"I'm going to need Peter's last name please."
"Why does he have to get involved?"
"Well, he's close to you. He might have something we can use."
"Parker," I sigh, "Peter Parker."
"He's also 17?"
"16."
She writes something else down. "Okay."
"Well I knew these things weren't true so I started getting upset at him and told him to stop spreading rumors about Peter and then he..."
My mind stopped. Retelling everything makes me relive it.
"He... what?"
I jumped back to reality and her soft green eyes looked at me pitifully. "I'm sorry you had to go through this." She reaches out and touches my hand gently. "But I need you to tell me everything you can. It'll help us get him in jail."
I nod. "He pushed me up against a desk and I struggled. I tried so hard to get away but he was much stronger than I was. He called me a fag and told me I was a sinner and that he... that he was helping me." I paused. "He pinned my arms down and took my clothes off."
She was taking notes.
"Did you still have your underwear on at this point?"
"Yeah," I sniffed. "And then Peter called me."
"What did he say?"
"He wanted to check on me. Eric saw my phone light up and made me turn around though. He took it out of my back pocket and answered it, then hung up and threw it on the ground so I couldn't reach it."
"Did he say anything to Peter?"
"He said something along the lines of 'Hey Peter, it's Eric. I'm busy banging your boyfriend, try calling back later.'"
"Okay," she wrote that down. "What happened next?"
I took a deep breath and put my head in my hands. "Then he raped me."
"Can you... go into a little more detail?"
"He... well after he threw my phone he slapped me and told me to be quiet and it would be over soon..." I sniffed and started crying quietly. "Then he made me bend over the desk and he, um... removed my underwear."
I ran my fingers through my hair awkwardly and sat there.
"And then he...?"
"Yeah," I nodded. She nodded too, and continued writing.
"After the rape why didn't you call 911?"
"I... I didn't really want to get involved in anything like this I guess. I don't know. It was just a hard decision and I don't know why."
"Did he stay with you after it was over?"
"Yes. I was the one who left. He said that he helped me because now it would be hard for me to be gay. He also told me not to go to the police and not to tell anyone and I agreed that I wouldn't but I told my boyfriend Peter and I guess he told somebody who took care of it and got Eric fired."
"Okay," she smiled and closed all of her folders and notepads. "I'm going to have a physician look at you and take pictures of your body if that's okay."
I swallowed. "Uh... okay."
"Only in places where there appears to be trauma," she assured. "It'll help as evidence in the trial."
I nodded.
"I'm also going to need the clothes you were wearing before the rape as evidence."
"Most healthcare providers have 100% no-cost payment for therapy when it comes to these kinds of cases so if..."
Her voice drifted off inside my head. I wasn't paying attention anymore. I was focused more on how much my life was about to change.
*PETER'S POV*
It was 1 in the morning. We were all sound asleep, me in my queen sized bed and Tony in his, with Stephen across from both of us on the pullout couch. Then my phone breaks the silence.
"KID!" Tony shoves a pillow against his head and rolls over groaning.
"Sorry," I whisper loud enough for him to hear me. I grab my phone off the charger and see that it's Harley. "I need to take this."
"Whatever," Tony mumbles as I walk out the door.
"Hi, is everything okay?"
"Yeah. I just got back from the police station. I reported the crime."
"Really? I'm so proud of you," I yawn.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. What time is it there?"
"1 in the morning," I laugh.
"I'm so sorry," he repeats and laughs with me. "I forgot about the time change."
"It's okay. I'm glad you called."
"I needed to hear your adorable little voice," he says and I blush. "I miss you like crazy."
"I miss you too," I say and sigh. "I should have been there..."
"Don't," Harley says sternly, "don't blame yourself."
"Okay, okay." I say, but the feeling stays. I should have been there. "So what did the police say?"
"Well I had to fill out this form about the crime and stuff and then a detective came to ask me questions and she sent me to a physician to look at me and take pictures of my bruises as evidence."
"I want to fucking kill him," I burst out suddenly. A long pause. "Sorry," I take a deep breath. "I'm just really angry."
"It's okay baby," he says. "But I'm handling it, okay? It's going to be fine."
"I trust you."
"Good. I trust you too."
"Hey wanna talk about something to get your mind off of this?"
"For sure," Harley chuckles.
"I know this sounds crazy but Steve and Tony have been acting like a couple lately."
Harley laughs. "That's silly."
"I know, I know but they really have been!"
Harley keeps laughing.
"Hear me out on this. Steve puts his arm around Tony all the time and they laugh at each other and hang out with each other way more than they used to. I mean they used to hate each other."
"Exactly," Harley says exasperatedly. "Plus they're both straight."
"I don't know... I just get vibes from them."
"Well, let me know if you find anything out about them," Harley jokes.
"I will," I smile. It is kind of dumb. I mean they are both straight.
Right?
-
-
-
(A/N hey guys! thanks for reading. don't forget to vote, comment, and follow me so you never miss an update. by the way, I'm staying in a place called Rose Hill right now which is where Harley is from and I love that lol.)
bye for now✱
•2,520 words•