Page 29

Mindy

Adonis and Dahlia are kissing on the couch!

Adonis and Dahlia—

The food slips out of my hands unnoticed.

“Get off of her!” I fly across the room and start pulling on his back as Dahlia pushes him away from her. “What do you think you’re doing? Leave her alone.”

My momentum combined with Dahlia’s tips Adonis and me off the couch. He lands hard on my hip.

Dahlia gets up off the couch, straightening her clothes as she moves towards the door.

Adonis climbs off of me, almost toppling over again he’s so unsteady on his feet.

“He’s drunk.”

“I’m not drunk. I just had a few beers. You don’t need to go Dahlia. Come sit down. We can watch a movie together.”

Dahlia ignores him and stares at me as I stand up. “Maybe we should go.” She nods towards the door.

I live here. Where am I going to go? A drunk man doesn’t scare me. “I’m fine. But you should go. I’ll see you at work in the morning.”

“We’ll both see you, Dahlia” He half-leans half-steps towards her.

“Are you sure?” She ignores him and asks me.

“Positive.” If I ran from every drunk in my life, I’d never stop.

“Okay.” She gives me a skeptical look, but walks out the door.

As soon as it closes behind me, Adonis says, “You stupid little—”

“You’re drunk and I’m going to bed. You better hope Dahlia doesn’t report you.” Okay, that might not be the smartest thing I’ve said, but hopefully it wakes him—

My head slams against the wall as Adonis bashes me into it, holding me up by my throat.

“I had a plan. You’re just too stupid to help. Dahlia was meant for me. We were supposed to be together, but she met him first. All I needed was a chance to show her that she’s picked the wrong guy. But you had to come back in and ruin our first kiss before it even got started. Why do you think I invited you to move in here?”

He reaches his arm back and then there’s a sharp pain in my gut.

“You probably thought I liked you.” He squeezes my neck as he laughs. “Like there was any way a man would pick an ugly little thing like you when they could have a woman like Dahlia. The whole reason was to get closer to her, and you ruined that. You ruined everything.”

The world goes fuzzy, then dark.

***

Pain. Pain floods through me as I open my eyes.

What happened?

Why do I hurt this badly?

Adonis!

Is he still here? I scoot towards the wall and search for him. The living room is empty.

Did he leave? Or is he in the bedroom?

I need to get out of here.

Can I stand? I’ve got to try.

Nothing has ever hurt this badly. Even when my stepbrother hit me, and Mom sent me to boarding school.

The pain doesn’t matter. I need to get up. I need to get away.

One inch at a time, I push my body up the wall until I’m standing sort of upright. Mostly, the wall is holding me up. But I’m standing. That means I can get out of here.

Just a few steps and I’ll be safe.

My purse… my money. I’ll get out and go somewhere safe.

Hurry!

He might come out.

You can do it.

One foot in front of the other. I take a shaky step but don’t fall.

That’s it. You can do this.

One foot in front of the other. I make it to my purse. Reaching down to pick it up, I almost tumble to the floor. My other hand hits the armrest hard, but I don’t smash to the ground. Biting back the screech of pain that wants out, I heft it onto my shoulder.

You’re almost to the door.

He won’t hurt you when you’re in a public space.

Just get outside the apartment.

One foot in front of the other.

You’ll make it.

The pain doesn’t matter.

One foot in front of the other.

Nothing matters but getting to that door.

One foot in front of the other.

There you made it. I tug it and it doesn’t open.

Why? I yank it as hard as my broken body will allow, almost toppling over backward.

The world goes fuzzy.

You can’t pass out.

You need to get to safety.

Focus. This can’t be that—

The latch. Stupid.

He’s wrong. They’re wrong. You aren’t stupid.

I flip it, and the door opens up.

You’re out.

You’re safe.

But I don’t feel safe.

Will I ever feel safe again?

***

There’s no way I can walk to the subway. It’s taken me seemingly an hour just to get out the door of the apartment building. It must be really early because I haven’t passed a single person coming in or out. I need a cab.

Several drive by uncaring that I’m on the edge of the curb. My hand. I need to raise my arm. Can I do it?

Can doesn’t matter, I need to. Ignore the pain and lift.

Just as my arm is about to give out, a cab comes to a slow stop in front of me. I semi-sit and semi-tumble into the seat, then right myself.

“Where to?”

I have no idea. “Just drive.”

“You need to close the door.”

Oh. “Sorry.” I pull shut.

The cab starts moving.

“You want me to take you to the hospital?”

Do I look that bad? You know what, I don’t want the answer to that question. “No. No hospital.”

“Then where do you want to go?”

Nowhere. I don’t want anyone to see me like this. “I don’t know.”

How did this happen?

How did I not see that Adonis could do something like this?

Mom taught me how to protect myself. All I did was hang there and let him hit me.

Leonie would have beaten him up, and then arrested him.

Why didn’t I do anything?

“Don’t cry. I know where to take you. You’ll be safe there. They take care of women just like you every day. Don’t cry. I’ll take you there. You’ll be just fine in a few minutes. You just sit back and I’ll get you there safe and sound.”

“Where?” The word sounds odd coming out of me, but I can’t think about that right now.

“The Nest. It’s a shelter of sorts for women and children. They’ll take care of you.”