Beast

by Elizabeth Reyes

  “Isn’t dating your professor breaking some kind of rule?”

  Her eyes went wide, but the waiter with the most fucked timing ever was at the table with their food. He set down their plates and silverware, refilled their waters, and asked if there was anything else he could get them before leaving them the hell alone.

  “Carson’s not the professor,” she explained as she dug into one of her crab cakes with a fork.

  Leo waited, still unable to even think about eating because she’d sort of answered the question but not with what he really wanted to know. Was she dating the guy?

  After a couple of seconds of him still waiting for her to say more, she glanced up at him then at his untouched food. “What’s wrong? You don’t like the food?”

  “Haven’t even tasted it yet.”

  He saw the change in her eyes the moment he said it. He’d been too busy staring at her to bother with his food and she knew it. Gazing into her eyes shouldn’t still be so fucking all-consuming.

  He shook his head, breaking free of what had begun to feel like another one of their moments. Reaching for his fork, he wrestled with his thoughts. Maybe he really should break free of her before it was too late.

  “How’s your food?” he asked, spearing one of the shrimp in his cocktail.

  “It’s delicious,” she said, though she didn’t sound as convincing as when she usually declared something being delicious. “He’s a student editor,” she added the clarification without his asking, and Leo couldn’t even bring himself to look up from his food at her. “Technically, it wasn’t a date, but he mentioned it in class a few times.” Now Leo glanced up and their eyes locked. “I just wish the timeline had been a little different. I’m sure it’s what at least some in the class must be thinking. That he might be playing favorites with a girl he’s gone out with.”

  “He probably is,” Leo said because how the fuck could Allison not be anyone’s favorite anything? But then he quickly added because her brow had risen again only not in a playful way, “Not that your article wasn’t deserving of the front page. I’m just saying how could he possibly resist not making you his favorite?”

  Her expression softened into something so painfully sweet it almost hurt to even think it. But the color in her face once again deepening in response to his continued word vomit had Leo once again contemplating going back to avoiding Allison at all costs. She’d just admitted she gone out with the editor, a college boy likely her age who no doubt was full of goals and aspirations. Someone with a bright future ahead of him and the kind of guy she deserved.

  Leo picked up one of his tostadas and took a bite. It was damn good but as usual messy. The damn tostada broke, leaving Leo with a half in each hand and most of the middle part spilled onto his plate.

  Allison giggled. “I usually just eat mine with chips. You’re gonna end up scooping them up with the pieces of tortilla anyway.”

  Nodding in agreement, Leo bit one of the broken sides and held the other, but his fingers were full of the stuff. “How’s the crab cake?” Leo asked without even looking up.

  “Good, you wanna try it?”

  When he glanced up at her, she was picking up a piece with her fingers. With both hands still full or messy, she didn’t wait for him to clean off his messy hand. “Here,” she said, reaching out to feed it to him.

  Leo opened up, closing his lips before her finger was all the way out, and she didn’t move it. Instead, she let it linger as he licked he crab cake and her finger in the process. As she pulled her finger away, their heavy eye contact remained intact.

  “It’s good,” he finally said, breaking the silence. But he had to straighten up to allow his tightening crotch to adjust. “Very good.”

  Unable to take his eyes off her for far too long, Leo knew he was in trouble. If he continued to spend time around her, there was no way he’d be able to hold out for much longer. What he’d suspected was clear now. She was feeling more than she should too. But bringing her into his world was still an impossibility. The confirmation that she still had a chance to be with someone safe had already felt like reason enough to step back. But this sealed it. He needed to step back before he was helpless to do so. Already this girl had managed to suck him in deeper than he should’ve allowed. Just like all the other visuals and thoughts that had tormented him since the day he’d first laid eyes on her, she just added another. There was only so much any man could take, and Leo knew what he had to do before she broke him.

