===Part Five. If you haven't read parts One, Two, Three, and Four, please do so now ===

It was a week before the wedding. Robyn was to be my maid of honor. All the girls in the party had picked up and paid for their dresses. Robyn hadn't even gone for a single fitting. *shrugs* The dress would have looked good on her.

Duncan and I were going to be at Robyn's for a bachelor/bachelorette party. Just four of us... a friend of mine to be the fourth. I was happy enough. We showed up at about 5:30p on Saturday night. Robyn and Duncan went out to get alcohol and snack-stuffs. They came back around 6:10 or so. Duncan mixed up a couple Melon Ball Shooters, but Robyn didn't have shot glasses, so we used tumblers.

For those of you who don't know... a shot is usually one ounce of alcohol. The tumblers were large, even for tumblers, holding about ten ounces plus a little. The Melon Ball Shooters were made up in these tumblers, half and half Midori and Absolut vodka. The alcohol was so strong I could smell it from the kitchen. I took my tumbler from Duncan, smiling up to him... I looked at the contents of the glass and figured... "Why not"

I slammed it. Which means, I drank the ten-ounce glass down at one go. Robyn said that she didn't trust the content of hers... tho Duncan made them the same way... So... I took hers and slammed it too.

Get with me here, folks... That's the equivilant of 20 shots of alcohol in less than 5 minutes. Can we say "Stupid, Idiotic Duffuss"? I knew you could. That was an incredibly short night for me. Previous to this point, I'd had a few drinks. Never in my life been drunk. I was 23. Hell... I'd never before even been buzzed or "tipsy". I would drink two or three shots of alcohol/two or three beers over the course of four hours or so... no worries. I never felt like more than smiling a little brighter.

Well... Trust me... 20 ounces of alcohol is a hell of a lot more than 3. And this was the "good stuff". Absolut is far, far, far more potent than your typical, off-the-shelf vodka. Atop that... it was 20 ounces in five minutes. I sat there on the floor. The first one hit me fast. And I mean really fast. Kind of like a flash flood. The second one hit me faster... and harder... like a flash flood the size of Niagra Falls.

I can remember looking at the TV and seeing it waving. Not like a person was there waving at me, but as if it were one of those dream-sequence indications in older sit-coms. The whole thing was kinda undulating a bit. And my tongue felt fuzzy. Really... it felt like there was fuzz growing on the inside of my tongue.

I looked at Duncan, tho I couldn't really see him very clearly, and I asked him, quietly, if I was speaking alright. I think he laughed. Hell, he'd been drunk a million times before. Fuck, for his 17th B-day, his sis gave him three joints (creeper-weed) a bottle of JD, two ludes and something else then threw him a party where he was "gifted" with the chick of his choice... or, twins... He chose the twins... He was quite experienced with the whole drinkin and druggin scene. Not as experienced as some of you out there.... but hella more experienced than me.

Then, about 20 minutes after "lift off", I started feeling rather... ill. So, I asked Duncan for help... I wanted to stand and I didn't think I'd be able to get up off my ass which felt like it weighed about two million pounds. He helped me to my feet and I walked to the balcony and promptly spilled my guts upon the ground about 18 feet below. *smiles softly*

That was at 6:30p Saturday evening.

By about 6:35p I was through expelling my intestinal fortitude... or something, and I went back in the apartment. I looked at Duncan and Robyn for a moment, then to the fourth (I don't remember his name anymore... sorry...) and said that I thought I should probably lie down for a while. Duncan told me, after the fact, that I was, indeed walking quite well... tho slowly.

So, I went into the spare bedroom, Duncan was with me at all times. He was so supportive... and he was sorry. He felt responsible because he'd mixed the drinks. But he wasn't the asshole who slammed 20 ounces of alcohol. *chuckles softly*

=====For those of you who don't drink and abuse their bodies on a daily basis... I highly suggest that you NOT drink that way. It fragged up more than just my guts=====

Regardless... I was in bed for about five minutes when I felt the second shift charging toward my throat. I got up, rather quickly, and moved to the bathroom, again, rather quickly. Upon purging the contents of the previous month's dinners, I rose, rinsed my mouth and returned to the bedroom with the aid of Duncan. I lay there on that hide-a-bed, beside him. My eyes were closed. I was still "with it" but I kept my eyes closed. Duncan and I talked for aproximately ten minutes or so throughout the course of the next forty minutes.... every few seconds he went to check on Robyn who had been drinking heavily before we'd gotten there that night... and she hit the vodka pretty hard once I"d "broken the ice" *chuckles*

She was crying in her bathroom for some reason. Duncan wanted to help her... The fourth was just sittin back, zoned... he was blitzed. But he'd been hung over from his previous night's binge. He was blitzed off his ass before we'd gotten to Robyn's place. He was just out of it, staring at the TV as if it were talking directly to him. Duncan was able to get Robyn out of the bathroom and into bed... her bed... then he came back into the room I was in, laid down on the bed beside me and I wrapped my arm around his chest and promptly fell asleep.

It was about 7:15 or so... possibly a little later, but not past 7:30. I woke about an hour and a half later, in the same position, my arm wrapped around Duncan's chest, my head on his shoulder... to the sound of Robyn crying hysterically and slapping Duncan's face... hard. She was cursing at him and wailing hysterically.

