Deborah Parker

Jordan was flabbergasted, and he had no time to process the girl's honesty because suddenly Mauve was up and darting away from the table as if her life depended on it. He only managed to watch her go and then turn to Skye with a dumbfounded look.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cause any trouble."

Jordan shook his head in response and Karen gripped the girl's hand, squeezing it.

"It's okay, just give her time. It is kind of a lot to process."

"Yeah..." answered Skye, before turning her eyes to Jordan. "You okay?"

"Mostly... I mean, I already knew part of it, so... it was still a surprise though, wasn't expecting it to be Jonathan."

"Yeah, well... nobody really is, right? He's practically the school's example to be followed."

"Yep, pride and joy of this building..."

Skye nodded, a sad smile spreading through her lips. Jordan was indeed surprised about Jonathan, and although he really had been around some people that chose to participate in the same disgusting activities as Jonathan Wales, what had passed through his mind without being noticed was that he had lived with those people, he was inside their homes where they let their defenses down, where they felt secure to do whatever their demons wanted. Jordan in fact had very little experience with rapists trying to hide their sexual impulses, especially because by the time he was living with such people he was already developing a very deep habit of avoiding people in general, and also, back then he made sure not to pay any attention to them altogether. It was easier to pretend someone didn't exist if you also avoided seeing them.

So by the time Jordan truly figured out who those people were, he was being directly confronted with the truth, like hearing screams and opening a door at the wrong moment, catching horrifying scenes of abuse while they were happening. Jordan wasn't aware of it, but at those times when he was struggling the most, his brain opted to blank away many memories, and although some traumas he had he knew perfectly well where they came from and who inflicted them, most of it all he had no recollection of, simply because his mind decided it was too much for a pre-teen to take on. And to the credit of his own mind, he had never questioned some of his memories or the situation he was in, Jordan had not only subconsciously decided to block his memories, but he had also consciously chosen not to dwell over his own past.

A decision that made hiding the truth from himself quite easier, even if he wasn't completely aware of it. Some wounds were best left alone, or at least, that was what he had chosen to do. But the knowledge that a wolf in sheep's clothing was lurking about his school building triggered something inside of his subconscious, and Jordan finally felt that something was wrong; but while his conscious mind was hinting at something, his subconscious was still working hard at pretending that nothing was out of the ordinary. The hidden doors that our subconscious mind closed are not easy to open, and even harder to find.

At the lunch table, Skye proceeded to explain to Jordan how Jonathan managed to fool and, in the end, **** the girls he wanted to. She told him that, in the beginning, Jonathan starts slowly, he approaches the girl only after weeks and weeks of observing her, learning her preferences, her patterns, and habits, what attracts her the most and what makes her uncomfortable. Then Jonathan picks up on her insecurities and starts to slowly nick at them, here and there he drops hints, small details that at the first look you do not see the evil behind it, and it progresses until Jonathan can use all that to manipulate and persuade his victim of choice. Once he is sure that she won't deny him anything, even if it makes her uncomfortable, he starts with the nagging about sex.

And in the end, Jonathan always gets what he wants. And each time he doesn't you better be sure that he will make sure you feel like the worst human being on Earth for saying "no" to him and his unreasonable request. And that was how he got to Skye, it worked like a charm especially because she, from the very beginning, felt like he was much better than her, he was captain of the football team, she was a quiet weirdo, he went on to do his charitable deeds every weekend, she flung herself on top of her bed and binged series every weekend. From the very beginning, Skye questioned what had Jonathan Wales seen in her, but he was such a charmer and so good with words that he managed to convince her that she was a special snowflake, and he was the only one who could see that.

Right now when she thought back on it, Skye could see how silly and blind she had been, she fell in love with his silver tongue, and from then on she was just another silly teen, that was so infatuated, and loving so much to hear that she was a special cookie, that she let all her defenses down and got swept away into his spell. Skye could forgive herself for that, being infatuated was part of being human, and at some point, she would like someone again, but she still wished that she had shown some sort of self-control instead of simply diving in headfirst. She knew perfectly well she could not change her past, nor her decisions, but she could use her experience for something good, and Skye had indeed decided to do that, so instead of dwelling too much on what she could have done, she looked at her own stupidity as a learning stone for other people. Not everyone had to go through the same process as she did to learn some self-control.

And that was also why she had had such a hard time accepting that Jonathan could have done the same thing to Deborah Parker, the cheerleader with long legs and the grace and equilibrium of a crane. She was beautiful, popular, and confident, Deborah would never have felt inferior to Jonathan, on the contrary, they were very well matched in Skye's eyes. So it was a mystery to her how Jonathan had managed to manipulate Deborah as he manipulated her, even if she had her insecurities, Skye believed them to not be even a tenth of what could happen inside her own mind. And those were the thoughts she voiced at the lunch table, explaining to Karen, but mostly to Jordan, how Jonathan worked and how he had another victim besides herself.

"Well, he may change tactics, like, if the girl is confident, then maybe he wilts it away? Then he works with what he gets out of it."

Said Jordan, much to his dismay he hadn't even known who was Deborah Parker, and that only contributed to making him feel guilty. Yes, he paid attention to people, but only to those that were consistently present in his daily life, and Deborah was not one of those people; she had no classes with him and had a completely and utterly different circle of friends, not to forget that she was wealthy while Jordan was just a foster kid that happened to be in the same school as her. Jordan had no interest in school games, so he had never seen Deborah before, and even if he did see her now, he wouldn't be able to tell the difference that Jonathan Wales had made in her life and her personality. It was such a small thing, not knowing someone, but it was made bigger because of what Jonathan had inflicted upon the cohabitants of D. C. High School.

"Maybe, but-"

Skye was cut short by the bell ringing loudly above every voice inside the cafeteria walls, she pressed her lips together, her eyes looking downward for just a second and casting a small shadow over her cheeks. Jordan and Karen did see her reaction but decided it was better not to pry, for several reasons, they believed it was better if Skye opened up by herself.

"We'll talk more later, okay?" She continued while getting up and picking up her tray, half of the food was left untouched. "Karen can give you my number, and when that girl... Mauve?" Karen and Jordan nodded at her. "Yeah, when Mauve feels better you can give her my number as well. It was nice meeting you."

"You too."

And with a shy smile, Skye left, carrying her tray, her shoulders tense.