  Thirteen

  Allison

  There was no way to explain it, but something in her gut told her today was different. It’d been months since she and Jen had heard about Scar’s arrest. Marcelo had even asked them if they had anything to do with the small-time pusher getting busted for selling drugs around campus.

  They hadn’t even been aware of his arrest, but admittedly it’d been a relief to know the guy was off the streets, since seeing him around always gave her the creeps. He hadn’t addressed them again since the day they were making their way to class on campus and he bid them both a good morning using their full names. Then a couple of weeks later he was gone.

  Now he was back, apparently done with whatever short stint in jail he’d been given. It’d been a week since they first noticed him lurking around campus again. Each time she’d gotten a major case of the creeps, especially because just as Marcelo had, she and Jen got the feeling Scar might think they had something to do with his arrest. Would he possibly try to retaliate?

  This time was worse. Like all the other times she’d gotten the distinct feeling she was being watched, this time there was more to it. Sure enough, she saw him several cars away in the parking lot of her school, eyeing her suspiciously. Then she caught the exchanged glance between him and another thuggish-looking guy on the other side of the parking lot.

  Thankfully, Allison was just steps away from her car. She could put to rest the visuals of her frantically trying to fish out her pepper spray from the bottom of her back pack.

  “Hey, bitch, you need to stay away from my man.”

  The girl’s voice so near Allison startled her more than it should have. Allison realized how unnerved Scar had made her. She’d been so focused on him she hadn’t paid attention to the rest of her surroundings. As close as the girl’s voice was, Allison hadn’t expected her to be standing right behind her when she spun around.

  “Yeah, I’m talking to you, bitch.” The ghetto-looking girl who already had a lightly bruised eye got right in her face.

  Her equally ghetto-looking friend stood by her, eyeing Allison as well. Allison cocked her head back, confused. “What?”

  “Leo’s my man, bitch. And I’m tired of hearing about your whore ass throwing yourself at him.”

  Feeling like she’d already been slapped, Allison shook her head. This girl couldn’t possibly be talking about the only Leo she knew. Allison hadn’t had lunch with him in forever. He’d reverted to his broody tightlipped self over a month ago.

  Feeling an unexplainable hurt and anger despite her non-existent relationship with the man, she swallowed it down. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, turning back to her car.

  “Fuck this, Eva,” the other girl said. “No guy’s worth fighting for.”

  Allison opened her door and threw her back pack in, ignoring Eva as she continued to spew insults at Allison. Feeling her head jerked back and realizing this psycho bitch had just yanked at her hair, had Allison’s heart at her throat. She turned around and started swatting the girl’s hands away. “Get your hands off me! I don’t know who your stupid boyfriend is!”

  Eva swatted around Allison’s hands, going on about Allison messing with the wrong girl’s man and a bunch of other craziness. Then she landed a backhand across Allison’s face that had her reeling. For the first time in her life, she understood the fury her sister felt once lit.

  All the self-defense tactics she’d learned at 5th Street flew out the door. Allison didn’t want to
just subdue her attacker so she could free herself to run away. She was suddenly out for blood. Remembering the kick-ass fighting tactics she’d picked up from watching Lila over the years, she reached out for a good grip of Eva’s hair, slammed her head against the car, and proceeded to pound her in the face. She went on until Eva broke free from her hold but tried to grab Allison’s hair again.

  The struggle went on even as bystanders started to gather; though no one even attempted to get involved. To Allison’s surprise, though she’d never been in an actual fight, she landed some good ones. At one point, she even head-butted Eva so hard the girl nearly fell, but she recovered and continued to try to swing at Allison.

  It wasn’t until they heard the sirens that Eva’s friend pulled her away and the two ran off. Allison stood there dazed and still unable to believe that just happened when the patrol car pulled up and the cops got out. Some of the people standing by pointed at Allison as if her teary and what was likely swelling and scratched-up face wasn’t a dead giveaway about who’d been in the fight.

  “Where’s the other girl?”