I shook my head, trying to grasp what she was saying. I rolled off the bed as Duncan ducked another slap of hers... she was wild... her eyes were bloodshot and she was screaming about how could he have done such a thing and with me in the next room. I asked her what she was talking about. She screamed louder that she couldn't believe he'd done it... She stormed out of the bedroom and I looked at Duncan.

"What did you do?" My tone wasn't accusing... I was just extremely confused. He looked at me with shock and confusion in his eyes. "I don't know."

So I followed Robyn out of the bedroom and she went into the kitchen as I followed... she was thumping and storming around. it was about 9p, maybe a little less than... she was wailing and screaming and crying hysterically. I tried to ask her what was wrong. She kept repeating over and over how she didn't think it would ever happen again... how she never expected it to happen again... how she couldn't believe it had happened again...

====*rolls her eyes* Have I mentioned that Robyn was a theater major at college?====

So, I looked to the fourth and asked him what happened. He said to ask her, that it was none of his business. *shakes her head* So, for another five minutes I tried to get Robyn to talk to me... she refused... just went on and on about how Duncan had done it to her again and how she couldn't believe it had happened. She then... drunk and hysterical, stormed out of the apartment with the fourth (I think his name was Allen... but I don't remember for sure). I looked at Duncan, confused...

"What the hell was that all about? What happened?"

He shook his head having no idea whatsoever. He asked if we should stick around and I said no, that we should go... so we did. We drove back to our apartment and I asked him what had happened a few more times. So he told me the story... that she'd been bawling in the bathroom and had the door locked. He kept trying to get her to open the door. When she finally did, she was sitting on the floor bawling... so he helped her up and then helped her to bed, asking if she was okay. She shouted at him that she was fine and didn't want to go to bed...

He left her room and came back into the room I was in... that's when he laid down beside me. He hadn't left again until she came in and slapped him awake. I believe that. I hadn't shifted position at all, and I heard all the shit he was talking about through the open door...

*sighs quietly* I didn't find out what happened until the next night.... when the minister who was going to be officiating our ceremony (remember, this is just a week before the wedding) called me and said that he didn't think it was a good idea for us to be getting married so soon... that there was more we had to talk about...

I stared at the phone. I was completely dumbfounded. I asked him what he meant... what was going on. He said that Robyn had called him and told him that Duncan had raped her.

*shakes her head*

I couldn't believe it. I know I hung up the phone... somehow... I don't remember what I did, really... but I was instantly numb. I was frozen. There wasn't a coherent thought in my mind.

I looked at Duncan and told him what the paster had told me. He was in shock, but he quickly denied it..... And I believed him. But, there was doubt. I wasn't sure, ya know? Hell, I"d known Robyn for five years. Why would she make up such a thing? And I knew that if Duncan had really needed sex... hell, I was a body. Granted, I had refused to fuck him cause we weren't married yet... but I was way, way drunk. He could have fucked me if he really wanted it.

And, he wasn't attracted to Robyn. Her attitude pissed him off a lot of the time. (she was a little on the spoiled side) But... Mom immediately sent letters to the 150 people who had RSVPed, telling them the wedding was postponed. The reason given was that Duncan would have to leave the day after our wedding for a two week deployment, then he'd be back for a month and a half, then gone for another six and there wasn't a way to get leave for him......

The real reason is cause Robyn refused to be in the wedding party, and the paster highly suggested we postpone til the situation could be cleared up. So... that's what we did. Robyn tried to convince me that Duncan had raped her. I didn't believe her... but I had my doubts. Not because of Duncan or Robyn, but because I had been drunk. And I knew I couldn't trust my memory of the events. I knew I couldn't count on my memory of how time had elapsed. I knew that when I laid down in the bedroom, the clock read about 6:40p When Duncan finally laid down beside me it was 7:15 When Robyn slapped him awake it was either 8:50 or 9:05. I don't remember which... I know that I heard Robyn on the floor of her bathroom, bawling at 6:50 and that's when Duncan left the room I was in the first time.

I don't know WHEN he could have raped her.

But, the real reason I believe he didn't rape her is because he isn't capable of it. Rape is an act which involves intense emotion. Duncan didn't have any of those. Duncan didn't experience hate, terror, devistation. He might get irritated... once in a while, he might even get angry... but he couldn't hate. He might get scared... but he just couldn't feel terror. He wasn't capable of real and intense, to-the-gut passionate emotion.

That might be a lame reason... *shrugs* It doesn't matter. I don't believe that Duncan raped her. I don't believe he would want to, let alone be able to. And I know exactly how malicious and nasty Robyn could be. I don't believe her... and I didn't then. But she wanted me to. Oh how she wanted me to.

When I admited to her that I couldn't prove Duncan hadn't raped her... she got this gleeful look in her eye and started talking about how sorry she was that he was out of my life now... She started talking about how she and I would live together...

*shakes her head*

So... I chose him over her. And she swore she would make him pay for what he'd done. *shakes her head again* I told her to drop it. I told her that she'd lost. That I could have maintained a friendship with her had she been honest with me... but that there were too many loose strings for me to believe her story. Besides... it was a week away from the wedding and she hadn't gone for a single fitting for her dress. And she was to be my Maid of Honor. *shrugs*

Part Six... coming soon, to a theater near you