The Life We Bury

Joe finds Lila at her apartment. She’s visibly upset. She tells him about a part of her past that the “slob” brought up: “By the time I was a junior, I had lost my virginity to a guy who told me I was beautiful. Then he told everybody that I was easy” (172). In her senior year, they started calling her “Nasty Nash” behind her back. She would go to parties, get drunk, and sleep with people. On the night of her graduation, she was drugged at a party and raped. She woke up with no memory of what had happened. The police found traces of Rohypnol in her system. Nobody who had been at the party would give the police any details; they said they couldn’t remember who she left with. A week later, an email went out from a phony account: “It was a picture of me…and there were two guys…their images scrambled…and they were…they…” (172). Lila breaks down crying and shows Joe the scars of self-inflicted razor cuts. She spent the following year in therapy before going to college. Joe holds her until she falls asleep.