Callie managed to get through the rest of the school day. She got several stares and noticed a few whispered conversations, but making it through the day made her feel stronger.

As she started to leave her last period, Talya grabbed her arm. "You have a minute?" the redhead asked.

"Um, sure." They waited as the last few students had left the room. "What's up?"

"This is going to sound stupid, but… I was wondering what happened to you? Did the guy that took that picture do something?"

Callie bit her lip. "Yeah… He raped me."

"Did he go to jail?"

"Not for that. With my past, the judge threw out the case." Talya looked down, and Callie realized where this conversation was going. "What happened to you?" she asked. "Things got worse at that party, didn't they?"

She nodded. "This guy pulled me into one of the bedrooms… I'd never seen him before. He started…" She couldn't finish that sentence. "He didn't lock the door, though, and someone else came in. The guy just got up and left." She gave a humorless laugh. "The only thing that saved me was some other kids looking for a makeout spot. Pretty stupid, right?"

"It wasn't your fault."

"I was wasted," Talya pointed out. "And taking my clothes off."

"That doesn't matter. If you said no, then you said no. He had no right to go any further."

"I wish I'd left with you and Mariana," she admitted.

Callie sighed. "Yeah. I wish I'd tried harder to get you to come… Have you told your parents or anyone?"

Talya shook her head. "They don't know where I was that night. No point in getting grounded on top of everything else."

"What about Brandon?"

"No. He already knows too much about what a slut I was that night."

"He's not going to be mad. He's just going to be worried about you. You need someone to talk to."

"I'm talking to you," Talya pointed out. "I realized that you were right before, when you said you understood what I'd been through. Even the parts that you didn't know anything about at the time." She gave a self-deprecating smile. "And I'm not really sure why you're actually talking to me, after everything. But you've always been nicer to me than I deserved."

"Things were... complicated," was the most diplomatic response that Callie could come up with. "For everybody."

"Still. Thanks."

Callie reached into her book bag and pulled out one of the fact sheets that her siblings had made. "Here," she told Talya as she gave it to her. "I started looking at some of the websites on this today. There are a lot of resources out there, stuff I didn't know about before. The statistics really pissed me off. 1 in 6 women will be a victim of rape or attempted rape in their lifetime. And less than 50 percent report it. I was part of that half for way too long. Even if the court didn't believe me, keeping my secret just ate away at me every day."

"So you really think I should tell Brandon?" Talya wondered.

She nodded. "You don't have to hide. Just remember that you're not the one who did something wrong."

"Okay, I'll think about it."

After a moment of thought, Callie took off her teal ribbon and gave that to Talya, too. "This is a reminder that there are other people on your side," she explained. "Nobody who's been through what we have deserves to be alone."

% ^ % ^ % % ^ % ^ %

Brandon was waiting for Callie out in the hallway. Just when he was starting to worry whether she'd skipped out on school again, she finally came out the classroom door. "You okay?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm good."

Talya also walked out of the room, and Brandon frowned a bit in confusion and surprise. Since when were they friends? "Hey," he told his girlfriend.

"Hi. I've got to get home, but I'll call you later."

He shrugged. "All right."

"I'll see you tomorrow, Callie," Talya told the other girl as she walked away.

"What was that about?" Brandon asked his foster sister.

Callie knew it wasn't her place to spill Talya's secret. "Nothing. Just homework stuff."

They went outside to meet up with Mariana, Jesus, and Jude to walk home. The other two boys were very surprised but happy to see that Callie was at school.

"Callie!" Jude cried as he ran over to her and gave her a hug. "I thought you were staying home?"

"I was. But Lena called Stef about what you guys had done. Thank you, all of you."

"No problem," Jesus told her.

"Where'd your ribbon go?" Mariana wondered as she noticed that it was missing from her sister's shirt.

"Someone else needed it more."

During the walk home, Jesus and Jude started discussing a new video game they were anxiously awaiting the release of, and Mariana put on her iPod headphones. That left the two oldest siblings with a chance to talk. Callie had promised Talya that she wouldn't spill her secret, but she had her own thoughts to discuss.

"I looked at some of the sites you found while I was in study hall," Callie told Brandon. "There's a lot of information I'd never thought about before. And there's message boards and blogs; it's cool to know I could have a support group with people who are scattered all over the country."

He smiled. "The magic of the internet."

"Yeah… Before I came here, it didn't seem like there were any advantages to admitting what had happened to me. I couldn't think of any good outcomes. But now, it's getting harder to see the advantages of keeping quiet. I never thought just talking actually helped anything, but now I realize that I was so isolated, so afraid. And that just gave him even more power over me. I'm tired of it."

"He's already taken enough," Brandon agreed.

They kept walking in silence for a few minutes. "I've been thinking about what I want to study in college," Callie finally spoke up. "I think I want to be a counselor."

Brandon smiled. "Really?"

"Yeah. I mean… if I could help people who have been through what I have, maybe I could keep them from feeling alone and insignificant. I could try, at least."

"I think that sounds like a really good plan. I think the Moms will love it, too."

She smiled. "I guess if I'm going to college, I gotta start caring about my grades, huh?"

He laughed. "Yeah, that's something they usually check. At least we can help each other with SAT prep."

Callie rolled her eyes. "Ugh, I gotta take those, too?"

Fin.

A/N: As always, thank you for your feedback. I've been working on at least one more story to follow this one, so this is really just "The End for Now." The next story is more focused on Jude and Stef, but I'm open to suggestions if there are specific things people would like to see happen in the future.

A/N 2: The statistics used in this story about sexual violence came from the website for RAINN (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network).