Poison

“What the hell happened?” Vicky asked. “What are you talking about?”

Nicola was right there with her. “Seriously, Anna. Please just tell us what the fuck’s going on.”

So she did.

She told them what had happened with Sebastian the night before. Everything from him taking her out of the club because she’d been having a prosecco, through to him storming upstairs when they got back home. And then she told them the finer details through her sobs, right up until she’d run away from him and rushed out into the night, and they were right there sobbing along with her, shaking their heads as they realised just how much of a cunt they’d been singing the praises of for a decade straight.

“We didn’t know!” Nicola cried. “I swear to you, Anna. We didn’t know!”

Anna was nodding through the tears. “Neither did I,” she said. “Not like I know it now.”

“He said you’d had an argument over prosecco,” Vicky told us. “He said you’d stormed out on him when he was trying to care for you. He’s told your parents that too. Everyone’s been so worried.”

Anna’s voice was so solid.

“He raped me. No argument matters. Nothing else matters.”

“Of course nothing else matters,” Vicky said. “He’s a disgusting cunt and he needs to pay for what he’s done!”

But it wasn’t the full story. Not the full story of just how much of a disgusting cunt Sebastian Maitland truly was through the days and months and years.

My hand was tight in hers, but I didn’t interfere, just let her express herself however she needed to the people she counted on as friends. And they were her friends. The genuine support and horror on their faces as they digested just how much of an evil controlling prick they’d been bigging up for years was so raw, it took my breath.

Anna took a break in her Sebastian Maitland revelations to light up a cigarette outside and they didn’t say a word as we smoked together. She sat herself back down with me held tight at her side, and I kissed her hard on her cheek, and they didn’t say a word about that either. Not anymore.

And then she told them how I’d found her by the fountain.

She told them how I’d been with her all night, supporting her through every breath.

They listened.

They listened to her tell them how the one thing she really was still confident of was that I loved her and she loved me, and that there really had been one stupid mistake that had led to me leaving her, and that didn’t make me any less of an asshole for my fuck ups and my choices, but it made me an asshole she wanted to give another chance to.

An asshole she wanted them to give another chance to along with her.

I expected their eyes to be full of disbelief and disgust as they met with mine, but they weren’t.

They believed her.

They believed it was one stupid mistake and not me being a total prick of a man for months on end behind her back. I could read it in their faces.

But this wasn’t about me, it was about Anna, and I cleared my throat before I pulled the conversation back to the inevitable.

“We need to call the police,” I told her. “It’s hard, I know. But we need to call the police.”

She nodded, but then took a breath. “I need to see my parents first. I want to tell them what he’s done to me before I tell anyone else.”

“We’ll come with you,” Nicola said. “Just tell us what you want us to do.”

I was ready to face telling Jim and Terri along with Anna, but she turned to me and held me tight.

“I need to do this without you there,” she said. “I don’t want them wrongly connecting you with what’s happened. I just know they’d add two plus two and get six.”

“Are you sure?” I said. “I know it would be confrontational, but I’m happy to stand with you through whatever you need.”

“I’m sure,” she said. “Please just be here for me later.”

“I’ll wait here for you,” I told her. “I’ll be right here whenever you need.”

Her friends stood up to take her over there, and I fought the urge to charge along with them and face off the whole world at her side. But no.

This part wasn’t for me.

She’d made her decision, and I would respect everything she wanted, however she wanted it.

I walked to the door with her and she hugged me tight before she stepped outside.

“I love you,” she said. “I’ll never have enough thanks for how you were there for me last night.”

“I’ll never be anywhere else,” I said, and it took every scrap of me to let her go.

I wasn’t expecting Nicola to grab my arm on her way past me in the hallway. I expected her to be straight on out after Vicky and Anna.