Crush (19 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

MIA

Click, click.

Ben snapped another photo of me and Tamara on the edge of the dancefloor together before grinning and motioning towards the bar. As he walked away, Tamara grinned at me.

“Oh, boy. I know it’s been two days, but I’m still trying to process what you told me the other night,” she said.

I gave her a sheepish grin. “Yeah, it’s pretty big.”

Tamara had taken the news about me and Brad surprisingly well. She hadn’t been horrified at all; in fact, she hadn’t even seemed all that shocked. She’d said she suspected something was up with him and me from the get-go, and she’d basically just been waiting for us to get together. The only thing that had surprised her was that we were already together. She was a little miffed that I’d kept it a secret from her for so long, but she understood in the end.

“You haven’t told Ben, have you?” I asked, anxiously looking around to make sure no one was listening.

The ball was in full swing around us, and the room was filled with laughter, chatter and music. We seemed to be pretty safe for now. No one could hear our conversation unless they came right up to us.

“Of course not. I haven’t told anyone,” she said. She mimed zipping her mouth shut. “But you are going to tell your parents soon, right?”

“Yeah. Next weekend. Brad and I are meant to be going to McComb for Dad’s birthday, so I figured we could come clean then.”

She nodded. “Cool. Need me to come with you when you guys talk to them? It might help with the fallout if I’m there to keep the peace.”

I contemplated her offer. “Hm…I don’t know. I think we’ll be okay. But maybe you could be there afterwards, in case everything does blow up in our face?”

“Sure. How about you break it to them on the Saturday, and I’ll come over that night? Then if everything has gone to shit, I can whisk you away to safety. And Brad too,” she added with a lascivious wink.

I laughed. “Deal.”

Ben came back over to us a moment later. “The line at the bar’s too long right now. Let’s dance instead.”

“Okay,” Tamara replied. “We’ll be back soon, Mia. Try to find someone to dance with!”

They whirled away, and I glanced up at the enormous clock on the back wall of the ballroom. It was almost nine-thirty, but it felt like it was already midnight. I’d barely even done any dancing, but I was totally wiped out.

Maybe a glass of wine would perk me up. Yawning, I headed over to the bar, only to see that Ben was correct in his assessment. The line was crazy, and I sighed and rolled my eyes as I stood behind a sea of people.

“Mia? Hey!”

A deep, masculine voice startled me, and I turned to see Jeremy standing beside me. Urgh. Not him again.

“Hello, Jeremy,” I said, trying to keep the frostiness out of my voice. I didn’t like him, but there was no sense in being rude.

“I’ve tried texting you a few times, but you never replied,” he said.

“Oh. How’d you get my number?” I replied, craning my neck to see if the bar line had moved at all.

“I got it from Ben ages ago. Before the Halloween party. Remember?”

“Oh, right. Well, sorry. I’ve been…busy.”

“Too busy to pick up your phone for five minutes and read your messages?” he asked.

Okay, now he was really starting to grate on my nerves. Then again, he had a point. I should’ve at least responded to his messages and told him I wasn’t into him.

I turned to him and looked him directly in the eyes. “Look, Jeremy, I just don’t think we’re compatible. That’s why I’ve been blowing you off. I should’ve said it to your face instead of fading you out, and I’m sorry for that.”

His eyebrows furrowed. “Mind if I ask why? I thought we were getting along really well at the Halloween party, and then you just vanished.”

“I didn’t just ‘vanish’. You said some things which made me realize we’d never get along.”

“Such as?”

I sighed. Was this really the time to get into this? Apparently so…

“I just didn’t like how you spoke about women. That’s all.”

“I don’t even remember speaking about women at all,” he said with a frown. “We were talking about our classes.”

“You were calling everyone around us skanks and sluts.”

“What? That’s what you’re mad about?” he said, looking confused. “I don’t get it. Some girls
are
sluts, whether you like it or not. I’m not wrong for calling them out on it.”

Wow, he really was totally clueless.

“It’s that word,” I replied, my cheeks heating up. “Slut. It’s offensive. There’s no real male equivalent, and it just shows how women get shamed for being sexual while men are praised, even in this day and age. And you know what? You might not agree with what certain women get up to in their love lives, or men for that matter, but it’s none of your damn business.”

“Thanks for the lecture, Gloria Steinem, but when they’re all up in my face, I think it is my business.”

“Well, I suppose we’ll have to agree to disagree,” I said, barely keeping the stiffness out of my voice now.

He held his hands up, palms facing me in contrition. “Okay, okay. At least let me get you a drink to make up for upsetting you,” he said. “I had no idea you took that stuff so seriously.”

I was seriously ready to up and leave this ball entirely. Tamara had been right the other day. I should’ve found a platonic date to come with, just so I’d have someone to hang around that wasn’t Jeremy.

“Thanks for the offer, but I…uh…” I fumbled mentally for an excuse to leave. “I need to use the ladies room.”

“You’re just going to the bathroom?” he asked, one eyebrow arched in suspicion. “You’re coming back for that drink, though…right?”

Like hell I was. But he didn’t need to know that. I didn’t want him following me out of the ballroom and making a scene in front of everyone when he realized I was ditching him.

Again.

I headed towards the hall that led to the bathroom and then turned my head over my shoulder. Jeremy had been watching me, but he now seemed satisfied that I really was just going to the bathroom, and he’d turned his attention away to someone else. I took the opportunity to slip away through the crowd of dancing ball attendees towards the side entrance, and I pulled out my phone to call Brad.

My phone screen lit up as I flicked the button, and I saw that I had several missed calls and a text from Brad. My heart soared, and I clicked on it to see what it said. Maybe it was a sweet message saying how much he missed me.