  They all looked around, but Eva and her friend were long gone. “They went that way,” one guy said, pointing down the street.

  “She attacked me,” Allison said, her voice finally breaking as the emotion came out of nowhere suddenly. “She attacked me.”

  Touching her aching forehead with her shaky hand, she immediately regretted it. The fingers she’d used stung like hell, and she realized they might be broken. With the adrenaline settling down, she began to feel the pain everywhere. Her side, her head but mostly her hand—the one she’d done all the punching with—hurt like hell.

  Clearly, there was skill involved and something her sister had perfected over the years. Allison’s attempt to replicate the fighting moves had been somewhat successful, but apparently her lack of skill had cost her injuries. Despite how hard she’d seen her sister beat on someone, she’d never broken her own bones doing so.

  Because of her hand injury, but especially the head injury, the cops and first responders on the scene all agreed she shouldn’t drive. If Allison had felt even the slightest bit up to driving, she might’ve insisted. She knew what a call from the ER letting Lila know she’d been rushed there after being attacked, would do to her sister. But truth was she did not feel up to driving at all, and her hand was killing her.

  Once at the ER, and after calming a bit and being given some pain meds for her hand and side, Allison decided to call Jen first. She knew Lila was going to lose it when she heard the news, and she was most worried about this really being Leo’s girlfriend.

  Since any of the closeness Allison had begun to feel with Leo had ended over a month ago, she’d never bothered to tell Lila about having kept in touch with him beyond the interview. He’d reverted back to the old him; though he occasionally slipped and she’d see that special something in his eyes she often saw before. But he had put an end to their hanging out outside the gym even for just a bite of something across the street.

  Instead, any socializing between them had dwindled down to a few run-ins around the gym, usually at the juice bar or in the break room. While his smiles at times were as genuine as ever, often they seemed strained and his expressions full of panic as they’d often been way back.

  That was what worried her now. Admittedly, while she’d tried to hold on to some shred of dignity by respecting his obvious choice to keep their distance, it couldn’t be helped. It didn’t happen nearly as often as it had in the past, but Allison had been incapable of staying completely away from him. So, all the times they had spoken lately, it had been her doing the approaching. It would stand to reason that a possessive girlfriend of his might see it as Allison pushing herself on him.

  But it just couldn’t be helped. For as much as Leonardo tried to be indifferent each time they did speak, Allison was certain he had to be feeling the same thing she was. There was no denying it when they’d inevitably have one of their moments again. Except for the way he seemed to panic, his eyes practically spoke to her. He was feeling more. Was Eva the reason why he’d been fighting it? If that was the case, then she’d have no choice but to come clean with Lila about just how long she’d continued to stay in touch with Leo even months after her story on the work-release program had been published.

  Allison wasn’t surprised that her sister hadn’t responded to the short text she’d sent to her telling her to call Jen. She’d told her it was too long to explain but assured her she was fine. Though she left out anything about the fight. She’d already been asked to put her phone away a few times, so she snuck a text to Jen giving her Sonny’s number so she could text him as well. Somehow, Allison knew they’d be needing Lila’s boyfriend—her sister’s voice of reason these days—to help calm her.

  As she held the icepack up to her bruised head, her stomach roiled. Before today, telling Lila about her continued association with Leo wouldn’t have been too big a deal. Maybe it’d be upsetting to her sister, but Allison was an adult. For as much as her sister could try and persuade her, who Allison chose to hang out with was ultimately up to her. Had her relationship with Leo gone anywhere, Allison had been ready to argue her case. Leo didn’t pose any threat to her in any shape or form. But given the circumstances, that argument wouldn’t hold up very well now.

  The moment she spotted Jen entering the busy emergency room, Allison felt slightly relieved. She’d been praying Jen would get here first. Even though Allison hadn’t told Lila where she was, she’d been worried she’d call Jen and Lila would race down there before Jen could.

