by Rebel Hart
“No,” Avery responded. “Do you think he’d do something like that? He’s always been a little possessive, but never like that.”
“It feels like it’s been getting a little worse lately, not that I know why. I mean, he did catch me with Deon, but it’s been this way for a few weeks now,” I explained.
“Since school started?” Avery asked. “When Deon first showed up?”
I thought back to when Nikita caught me talking to Deon and dragged me off to see Nathan, only for Nathan to barely greet me and go running off. “Yeah. Maybe he’s being paranoid about it.”
Avery snickered. “It’s not like he’s way off base.”
I nodded. “I guess that’s true.”
As if summoned by the mention of his name, my phone buzzed, and when I pulled it out, I saw a text from Deon.
We didn’t even have sex for real, and I still slept until noon.
Just imagine when we do have sex for real.
About how long do I have to wait for that?
I was just talking about that with Avery. Soon, I hope.
Me too. Are you with her now?
Yeah. We’re shopping.
Consider me shutting up then. Tell her I said hi. Enjoy yourself.
Thanks. Call you later!
I can’t wait.
“Ugh,” I grumbled. “I really do like him.”
“Oh, is that him?” Avery said. “Slide me your phone, but don’t let Nathan see.”
I peeked up at Nathan, but he was in the middle of flirting with the waitress, so it was easy to set my phone on the table and slide it over to Avery. “The pics have been saved and deleted, by the way.”
Avery sucked her teeth. “Stupid, responsible woman.” I chuckled. She scrolled through the recent texts and then smiled. “Aw. He’s so sweet. Tell him I’m Team Deon,” she said, sliding my phone back across.
“I will.” I tucked my phone into my pocket and then raised an eyebrow at Avery. “Hey, should we order dessert since Mr. Crashes-Our-Date is paying?”
“The most expensive one, I think,” Avery replied.
We did exactly that and ordered an apple pie a la mode to share, and once we were done eating, we packed up all of our bags, collected Nathan, and made our way back out onto the road. We’d covered the first half of the outlet mall during the first half of the trip, so we took a right out of the restaurant toward the shops we hadn’t covered yet. We were pretty much ducking into every shop along the way, even though we only bought from one out of the batch.
“It’s such a waste of time. Why go into a store and not buy anything from it?” Nathan finally snapped after the seventh store we entered and bought nothing from.
“Because shopping isn’t just about buying stuff,” I said. “It’s about the experience. We like pursuing and seeing what’s available, but we aren’t going to buy something just to say we bought something.”
“Besides,” Avery cut in, “no one invited you. You just showed up. If you think this is such a waste of time, just go home.”
He shrugged. “I’m fine.”
“If you complain anymore, we will stop and stand in place until you leave,” I said.
“I’m fine,” he repeated with more force.
Avery and I exchanged irritated glances and then continued on. After about three minutes, we reached another store we wanted to duck into, so I looked over at Nathan and said, “Do you want to just wait out here?”
Nathan didn’t respond. He walked over and sat down on one of the cement benches situated outside of a fountain and pulled out his phone.
“Great,” I said.
With Nathan out of the way, Avery and I ducked into the small boutique with cute graphic t-shirts and other scene clothes and accouterment. “Let’s take a long time,” I murmured to Avery, and she snickered.
We did a loop around the store, pulling different clothes out of their racks to view them. Avery did pull a couple of shirts down to buy, and I grabbed a pair of jeans. Part of me wondered if we were subconsciously just buying stuff to appease Nathan, but I forced that thought from my mind. If it happened too much more, I’d bring it up, but for now, if we were happy, I didn’t want to ruin it.
“Oh my god,” Avery called.
I looked over my shoulder. “What?”
She pulled a t-shirt off of one of the racks and turned it to face me. It was a black t-shirt with some faux-faded letters that read, “I just got out. Don’t fuck with me.” Some school books and pencils surrounded the text and were meant to suggest that getting out referred to graduating, not getting out of prison, but the obvious joke was too good to pass up.
I chuckled. “Oh my god. Hold it there.” I slid my phone out of my pocket and took a picture of the shirt. I sent it to Deon with a “Should I get you this?” caption and hit send.
Avery hung the shirt back on the rack and came up to me to peer over my shoulder. “I wonder what he’s gonna say.”
A few seconds later, as opposed to a response text, my phone started to ring with a video chat. I hit the answer button, and then Deon’s face appeared. He was so good-looking it was like getting punched in the face. “You think you’re real fucking funny, don’t you?” he asked, but he had a huge smile on his face. “Yeah. Get me three.”
I laughed, pointing at Avery. “It was Avery. She found it.”
Avery smacked my hand. “Hey! Don’t throw me under. I’m still in the brownie-point earning phase.”
“What makes you think that doesn’t earn you brownie points?” Deon responded with a wink.
A squeal escaped Avery’s lips. “Well, then I will get you three!”
Deon laughed. “Good. I’ll need an extra-large to cover these.” He leaned away and flexed a little, flashing those arms that I couldn’t stop imagining lifting me up with ease.
I shook my head. “Now you think you’re fucking funny.”
Avery gasped. “Potty mouth.”