Or not.

The message contained a photo taken at whatever party he was at, and my heart plummeted into my stomach as I saw what the picture was of. It was of Brad sitting on a dirty couch at the frat house with a beer in one hand…and Rose in his lap. Judging by the angle and the pouty duck-faced pose she was making at the camera, she’d taken a selfie of them together. Her hand was right on his crotch, and her lusty eyes conveyed a clear message.
He’s mine.

I stood stock-still, staring at the image for what felt like an eternity, although according to the clock on my phone, only four minutes had passed. I didn’t even know what to think. My heart was pounding with fury, and all the air seemed to have vanished from my lungs.

What the effing hell? Had Brad been mad at me for not taking him to the ball simply to avoid suspicion about the two of us, and then taken that as an opportunity to go running back to his bitchy ex-girlfriend?

No, that couldn’t be it. We’d gone through enough bullshit with all the girls who were after him to know that we needed to trust each other. More to the point, I needed to trust him. Whatever this was, I doubted Brad had anything to do with it. He didn’t even seem to have wanted his picture taken, judging by the glare he was directing at the camera and the stiffness of his composure while Rose sat on his legs.

I was willing to bet a million bucks that this was some set-up by Rose. I’d seen and heard enough about her to know she was a scheming bitch who’d do anything to get Brad back and get me out of the picture. She was like an Amanda 2.0. God, it never ended. We’d get rid of one crazy woman and another would pop up in her place almost immediately.

Fuming over her antics, I turned the screen off and threw the phone back into my clutch. As soon as I got back to my dorm, I was going to call Brad and get to the bottom of this. No yelling, no crying and no jumping to conclusions like I’d done last time something like this happened.

Unfortunately, the time I’d taken to pause outside the building had given Jeremy time to realize I wasn’t really in the bathroom, and I heard the familiar sound of his deep voice calling out to me as I stalked across the dim parking lot towards my car.

“Hey! Mia!”

I turned to him as he caught up. “Not now, Jeremy,” I said. “I have to go.”

“I knew you’d ditch me again,” he said. “I thought we were having a conversation.”

“Look, I’m sorry for bailing on you again, but….no, you know what? I’m not sorry. You’re not a very nice guy, Jeremy. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go.”

I was way too mad at Rose and her boyfriend-stealing bullshit to even try and pretend to be civil to Jeremy anymore.

I turned on my heel and then gasped as I felt his hand grasping my arm in a strong grip, pulling me back. What the hell?

“Let go of me!” I said. “Right n…”

My voice trailed off as he clamped a hand over my mouth to silence me. I tried to bite his hand, but it was held too firmly over my lips for me to even open them. Kicking and flailing about, I struggled as much as possible, and he laughed as he wrapped his other arm around my waist, sliding his mouth close to my ear.

“Shh,” he murmured. “Don’t struggle. You’ll only make it worse. Although I do love it when they struggle…turns me on even more. I can’t fucking wait to have you.”

They? What did he mean by that?

It struck me a millisecond later. Oh shit. Jeremy must have done this to other girls. In my terrified mind, I took that to mean only one thing.

He was the Overton campus rapist.

He had to be. It all made perfect sense now. Physically, he matched the profile, and his attitude had clearly demonstrated one thing to me – a profound disrespect for women bordering on hatred. Men like that almost always wanted to do something to get the control over women that they felt they deserved.

As his hands tightened their grip on me, my eyes wildly flickered back and forth, trying to see if there was anyone else in the parking lot who might notice what was going on. There was no one.

We were alone in the lot, and no one was coming to help me.

Why the hell hadn’t my college posted more security around here for tonight? We weren’t on campus, but still, they should have made more of an effort for a college-hosted event.

My mind raced with terror and confusion as Jeremy roughly dragged me several feet away from the parking lot and into a dingy alley next to it. I tried digging my heels into the ground to stop the movement, but he was too strong. I redoubled my efforts to break free from his grip, but he only laughed and slammed me up against the brick wall of the alleyway. The breath flew out of my lungs from the impact, and I struggled to get enough oxygen through my nose as I winced in pain.

“You’re stronger than the others,” he said, voice dripping with amusement. “It’s funny…you’re such a tiny girl.”

I felt sick to my stomach. Women’s pain and fear actually pleased and excited him, and my body suddenly went limp against the wall, as if every muscle had realized my struggles were useless and would only result in me being hurt more.

“Don’t scream. You don’t even want to know what’ll happen if you do,” he hissed, finally pulling his hand away from my mouth.

“You…” I choked out, my voice hoarse from trying to scream. “You can’t do this. I know you, and I’ll tell the police it was you. You can’t get away with it.”

His features twisted into a smirk. “What makes you think you’ll be in any condition to tell anyone anything when I’m done?”

My blood ran cold. I knew what that meant.

“Please,” I whimpered. “I’m sorry. Let me go. I won’t tell anyone, I swear. Just let me go.”

He laughed again, amused by how quickly I’d changed my tune in order to save myself.

“You think I’d actually believe that?” he said, leaning his face right down to mine. His fetid breath made me want to vomit. “You know, girls like you are the worst of the lot. The others were just sluts that had it coming, but you…you’re a slut who talks back. It’s up to guys like me to shut whores like you up and put you back in your place.”

“You’re insane,” I whispered, staring into his eyes.

“Maybe I am,” he said with a slight shrug. “You know, it didn’t have to be like this. I really liked you, but you just had to keep disrespecting me. You’ve made me so
angry
, Mia. You should’ve been a good girl and done what I wanted.”

He leaned in even closer, pressing his lips to my ear. “It didn’t have to be like this,” he repeated.

Shit, shit, shit.

I was going to die tonight.