It Goes Without Saying

It was Justine that came forward first. She’d shown up to the Sid Press offices and asked to speak with me alone. I sat her in my personal office and shut the door. Sade caught my eye as I drew the blinds but she didn’t disturb us. 

“The President has been sleeping with a student.” She said. 

I swallowed, student-run newspapers usually didn’t get this kind of scoop, in my opinion they shouldn’t. But I was the last person to squander the opportunity to have my name in the national press.

“How do you know this?” I asked, “I believe that you’re telling the truth and I really appreciate you coming to us, but in order for this to be something we can print in the papers it has to have evidence.” 

She nodded her head. “I saw him.” she said, and she was clearly fighting back tears. I reached over to take her hand, in a hopefully reassuring gesture. 

“Hey, we’re going to take care of you.” I said, “Nothing is going to come back to you if you don’t want it to. You have my word as a journalist.” 

She nodded again. “He threatened me. He said that he’d expel me, he’d release information about me that would ruin my life. He’d make sure I never got a job in academia again.” she started to cry. 

I squeezed her hand. “Hey, hey, hey look at me.” She looked up, “We are not going to let that happen to you. What we are going to do is expose this, we’re going to make sure that no one is ever put into this position again.” 

Dr. Francis had only been President for the last two academic years. He’d succeeded the former president after his death in the middle of my sophomore year. 

“I can't record this. I’m just going to write down what you say. Tell me what happened.” I said to her, “I need you to speak slowly so I get all of the details right.” 

She wiped her eyes. “Okay so it was a male student. I didn’t get his face or his name. I just heard a deep voice. This was last night.” 

President Francis had invited a few student leaders to his house after being sworn in. He’d invited Kai Saunder, the student government president, Leslie Booth the head of the Black Student Union, basically, all heads of major clubs at the university. There were 15 people in attendance. 

Francis and his wife offered them wine. Most students scoffed at that. 

“Hey now,” Dr. Francis said, “You don’t have to. But just know that I was young once and I know that all of you have absolutely had alcohol before.” 

Back in my office, Justine took a water bottle out of her bag and took a sip. On it, was a sticker that said Emotional Support Water Bottle. I’m glad they had each other. 

“He slammed the door to his office shut with the boy in there.” Another sip, “And he said that he’d make my life a living hell if I told anyone.” 

“I’m glad you decided to tell someone.” I said, furiously writing down what she’d told me. 

One young man had taken Dr. Francis up on his offer of wine. The newly minted LGBTQ club president. He’d joined this meeting to demand justice for the way the former president treated the LGBTQIA students. He didn’t come to schmooze. 

But he wasn’t prepared for the president to be a millennial. Or for his house to be the exact floor plan he’d been dreaming about since he first saw If walls could talk on PBS. He'd been expecting the same kind of uppity stuffed shirts he'd been protesting against since arriving at Sidhurst. Instead, he sat next to an attractive 40-something. Dr. Francis spoke to the students about a plan for the university that included diversity and social justice. It was enough for the LGBTQ Club president to let his guard down a little bit.

“I’ll have more wine if you’re offering.” said the young man, “I’ve never had wine this old before. Actually, I’ve never had wine that wasn’t from a box.” 

The other students laughed and partook in the wine and the catered food. They knew they’d be called cars home, they knew that they were in the good graces of the most powerful man at the school. For the night they were untouchable. 

“Justine.” I said, “I mean this when I say it, this is the single most heroic thing you could do. I really appreciate you telling me and trusting me to get the story out. I promise we are going to do right by you.”  I handed her a tissue. “What I need you to do now is compose yourself, drink some more water and play along with me as I walk you out. This is a sports story about an athlete. We’re going to discuss it as such and I’m going to bring in a tight group of editors to run the real story. No one else will need to know until it’s published.” 

I handed her an empty file to carry out. “I also need you to download a recording app on your phone and record any phone calls you take with him. It’s a one party state, so it’s not illegal. But he’s smart enough not to leave a paper trail.” 

As the night winded down, there were only two students left with Dr. Fancis. Kai made his way to the driveway where the car was waiting. The LGBTQ club president was going to a friend’s house across town so he needed his own car and couldn’t join Kai. That was just as well, the two had never gotten along very well.

He never made it to his friend’s house. He’d let them know he’d gotten food poisoning and was just going to head home. He also never made it there. 

“A sports story made you that nervous?” Sade asked me when Justine left. 

“I need you and the rest of the executive staff in my office after the general meeting. Do not ask any more questions and act like this is all completely normal.” I whispered to her privately through an overtly fake smile. “Now, I need you to laugh like I just said something funny.” 

She laughed and to her credit, made eye contact with one of the junior reporters. Then through gritted teeth said, “What the fuck is going on?” 

“I’ll tell you after the meeting.” 