  “Oh my God, Ali,” Jen gasped as she reached Allison’s bedside. “Who were you in a fight with?”

  “Have you talked to Lila?” Allison asked.

  Jen nodded, profusely wide-eyed. “I just got off the phone with her.”

  “What did you tell her?”

  “That you were in the ER and that you were in a fight but that I didn’t know more. She’s on her way now.”

  Allison explained quickly about the fight and how she still wasn’t sure if it had anything to do with Leo. “That her boyfriend’s name is Leo could just be an incredible coincidence. Plus, I haven’t even really hung out with him at all in a long time.”

  Understandably, her best friend seemed lost, and Allison felt a little bad about that. “Leo?”

  “The work-release guy I interviewed a while back,” Allison reminded her as if it were no big deal.

  She’d never really told Jen a whole lot about the time she’d spent with Leo, even after she was done interviewing him. She’d been afraid of sounding delusional. But mostly she had a feeling Jen might agree with her and, in turn, feed her false hope. She’d been glad she hadn’t mentioned him when he all but severed any connection they’d begun to make. It saved her the humiliation of having to talk about it.

  “So, you think it was mistaken identity?” Jen asked.

  “I can’t imagine the little contact I’ve had with the guy since then would be grounds for attacking me. But listen . . .” She glanced around to make sure her sister wasn’t charging through the emergency room yet. “You can’t mention his name to Lila. We still don’t know anything. So, for now, I’m just gonna say I have no idea who this girl could possibly be talking about because I really don’t. He’d made his thoughts on relationships very clear on more than one occasion—he didn’t do them.”

  “Maybe this girl is some psycho ex who saw you talking to him?”

  “Maybe.” Allison went on quickly. “There’s more.”

  She told her about the whole Scar thing before the attack. How she was sure he’d been following her and then his friend being there watching her too.

  “Can you text Marcelo and ask if he knows of an Eva who might know Scar or the people he hangs with?”

  Jen was immediately on her phone as Allison described Eva to her. “When Lila gets here, you just follow my lead. You know how she gets.”

  Allison worried that Lila would
be adamant about wanting to know everything. Jen just might cave to Lila’s demands. Not only had Allison kept her continued connection to Leo from Lila; she’d also promised her way back she’d stop chasing trouble with the story about Scar, whose name she didn’t even know at the time. If either of her two theories were true, that this happened because she hadn’t been forthcoming about either, this could get rough. Allison wasn’t worried about her sister being livid more than she was about her being hurt.

  Jen glanced down at her phone. “That’s Marcelo.” She tapped her screen then brought it to her ear, glancing around all sneakily.

  Allison listened as Jen told him everything quickly then went quiet listening. “Okay, I can’t be talking anyway, but text me anything else you know.” She’d already been looking at Allison before she hung up, and the moment she did, she explained. “He said he’s heard of her but doesn’t know much more. But he doesn’t think she’d be Leo’s girlfriend anyway because the last he heard she was married with kids and that was a few years back.”

  As if on cue, Lila burst through the ER room doors, looking just as worried as Allison knew she’d be. Allison lifted the icepack back up to cover the lump on her head, but from the look in her sister’s eyes, she’d already seen it. “Okay, so I’ll tell her about what happened, but we’ll keep our theories to ourselves, okay? No mention of Leo or Scar.”

  Jen couldn’t even muster a convincing expression, so Allison frowned. “Please, Jen, I know she’ll push, but if anything, be vague. You don’t remember any names. Just say you think I interviewed this guy a while back but you don’t remember his name.”

  The young male ER attendant arrived at her bedside just then with a wheelchair and helped her into it. “You can’t walk?” were the first alarmed words out of Lila’s mouth.

  Allison quickly explained about her bruised rib and how it was standard procedure so she wouldn’t be further injured. Immediately, Lila was demanding answers. Allison did her best to explain as vaguely as she could, exchanging glances with a very nervous-looking Jen in the process.