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He was here. I can still feel his hands on my neck. His hot breath against my cheek. His voice like nails on a chalkboard when he said, “Beautiful.” It feels like my lungs can’t get enough air in, and I start gasping, trying to suck in as much as I can.
“You need to calm down, I need you to calm down. You are having a panic attack. Look at me, Phoenix.” His eyes meet mine as he holds out his hand to me.
“H-He’s not h-here.” I close my eyes.
“No. It’s just you and me. Liz went outside to get some help,” he murmurs. “Come here, baby.”
I take his hand, and he pulls me up into him. I wrap my arms around him, holding him tightly against me, trying to mold myself into him as I cry into his shoulder.
“Shh. It’s okay. It will be okay.”
Except it won’t be. I don’t know who the fuck that was. I don’t know who the hell almost choked the life out of me.
Nothing is okay in the slightest.
* * *
Colton brought me back to their dorm, and the guys came straight here after the game. Apparently, the party is still happening, just without their kings.
The cops came after Liz called them. They interviewed me, asking me what I was doing in the locker room. I had to explain that I needed to use the bathroom, that the bathrooms out front were locked so I came into the locker room, and that after I finished the lights went out.
The police proceeded to tell me that the bathrooms at the front of the facility were not locked. That these locker rooms should have been. They also called into question my story about the lights being out, said that the emergency lights would have kicked on. The only thing they couldn’t account for was the red handprints around my throat.
After a barrage of questioning that made me feel like I was the suspect and not the victim, Colton brought me back here to Dax’s room, where we laid down and waited for the guys.
When they arrived, they immediately wanted to know what happened. Colton recounted the story to them; I couldn’t go through it anymore. My mind already wouldn’t shut off.
I went into detail about what I could remember. Which wasn’t much.
“And you have no idea who this person was?” Daxon paces around the room, his hands pulling at the ends of his black thick hair. He looks like he’s about to jump out of his skin.
I shake my head. “No. No idea. I know it was a he, though. But he was strong. He whispered so I couldn’t tell who it was. When I slammed into him, I was taken by surprise.”
“Fuck! Could it have been Chad?” Daxon continues to pace around the room. “No, there’s no way it could have been him; he was there on the sidelines. Though, that doesn’t mean he didn’t set it up.”
Daxon is out of his mind. He’s mumbling to himself, trying to piece together what happened to me. But he only knows as much as I do, and that’s not much to go on.
“I-I don’t know.” I wipe the tears from my eyes. We sit there in silence until Colton gives me news that is the last thing I want to hear.
“Your phone is toast, baby.” Colton holds up the pieces that remain of my phone. Tears start to pool in my eyes again.
“No, please no,” I whisper.
“Hey, Red, we can get you a new phone. Don’t worry. We’ll get you a new one.” Mason comes over and sits next to me, drying the tears off my cheeks that escaped my eyes.
I shake my head. “It’s not the phone. It’s what was on that phone.”
Mason places both hands on the sides of my face. “What was on that phone?”
“My mom,” I squeak out before I start to cry again.
“Hey, don’t cry, CT. I’ll see what I can do to try and get what I can off this. I swear.” He places a hand on my leg and squeezes.
I shake my head. “You don’t get it. That’s the last thing I have of her. I lost my locket, and all I had was the phone with the pictures of us. My mom’s gone. She’s really gone.” Mason’s eyes flash with a sadness, his mouth turns down and he breaks eye contact with me. My hands come up to my face, and I lose myself in the grief. Tears stream out of my eyes, puddling in my hands. “It’s all gone.”
Colt gestures to the phone. “Phoenix, I’ll do everything I can to get these out of here for you. I promise.”
“Yeah, if there is anyone that can, Colt’s the guy to do it.” Dax comes and sits in front of me on his bed. He wraps my legs around him and pulls me into him. My body shakes as I let go of everything I’ve held in.