When I was about thirty feet down the path, Crawford called, “Don’t take your sweet-ass time in there!” I passed Crane and Kelliher halfway in. They were flushed, nervous. “Dunphy,” Crane said, “you’d better get her out of there before we all get caught. She’s crazy. I don’t know what happened, we didn’t give her anything.”

“Just get out of here,” I said.

They ran.

I found S.D. laying on her side in a trampled clearing. Her clothes were scattered evenly around her, like some kind of satanic circle. Crimson goose bumps speckled her raw behind. It looked like she might be sleeping.

“Who is it?” she asked without turning.

“It’s me. Tim.”

“Hi, Tim. Tim Dunph. Hello, Tim Dunph. Which do you like better, Tim or Dunph? Or Tim Dunph? Or Timothy?”

“Never thought about it,” I said.

“I like Dunph best. I’m going to call you that from now on.” She rolled onto her back. “Are you going to fuck me, Dunph?”

“Get dressed,” I said. “I’ll help you back to your dorm.”

She held out her arms. “Lie on top of me.”

“Come on, S.D., you’re fucked-up.”

“No, I’m not. Why do you say that?”

I shook her ankle. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Why? I like it here.”

“Please,” I said, “you don’t sound good.”

“I’m all right! You’re the one who’s not all right but you think I’m screwed up because you’re screwed up and I’m acting like you.”

I picked up S.D.’s clothes and dropped them on her stomach.

“You asshole!” she said. “You can’t handle it because I’m the one who wants it.”

Her tits were larger than I’d thought. Fuller. Her bush also seemed huge, and the matted hairs were brown and wet.

“You better get dressed or you’ll catch a cold,” I said.

“Colds don’t bother me any more. I don’t get colds.”

I knelt and arranged the clothes over her chest and crotch. She smelled of sweat and rubber and semen. “Yeah, you will.”

“No, I won’t,” she said softly.

“Okay, you won’t, but you’ll get in trouble if they find out you’re not up at the Girls School.”

“I had an abortion, Dunph.”

I didn’t say anything.

“Did you know that?”

I shook my head.

“I did. He made me have an abortion and then he wouldn’t talk to me. You want to know why? Do you want to know why he wouldn’t talk to me?” She started crying. “Because he said he could never go out with a girl who’d had an abortion.”