“Oh, just you wait. I’m bringing the old Cherri back out. She swears like a sailor,” Deon replied.
Avery looked at me, and I shrugged and nodded, and her grin got a little wider. “Guess I better brush up, then.”
Deon chuckled. “Guess you better. Well, listen. I’m glad I got to see you guys, but I don’t want to interrupt. Enjoy your time, and I’ll talk to you later, beautiful.”
I grinned. “Okay.”
“What the fuck!”
Avery and I looked over our shoulder, along with everyone else in the store. Nathan was storming into the store, blasting past people without concern and beelining for where Avery and I were standing. The screen went black as Deon ended the call, and Avery intelligently snatched the phone out of my hand just as Nathan was reaching out to take it himself.
He glared over at Avery. “Give it to me.”
Avery looked Nathan up and down like he’d lost his mind. “No.”
“Stop it,” I ordered. I took my phone back from Avery and slipped it into my pocket. “You’re making a scene.”
“What were you doing talking to him?” he asked.
“I can talk to friends on the phone,” I replied. “If you can fuck teachers, I can do whatever the hell I want.” With that, and with no desire to attract additional attention, I turned my back to Nathan. “Come on, Avery. Let’s go pay.” I tried to walk away, but Nathan’s hand wrapped around my left bicep, his fingers digging into my arm, and pulled me back. “Ow. Let me go. You’re hurting me.”
Everything after that seemed to crawl to a stop except Nathan and me. He reached up and pinched my face in his other hand. He backed me against a wall with his fingers pressing against my cheek, causing my jaw to feel like it was going to break. My heart was pounding so hard that I was certain it was going to just stop, and sweat started to gather at the edges of my hair.
“You will not talk to him again,” Nathan hissed at me. “You’re fucking mine, do you hear me? Only mine. No one else can have you.”
It bothered me how frozen I was, but
Nathan had never gotten physical with me before. Despite the fact that part of my brain was willing me to swing at him or try and bite him or do anything to break loose, it was like he had many more hands than two just holding me in place. My eyes started to water even though I was begging my body not to show weakness. My breath shortened, and all I could hear was a low, white hum in my ears.
Why couldn’t I move?
“Nathan! Let her go!” Avery shouted, and it brought me back to the earth. A guy who’d been in the store with his girlfriend came rushing over. He dragged Nathan off of me, and Avery rushed over to my side and put her arm around me. “Oh my god, are you okay?”
I watched as the evil and wild look on Nathan’s face faded and left a shocked, remorseful one in its wake. He went limp in the arms of the guy holding him and just stared at me. “Cherri…”
“You put your hands on me,” I whispered. “That hurt.”
“I’m so sorry. Baby.” He tried to pull out of the guy’s grip, but the guy held him tight. “I’m so sorry.” Tears welled up in his eyes and then started to stream down his face. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Baby, I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Cherri.”
The man holding him looked at his girlfriend and then back at Nathan. “What the fuck is up with this guy?” He looked up at me. “Hey, don’t mess with this guy again, okay? Anyone who puts his hands on a woman is bad news.”
“He’s never done that before,” I responded. “What’s wrong with you?” I asked Nathan.
“I don’t know!” Tears were falling down his face in a continuous stream. “I’m so sorry. I love you, Cherri. I realized this summer that I don’t want to be apart from you. I don’t want to lose you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
The guy clicked his teeth. “Bad way to show it, buddy.”
“You can let him go,” I said. The guy looked at me, shocked, but I nodded. “It’s okay. He won’t do that again.”
The guy’s girlfriend touched his shoulder, and the looks they exchanged were judgmental, but he let Nathan go, and Nathan crumpled to the ground. “Take care of yourself,” the guy said to me before he and his girlfriend wandered off.
Nathan crawled across the floor and clawed his way up my legs to wrap his arms around me. He buried his face into my stomach and pulled me into him. “I’m so sorry, baby. I’m sorry.”
“Look at me,” I said, and Nathan looked up. I brought my hand high above my head and pulled it down to slap him across the face. “If you ever put your hands on me again, you’ll regret it.”
Nathan nodded. “I won’t. I promise.”
“Let me go.”
Nathan pulled his arms from around me. I set the jeans I had on a nearby rack and started for the door with Avery right behind me. We rushed out of the store with everyone watching us, and I was glad when we were finally back out in the fresh air.
“Cherri,” Avery called out, but my chest was tightening, and my head was pounding. My legs were moving against my will. I didn’t even know where they were taking me. I was running but had no idea where I was running to. “Cherri!”
Avery bolted after me and finally gained on me, running into my path. I collided with her and started to sob in her arms. My throat was tight, and it felt like I couldn’t breathe.
“I’m here, babe. I’m right here.” Avery hugged me close and petted my hair. She just stayed in place while I cried. “It’s okay. I’m here.” Avery’s hand slunk into my pocket, and while I didn’t look up to see what she was doing, a few seconds later, I heard. “Yeah, hey. It’s Avery. If I send you an address, can you come get Cherri?”
