When We Met

Rain threatened and teased, spitting little droplets of water that chilled me all the way to my bones. Warily, I peeked up at the sky, my face immediately pelted with stinging dots of frigid water.

Great.

It had just started to really rain by the time we made it to the sports bar. We rushed inside with our heads ducked, pulled our wet jackets off, and shook them out as we stepped up to the hostess station.

Amber, Courtney’s friend, saw us from across the room, and she wove through the overflowing crowd, the dim-lit room so thick with bodies that people stood along the walls and gathered in groups around tables.

“There you guys are! Courtney has been waiting for you.” She gri

We followed her, and I kept my head down, no longer feeling that ease that I’d so foolishly given myself over to in the last two months, thinking that no one here knew my face. It’d only been proven last week by the jerk who’d accosted me outside my building. All week I hadn’t made it to class, unable to face what was waiting for me outside the doors. If someone confronted me about it again? I wouldn’t know how to survive it.

But Indy was right. I couldn’t just keep hiding. That was the girl I’d been my entire life. Always seeking out the places where I felt most comfortable. Taking paths with the least risk. Doing everything in my power to shy away from anything that would make me nervous or apprehensive.

No doubt what I was feeling now was much more than just unease.

This was physical pain, pain that had been inflicted cruelly, everything about it unfair.

But what could I do short of ru

That was no longer an option.

I settled into one of the barstools at the high round table, and accepted the menu from Amber. “Thank you.”

“No problem,” she said, “just let me know what you guys want. The kitchen is pretty backed up since it’s so busy, but I’ll try to get a rush on it.”

Mumbling another quiet thank-you, I turned to study the menu. I hadn’t eaten in days, and my body felt weak. Tired. I knew it was about time I started to pick up the pieces and took care of myself.

Darryn had destroyed something deep inside and I needed to figure out how to begin fixing it.

I suppressed my mocking laughter, all of it aimed at myself.

Darryn the Destroyer.

Some fairy tale he’d turned out to be.

Turned out he’d been sent to ruin another piece of me.

My chest tightened as sadness pooled in my belly. And that was the truth of it. It made me sad, because I missed him. Missed his face, missed all that arrogance that endeared him to me, the way he joked and laughed. Most of all, I missed the way he’d made me feel.

Sighing, I shoved it off and forced myself to try and enjoy the time with my friends. We ordered, and Amber brought me a beer that I had no stomach for. Still I sipped at it and tried to relax in the boisterous mood of the bar, the lights dimmed and the huge television screens streaming the game. Cheers rang out, everyone there to support our team. People would jump to their feet and grip their heads on the tricky plays and boo when our team fumbled or the vying team gained on them.

No one even seemed to know I was there. I’d disappeared. Become invisible. Just like I wanted to be. I let my mind wander with the noise, and I sank into the first calm I’d felt in days.

“Well, look who’s here.” The voice came from behind, just at my shoulder. It sent fear slicking icy tendrils down my spine, leaving a frozen path in its wake.

I shook and a knot formed in my throat. I hadn’t seen him since that night when I found out what he’d done, when I’d confronted him, trying to be brave when all I’d felt like was a stupid little girl.

All I wanted was to curl into a ball under the table.

Instead I sat stock-still, all except for the rush of goose bumps that lifted in warning on my neck when his vile presence encroached on me from behind. Something triggered my senses, and I was assaulted by memories of the smell in his room, ones I could only attribute to Hunter. Something threatening—vulgar and depraved. It flooded my nostrils and manifested as nausea in my stomach.

“Been too long, Misha.” Hunter laughed, a taunting sound that took me back to that night and how deeply he had hurt me.

Anger and shame billowed through me, but I kept myself still and gave him no response. Maybe if I ignored him long enough he would leave me alone.

I should have known a jerk like Hunter would not give up.

He ran his hand along my shoulder and gripped me by the back of the neck, as if he had some sort of God-given right to touch me.

I cringed and tried to fling off the perversity of his touch.

I choked as he gripped me tighter.

And the tears came.

God, I didn’t want to cry, I didn’t want to be that naive little girl that cowered in front of him.

But I couldn’t stop the tears from breaking free. Heated, they raced down my face and dripped from my chin. I didn’t wipe them away, praying he couldn’t see them in the dark.

“Aw . . . are you crying?” he said as if it were sympathy, but he said it loud, so the people around him would hear. He was begging for an audience, the way he always did.

My hands fisted.

Maybe it was Hunter who was the coward, so insecure he needed to steal the attention of others around him to make him feel good.

Not at my expense. Not ever again.

“L-l-leave me a-a-alone,” I tried to get out of my shaking throat, my tongue all twisted and thick.

The motion seemed to jar Indy from the game, and her eyes narrowed when she turned and found Hunter looming over my shoulder. He paid her no mind, just continued to degrade me.

“Oh . . . come on, M-M-M-M-Misha,” Hunter drew out, digging the knife a little deeper. I could almost feel myself bleeding out. “Know how much you like me. Let’s say you and me go for another round. Maybe this time you won’t be so shy.”

Vomit lifted in my throat, and I swallowed it down.

By now, Hunter had garnered that attention he was always hungry for, and all the tables surrounding us had tuned in on us, curious eyes peering our way. I could feel them, watching.

“I wouldn’t mind a little retake,” he almost shouted, his obnoxious laughter ringing through the room.

“L-l-leave me alone.”

Indy leaned toward him, her brow all pinched up in a scowl. “Take a hint, Hunter. She doesn’t want anything to do with you, so why don’t you get your sorry ass away from her? Like she’d ever let a pathetic asshole loser like you touch her again.”

“Fuck you,” he hissed in her direction, and he twisted his hand in my hair, tight enough that it made me yelp. “The only two people this concerns are me and Misha.”

And I hated . . . hated him that he thought he had even an ounce of control over me, hated that he made my heart pound in fear and my stomach turn with sickness. I refused to allow him this.

“L-l-let me g-g-go.”

“I’ll let you go when I’m ready to.”

My heart hammered with a flutter of energy that suddenly swirled around me, movement at my side that I couldn’t process, but I saw Hunter’s eyes widen with something like shock. A fist rammed into the side of his face. I screamed in both relief and confusion, my eyes going wide as Hunter’s head violently rocked to the side, his hand releasing its hold in my hair as he stumbled back.

“Wrong.” Darryn stood just off to my side, seething, flexing his fists while Hunter rubbed at his jaw. “You let go of her when she tells you to.”

Darryn glanced over at me as if he were in pain, as if seeing me here hurt him just as badly as Hunter had been hurting me.

Completely caught off guard and confused by the rage boiling in Darryn’s body, Hunter seemed flustered. He rubbed at his jaw. “What the fuck, dude? You just fucking punched me.”