The girl said nothing, she simply nodded as I swung the bag off the counter and walked out the front door. The whole way back to my dorm, I fumed about my father’s decision to upend my life on campus and give people yet another reason to stare at me and talk about me. It wasn’t until I got home that I realized she’d forgotten to give me a receipt, but I wasn’t terribly annoyed because on the walk home my resentment had morphed into a plan to get rid of Brian and get my father to leave me alone.
*****
Around 8 o’clock, I stuck my head out the door of my dorm room, and sure enough, Brian was standing in the hallway scanning the premises as usual.
“Hey, I’m planning to head out for a run,” I told him. “Care to join me?”
“Only if you’re going to head over to the track,” he replied. “It’s the only place I can guarantee your safety.”
“Oh my God!” I shouted. “Would you please knock it off with the stupid guaranteed safety stuff? You sound like an ad for medical alert devices or something — and I’m not old!”
“Just doing my job, Ms. Klein,” he replied, but I swore I could see a hint of a smile forming around the edge of his lips.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I replied, waving him off like a pesky fly. “Fine, we’ll go over to the track and run. Happy now?”
“It’s not about my happiness, ma’am,” he responded seriously. “It’s about your safety.”
“Argh!” I let out an exasperated sigh as I slammed the door to my room and went to change into my running clothes. I emerged 10 minutes later ready to do some good, hard running to work off the frustration I’d been feeling all day, and eager to see if my plan would work.
Brian followed close behind me, not speaking, just maintaining a close watch on our surroundings. When we entered the gate surrounding the track, he held up a hand and made me walk behind him as he checked out the area before signaling it was safe for me to run. My irritation with this whole setup was palpable, and I had half a mind to tell him how incredibly ridiculous it was getting, but then I remembered my plan so I shut up and rolled my eyes as I stretched. Once I was warmed up, I looked over at Brian to get the go-ahead; he nodded, and I took off at a slow pace.
Thankfully he didn’t run with me.
Instead, he continued scanning the area as he perched on the bleachers and maintained surveillance of the entire area. I rolled my eyes again at his vigilance and picked up my pace. It felt good to let off some of the steam that had been building all day, and after a couple of laps, I felt warmed up enough to begin devising a way to put my plan into action. The bright lights that illuminated the track reached into the dark edges of the field and then tapered off past the fence line. I made note of the trees and shrubs surrounding the fence, thinking that they’d provide excellent cover. I picked up my pace and ran a little faster as my mind raced. I knew I could do it; the question was whether Brian would figure out what I was doing in enough time to stop me. I decided that the risk was worth the payoff, and on my sixth lap around the track, I broke into a dead run heading for the darkness lining the fence on the opposite side of the field. I knew it had to be more than six feet high, but I felt certain that I’d be able to clear it quickly, and I was right.
It took less than 15 seconds for me to scale the fence and drop down on the other side. From the other side of the field, I heard Brian cursing up a storm as he tore after me, yelling, “Ava! Stop! This isn’t a smart thing to do!” And then “Dammit!” when I didn’t heed his warning.
When I looked over my shoulder to see where he was, I knew there was a good chance he’d catch up to me if I didn’t run full speed, so I put my head down and ran into the darkness as hard and fast as I could. I wasn’t exactly sure where I was going, all I knew was that I needed to get away from Brian, and away from the reminder that my father didn’t care about how I felt about anything.
*****
I could feel the ground beneath my feet as I ran, and the night air provided some refreshing relief as I pumped my legs as hard as I could hoping that, since Brian didn’t know the campus as well as I did, he wouldn’t be able to catch up with me. I ran past Brody Hall and then up the hill toward the administration building. My legs were burning as I took the steps two at a time, but it was a good burn that made me feel strong and fast. I circled around to the back side of the building and ran down the steps toward the path alongside the river that ran through the center of campus. The farther I ran, the harder it became to keep the negative thoughts at bay, and tears of self-pity began to well up in my eyes. I fought them for about a half a mile, and then I let them flow warm and
wet down my cheeks as I tried to outrun the pain of everything that had happened over the past year.
I learned my lesson! I started over! Why do I have to be singled out as different? Why don’t you care about me? The thoughts raced through my brain as I ran. I felt sorry for myself, but I also felt angry. Angry that my father never talked to me. Angry that he and my mother didn’t seem to want me around. And angry that I couldn’t talk to anyone about what had happened in my life.
The darkness wrapped itself around me as I ran the river path, not noticing where I was or caring where I was headed. All I cared about was leaving Brian and my father behind me. I ran until my lungs felt like they would burst and my legs felt like two lead poles, but even then, I didn’t stop.
When I finally tired enough to slow down and take stock of my surroundings, I realized I was on the outer edge of the library building. I’d run out my frustration and felt bad that I’d left Brian had no clue where I was. If my father found out, Brian would be put through the ringer, maybe even fired. And as much as I wanted to ditch the security detail, I didn’t wish my father’s angry tantrum on Brian. I didn’t need to carry the burden of feeling responsible for yet another man in my life, so I decided to turn around and head back to the track. Hopefully Brian would have gone back there to wait for me once he realized he wasn’t going to be able to follow my lead.
At the corner of the library, I turned left and hit something with such force that I found myself sprawled out on the ground on my back, trying to suck air back into my lungs. The force with which I’d hit whatever had been blocking my path had knocked the wind out of me and left me seeing stars. What the hell just happened? Did I hit my head on the sidewalk? I wondered as I looked up into the face of the one person I thought I’d never see again.
“Aren’t you out a little late, Ava?” the sinister voice slithered its way into my ears and made me shudder. “Nice girls like you shouldn’t be out running around in the dark, you never know who you’ll run into.”
When I was finally able to take a deep breath and refill my lungs, I looked up and saw Dominic standing over me. Illuminated in the artificial glow of the halogen lights outside the library, he looked almost ghostly. His blond hair glowed and his ice blue eyes had a sickly shine. He was holding out his hand and smiling that same crazy smile he’d had on his face when I walked out the door of his apartment after telling him I’d never come back. I ignored his hand, took another deep breath, and quickly pushed myself back up to my feet as I moved away from his creepy smile. I didn’t move fast enough, though, and before I knew it, he had his hands wrapped tightly around my upper arms as he stared at my face.
“Ava, you know how much I still love you, don’t you?” his voice had that psychotic pleading tone to it. The one that I knew would lead to nothing good if I didn’t escape his grasp.
“I know you do, Dominic,” I said in a soothing voice. “I know you think you love me, but you don’t. You know that, don’t you? This isn’t love.”
“I’ve always loved you, Kitten. Always,” he repeated. I hated that nickname, it always made me feel like a small, helpless creature, and now his icy blue eyes were fixed on me. I felt like prey for the predator. “You have always been the center of my world and I’ve always loved you.”
“Dominic —” I began.
“We used to be so good together, Ava!” he cried. “We used to do things and laugh and have fun, don’t you remember? We could be like that again, but you have to come back!”
“Dominic, you and I broke up because you cheated on me!” I yelled.