Corrupt

The narrative returns to the present.

Rika walks into her first class at her new college, “Anthropology of Youth Culture.” The classroom is already full, so she grabs one of the only empty seats, which is next to Alex. Suddenly, Damon and Will appear and tell Alex to move so they can sit on either side of Rika. The professor begins class, and Will and Damon quietly taunt Rika. When Rika tries to get up and leave, Damon threatens to kill her mother, which shocks her. As they continue to taunt Rika, the professor asks what they are doing, and Damon makes a crude joke about having sex with Rika. Determined not to let Will and Damon ruin her new life in Meridian City, Rika tries to focus. Rika attempts to participate in class by asking the professor a question, and Damon confronts the professor when he doesn’t answer her question. He tells Rika, “No one fucks with you but us” (142).

As Rika heads back to her apartment, she wonders why Kai, Will, and Damon are coming after her. She bumps into Alex in the elevator and realizes that Alex also lives in the building. When Rika gets back to her apartment, she realizes she hasn’t heard from her mother in days. She assumes she’s on vacation with Mrs. Crist, but she’s especially worried given Damon’s threat. Rika calls Mr. Crist’s office to see if he can connect her to her mother, but he is unavailable. She settles in to complete her homework. When she’s finished, she tries to call Mrs. Crist—who is supposedly vacationing with her mother on the Crist family yacht—but her call goes to voicemail. Noticing that Michael’s apartment is lit up, she goes upstairs to get the yacht’s satellite phone number from him.

In his apartment, she follows the sound of a basketball to find Michael practicing on his home court. Kai, Damon, and Will show up. Michael asks Rika what she wants, and she requests the phone number. Michael and Kai tell her they will give it to her if she comes to a party with them. She tells Michael he can’t push her around and goes to leave, but Michael pulls her out of the elevator. He flirts with her and kisses her, telling her that he thought she could keep up with their antics. Rika is overwhelmed with her desire for Michael. When he’s finished kissing her, he tells her to go get dressed for the pool party they are going to. Rika realizes she needs to think faster to stay ahead of Michael and regain some control.

The narrative flashes back to three years ago.

As the guys and Rika drive toward their next destination, Michael tells her that she gets to pull a prank as well. She teases the boys, saying that she will have no problem coming up with a prank better than theirs. The car suddenly pulls over, and a few minutes later, a bunch of cop cars and fire trucks drive past them. Kai reveals that he called and told the police about the fire Michael set, but exaggerated it to make it sound much bigger. He then has two of his cousins block off the road with garbage trucks to prevent the police from getting back into town. As they drive, Rika and Michael flirt, and Rika grinds into his lap.

They soon head to the mayor’s house, where Damon goes in. When he returns, he brags that he had sex with the mayor’s 16-year-old daughter and filmed it on Will’s phone, disgusting the other members of the group. The group goes to a local diner to eat. When they get out of the car, Rika sees Miles Anderson, the captain of the basketball team. Rika resists going inside, and, when the boys ask her why, she reveals that Miles drugged her drink and attempted to sexually assault her. His girlfriend, Astrid, helped him. Noah found Rika in a bedroom with the two of them, half-dressed. However, because of Miles’s family’s business with the Crists, Rika was unable to pursue prosecution. The guys, angry, ask what they should do.

Rika tells them to come inside and follow her when they see her take Miles into the bathroom. Rika goes inside and tries to act clueless and drunk. She purposely bumps into Miles and spills the flask she stole from Will all over him. She tells him that she and Trevor got into a fight and that she needs to relax. She flirts with him and then says she needs to put some water on her face. Miles leads her to the bathroom.

As Rika puts water on her face, Miles comes up behind her and rubs his crotch against her. He continues to try to initiate sex and begins to force himself on her. Astrid comes into the bathroom and begins to egg Miles on, encouraging him to roughly sexually assault Rika while she watches. She explains to Rika that she enjoys watching Miles have sex with other girls. As Miles goes to unzip Rika’s jeans, Rika rears up and slams Astrid’s face into the mirror. She then attacks Miles’s face with the sink’s soap pump. The guys come in and are surprised—but impressed—by the damage Rika was able to cause on her own. Soon they begin violently attacking Miles. Astrid attempts to flee, but Rika throws her against the wall and warns both Miles and Astrid to never touch her again. Michael instructs her to go wait for them in the car as they finish.

The narrative returns to the present.

The guys and Rika arrive at a mansion for the pool party. While Rika initially didn’t want to go to the party, she decided to go to prove to the guys that she is stronger than they think. At the party, Rika wanders around with her drink. She sees Alex, and the two take shots together. Alex reveals to Rika that she is a sex worker. The conversation leads Rika to examine her own privilege. When Alex goes to the bathroom, Rika realizes that the guys are watching her. Self-conscious, she goes to an enclosure behind the pool’s waterfall.

In the enclosure, she finds a second, secret pool. She’s enjoying being alone when Damon comes in and begins sexually harassing her, telling her that imagining them having sex sustained him in prison. She asks if Michael knows about them, and Damon says he does not. Suddenly, Michael appears and instructs Damon to stop. Damon leaves, and Michael and Rika begin bantering. Michael pours some alcohol into Rika’s mouth as she describes what it was like to have sex with Trevor. He then asks her to masturbate the way she does when she thinks of him. Rika begins to masturbate as Michael encourages her. Soon Michael begins to perform oral sex on her. As she begins to have an orgasm, Rika realizes that Kai is watching. She quickly gathers her bikini bottom and leaves.

The narrative switches to Michael’s point of view.

After Rika leaves, Kai chastises Michael for performing oral sex on her when the other guys are eager to have sex with her. Kai asks Michael what’s going on with Rika’s house, and Michael assures him he’s taking care of it. They realize that Rika left the party with Alex, and the guys decide to head home. Michael contemplates how all the guys have changed following their time in prison. While they all have new jobs and futures, they are unwilling to move forward and just want revenge against Rika.

Several days later, Michael goes to his father’s office to see him. Michael tells his father he’s come to discuss his future and, after some negotiation about how he can contribute to the firm, he asks to manage the Fane fortune. At first, his father balks at this, arguing that the fortune belongs to Trevor once he marries Rika—which he believes will happen even though they are broken up. Michael convinces his father to let him manage the estate for the family until it’s time to turn it over to Trevor. His father reluctantly agrees. When Michael leaves his father’s office, he sees he has a text message from Will that reads, “No more house” (206). He quickly calls the security office at the house, and they tell him that fire trucks are already headed to the Fane residence.