14
Deon
Cherri dropped her keys in my hands before pulling her seatbelt on. She still had puffy red eyes and was sniffling. I shut the door and then walked over to where Avery was standing. I handed Cherri’s keys to her and took a deep breath to keep from losing my cool.
“What did he do to her?” I asked through gritted teeth.
“Deon, look. I am not one to defend Nathan, but he has never—”
“What,” I cut her off, “did he do?”
“He grabbed her face and arm. Pretty forcefully,” Avery said. “It was terrifying.”
I turned around and started toward the outlet mall to find Nathan, but a hand grabbed my arm. I was expecting it to be Avery, but when I whipped my head around, Cherri was holding onto me.
“Can we just get out of here?” she asked with a shake to her voice, and my heart broke. I never wanted to see that look on her face. “Please?”
“Okay,” I replied, tapping her hand on my arm. “We can leave.”
Cherri turned to face Avery, but Avery held up a hand. “Go. Ali’s meeting me at your house. I’ll drop your car and give your mom your bags. It’s fine.”
“Thanks,” Cherri replied, then she looked at me briefly before turning around and heading back to my car to climb back in.
I gave Avery a quick nod of thanks, made my way around to the driver’s side of the car, and climbed in. For the fact that Cherri normally had a fighter’s energy wafting all around her, she seemed completely deflated. Before I even started the car, I reached over and grabbed her hand. She looked up at me, and I stared directly into her eyes.
“If this ever happens again, just call me. I won’t let him hurt you,” I said.
She nodded. “Thanks. I’ll be okay.”
I didn’t want to press the issue. Instead, I gave Cherri’s hand a gentle squeeze and let it go so that I could drive. There was a spot about forty-five minutes outside of Postings where my mom had brought me to a brunch when I was younger. The excitement of the city could always have someone’s anxiety blazing, but this spot was up in the woods surrounding Postings and looked out over the city. With the sun beginning to set, it cast a beautiful orange glow through the spaces in the trees and was quiet and calm.
I parked the car in one of the few makeshift spots that visitors to the lookout point had made and got out so I could walk around to Cherri’s door and open it for her. Once she was out, I grabbed the couple of blankets I’d snagged on the way out of my house and led her over to the plateau at the top of the point. One blanket I laid out for us to sit on, and the other I slung over her shoulders to keep her warm. We sat down, not too close to each other, but not too far, and I didn’t prod Cherri to tell me what happened. I waited and gave her a chance to calm down.
“He’s never done that before,” Cherri said quietly. “He’s grabbed me a little, I guess, but never forcefully like that. Never so hard that I felt like I couldn’t snatch away if I wanted to. Something is wrong with him.”
“Yeah, something’s wrong with him if he would put his hands on you,” I replied. “There’s a first time for everyone, Cherri.” I had one leg kicked up so that I could rest my arm on my knee and had the other leg outstretched. I pulled at the fraying threads of the sweatpants I was wearing. “Are you planning on leaving him now?”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to make him any worse.”
“If it’s a fear thing, I’ll protect you,” I said quickly. “You shouldn’t stay with someone like that.”
“Nathan isn’t abusive. He had this look in his eyes that was just… I don’t know. I’ve never seen him like that.” She was staring off into the distance with this thousand-yard look in her eyes like she was replaying it in her head. “Afterward, he became the most remorseful I’ve ever seen.”
“Well, let a therapist sort that out. It’s not your responsibility to fix an abusive person.”
It wasn’t a rare story. A woman is planning on leaving a guy, knows that she should, and then he gets abusive and backtracks. I should have known better than to get so close to Cherri while at Nathan’s party. That was likely the switch that flipped in him, leading him to hurt Cherri. I would never forgive myself for that.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “This is my fault.”
Cherri looked over at me for the first time since we arrived. “How do you figure?”
“I mean, I nearly kissed you at his party. If I hadn’t been there—”
“If anything, that was my fault, but I don’t think that’s what this was. He’s been getting more obsessive since the summer. I don’t really know what happened, but I think whatever triggered him then is the same thing that triggered him now. He’s just a jealous guy.” She must have noticed the look on my face because she looked embarrassed and averted her gaze. “I know I sound like one of those women who make excuses for a bad guy.”
“You do,” I replied. “If he’s hurting you, you should leave him.”
“He won’t do that again. Besides, what I said yesterday hasn’t changed. I’m not really in it for him. The Royal Court, they’re my friends, plus their network of influence is way bigger than you’d imagine. I’ll be able to get into any college I want with their emblem on my chest.”
“So it’s about clout?” I asked, for the first time ever losing a brief bit of respect for the woman I cared about so much. “That’s not like you. The Royal Court has changed you.”
Cherri opened her mouth as if she was going to deny it but then stopped. She looked back out over the city and didn’t say anything else for a while. She sat, looking at the city and the setting sun, and I could see the pain in her face. She was fighting off saying more, and the very last thing I ever wanted was to stifle her if she wanted to talk to me about something, even if she thought I would disapprove.
“What, Cherri?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Nothing.”
“Hey.” I touched her arm gently, and she glanced sideways at me. “Tell me. I’m sorry. No more judgemental stuff. I shouldn’t have said that stuff to begin with.”