In his dorm room, the president of the LGBTQ club laid in bed staring up at his ceiling. He felt like he’d done something wrong. 

“It goes without saying that you can’t tell anyone about this.” Dr. Francis said, “It could ruin your life as much as it’s ruining mine.” 

It was not romantic, there was no cuddling. It was just another way Dr. Francis could exert his power. He knew that, knew that this was purely political. He’d put aside his feelings for sex before but this still felt wrong. He didn’t feel like he was on equal footing with Dr Francis. But if he kept the relationship, he might be able to make things better, he’d have the direct ear of university's president for god's sake. He felt like it was his duty, for the sake of the other students. 

The executive staff met in my office. We had to wait until everyone was out of the newsroom for the night but that didn’t take too long, most of the reporters wanted to leave for the weekend.

“What’s going on?” Sade asked, “I got everyone here, now tell us what the fuck is happening.” 

He only saw President Francis three times before it happened. Once at his house again, once at the Francis family estate on the lake and once in his office. It was the time at the lake when he realized that this was never going to work as a means of political control. Dr. Francis had listened to him and empathized with his plight but when it came down to it, he was not willing to refuse money and naming rights on the new library from senator Kevin Truss.

“You realize that he’s trying to put queer people into conversion therapy. People like us.” 

“People like you.” Dr. Francis corrected. 

I handed Sade my notebook. The handwriting was scribbled but legible. Her eyes went wide and she looked up to say “Are you fucking serious?” 

“I am.” I said “We’re going to run this story as soon as we can verify it.” 

The last time they slept together was the riskiest. In his office, after everyone had gone home. Well, almost everyone. He’d run into Justine in the lobby. 

“Are you headed home?” she asked him.

“Yes! Just got out of a meeting with a professor.” There were faculty offices at the lowest level. So this was believable.

“That sounds so nice, going home, I usually sneak around this building and try and get some work done before security finds me.” she said. 

“You’re working for the president right?” he asked. 

She nodded. 

“You should try his office. When we were meeting regularly during his first year he never locked it and security is too chicken to go up there.” 

“That’s actually a great idea. He left for the day according to his calendar, plus I can always say I left something and was coming back for it.” 

he exited the lobby as if he hadn’t just walked into it and took the freight elevator up. 

Sade looked at me like she had a question. We’d been working together for years and she knew a few things a lot of other students didn’t. But she surely wasn’t going to ask it in front of everyone. 

“Outside now.” She whispered in my ear. 

“We’ll be right back. Please pass around the notebook.” I said as I followed her into the hall. 

“There’s no way you didn’t know about this.” Sade said. 

“What do you mean?” I tried to keep my cool.

“You were sleeping with the president of the gay club or something.” she said. 

“Well no.” I said, “I was the president at one point.” it was a small blip on my resume, I was only in office for two months. Before I got serious about journalism, before I stepped down to be an editor at the Sid Press.

“You told me that the president of the LGBTQ club was sleeping with Dr. Francis and you needed proof before you could run a story.” 

“That’s all true.” 

“You mean to tell me.” Sade's face was unreadable, “You slept with the President of this university?” 

“If justine hadn’t walked in, I was also recording it.” I said, “But this works better. I think having a second witness will be a good thing. I don’t need the world to hear me in bed.” 

“You’re going to blow up your journalism career.” She said, “I don’t think you’re making the wrong decision here, but you are about to lose any kind of journalistic integrity. Especially since this feels a lot like entrapment.” 

I knew that going in. I knew that I would never work a day as a reporter after this story broke. 

“Did Justine know it was you?” She asked, “Did you tell her?” 

“Justine knew it was a man, but she didn’t see a face. I did, however, tell her to come up, to the president's office because it was good place to study. I told Francis that no one was in the lobby when I arrived. I didn't mean to traumatize her, I just needed a witness.” 

Dr. Francis returned to his office once Justine left. He was a horrible combination of terrified and powerful. Like the last remaining soldier to be captured. He was fingering the pin of his grenade.

His hands shook as he poured himself a glass of whiskey from the bottle in the third drawer in his filing cabinet. The whiskey spilled over the side of the crystal rocks glass and on to the mahogany desk, he didn't bother to clean it.

I watched as he silently took a sip then he looked up at me, still naked and standing over him, he said simply– 

“I’m ruined.” 

Sade ran her fingers through hair. She was doing a mental calculation of what this meant for the newspaper, what this meant for me and most importantly what this meant for her. If she could have a career in journalism after I torched the reputation of the Sid Press, if she was breaking any ethics code by stepping out of the way and letting me. 

“And are you attaching your name to this?” Sade asked. She knew the answer, she knew me too well. She knew that I was willing to sink the ship to kill the captain. 

“Yes.” I said, “I’ll ruin my own life before I let this happen to someone else.”