My chest heaves, up and down, up and down, but it doesn’t feel like I’m breathing. He doesn’t believe me. He doesn’t… I don’t know why it hurts so bad. Why it feels like my heart is breaking. He means nothing, he doesn’t even care about me. It was just sex. Sex, that’s all it was.
I’m going to be late for my next class, but I don’t care. Maybe I won’t go at all. Rounding the corner near the English building, I finally stop running and slow to a walk, my knees wobbly. As soon as I stop walking altogether, I lean against the wall. Pressing my back against the cold brick, I close my eyes and try to get my erratic breathing under control.
Happy thoughts…I need to think about a happier time, a time when things made sense, when the people around me loved and trusted me. It’s been so long since I was just happy, and everything changed on that night five years ago.
“I love you.” My mother’s breathless voice filters through the door. Pushing the door open, I expect to find my dad home from work. Instead, I find my mom…naked…with… a man, a man that isn’t my father…
Henry.
I’m frozen in place, every muscle paralyzed by shock and confusion.
“I love you, Henry…” My mother moans right before she turns her head and finds me standing there staring with my mouth gaping open.
Thinking about that night has my stomach doing somersaults. Why did I open that door? I should have just turned around and walked away. I try to push the memory away, but it has a hold on me that I can’t shake no matter how hard I try.
“You don’t know what you saw.” Henry, Vance’s father, raises his voice. My mother’s crying, big tears fall from her eyes. Why is she crying? Why is Henry telling me I don’t know what I saw. I know my mom shouldn’t have been doing what she was with Henry. My dad loves her, and she loves him, or at least I thought she did.
“Henry, stop. She’s just a kid, she doesn’t understand.” My mother pulls her robe tighter around her small frame, her body shaking.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. She doesn’t know what she saw. Do you Ava?” His dark gaze swings from my mother and back to me. It feels like he’s trying to bully me, threaten me into agreeing with him.
Which angers me.
Lifting my chin, I look him right in the eyes. “I’m telling my father, no matter what you say.”
The sound of approaching footsteps pulls me from the memory, but I’m not ready to open my eyes and face reality yet. Let whoever is walking by think what they want to think. With my eyes shut, I drown out the world around me, that is until two hands wrap around my upper arms, fingers digging into my skin. I’m pulled away from the wall.
My eyes fly open and my arms flail around wildly trying to fight off my assailant. Sucking in a sharp breath is all I can do. The scream becoming lodged in my throat beneath the shock. Not that I’d want to scream once I realize who is holding onto me.
“Vance,” I gasp, catching a small glimpse of his face, having wished I didn’t.
He drags me along with him down the sidewalk and around the corner. He pulls open the door and tugs me inside the building. I try and dig my feet into the floor, but there’s no point. I’m half his size and don’t even stand a chance.
“Where are we going?” I whimper, his hold on my wrist tightening.
Ignoring my question, he says, “You think you can lie to me, use your fake fucking tears, and pussy to change my mind about you? Did you think I wouldn’t ask my father about it? I hope you liked fucking me because I’m about to use you like you used me.” The tone of his voice rains down on me like an angry thunderstorm.
We pass one room where a class is in session, voices carrying through the closed door as we pass it. He tugs me farther down the hall and when we get to the last room, all chatter has ceased and I realize we’re pretty far away from anyone.
I try to swallow my fear down. I don’t think he would hurt me, but I didn’t think Clark would say the things he did to me either. Vance drags me along a few more steps and then opens a door on the right side of the hall. He pulls me into the empty classroom, dread trickling into my belly. Then he releases me.
Turning his back to me, I can hear the sound of a lock being turned into place. My gaze swings around the room, looking for another exit. When he spins around to face me, his expression makes a shiver run down my spine. I’ve never seen him so angry, I’ve never seen anyone so angry.