A moment later, the bedroom door opens, and she stares at me wide eyed. Then she holds up a finger to her lips.
“Get rid of him,” I mouth.
“I’m trying,” she replies without a sound.
Just like that she disappears, and I listen to her conversation with Coach as they continue making small talk in the living room. It’s very clear by his tone he’s extending his stay, and she can’t get him to leave.
Then things get quiet, and the hairs on the back of my neck raise on alert.
“No, no I can’t,” she says, and I flinch. The way she said that made it sound like he’s laying on the moves.
“Come on, baby. I won’t tell anyone.”
“I think you should leave,” she says, this time louder than before. Loud enough for me to clearly hear.
By the sounds of it, they are in the living room, just on the other side of the door. And from the way their voices are traveling, I’d guess they’re by her desk, which means he has her cornered.
She can handle it, I tell myself. She just needs to get rid of him.
“I’m sorry for coming on a little strong,” he says in a low tone. “But with the way you’re showing up everywhere I turn… I know you want this too.”
“Eric, I’m sorry for sending you the wrong signal, but—"
There’s a scuffle, the sound of something hitting the wall, and I freeze, waiting to hear if that was him hurting her or her hurting him.
“Get off of me!” she screams, and his voice is low and grunting. My heart is hammering in my chest.
Fuck. Fuck!
I can’t just sit by and let him hurt her. But if I walk out there…
No, she can handle it. She got herself in this situation, so she can get herself out. Besides, I’m not here to make her life easier. It was all about payback anyway, so if she’s going to suffer, then this is exactly what I want.
No, dammit. Not like this.
“Come on,” he groans, clearly fighting with her as something hits the floor.
“Get the fuck off me!”
“Why are you fighting me?” he yells, and when she cries again, her voice is muffled, like he has his hand over her mouth. “Don’t be a tease now.”
My jaw is clenched so tight I’m afraid my teeth will shatter. As I pull open the door, I peek out and he’s so occupied with the struggle with her he doesn’t hear it, but once my eyes lock on the sight before me, I snap.
They are against the wall, his face pressed against hers, kissing her while she clearly struggles to move away, but he has her wrapped against him so tight she can’t move. Something wild and angry takes over as I charge out of the room.
Grabbing him by the back of his neck, I tear him away from her in one fluid motion. He comes crashing against the floor, staring up at me in shock.
“She said to stop,” I snarl at him.
“Ayers…what the fuck?” he stammers, getting to his feet, but just the vision of him trying to stand up to me, has me wanting to break his spine into two. A raging violence courses out of me as I throw my fist down, landing hard against his nose as he crumbles back to the floor like the pathetic piece of shit he is.
My gaze travels to Everly who is now huddled against the wall, watching me as I yank Prescott back up by his collar only to land another vicious punch to his face. Blood splatters against the floor.
“Cullen, stop,” she cries.
But I don’t want to stop. I want to keep punching him until I’m satisfied or maybe when he’s dead. Whichever comes first.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” he asks, glaring up at me.
“Don’t you worry about that. All you need to worry about is getting home to your wife before I call her myself!”
Fear washes over his expression as he stares up at me. It’s clearly registering to him that I have more on him than he has on me or Everly at this point. He scrambles to his feet, staring at her for a moment, and just seeing his eyes on her brings out a possessive side of me, and I grab him by the arm and throw him toward the door. “Don’t you fucking look at her.”
“I’m—shit, I’m sorry, we were just fucking around.”
Pushing him out the door, I squeeze my fists tight to keep myself from breaking his nose as he stumbles out the door. I stand my ground in the doorway until he’s out of sight, stumbling down the road at a quick pace. Once he’s gone, I lock the front door.
Spinning around, I look for Everly, but she’s disappeared into the bedroom. Knocking on the door, I hear her sniffling on the other side. Pushing the door open, I peek in to find her washing her face at the sink.
“Leave me alone, Cullen,” she snaps.
I almost ask if she’s okay…like I’ve forgotten she’s the fucking enemy.
“Better yet, why don’t you get the fuck out of my house?”
With a scoff, I glare at her. “I just saved your ass.”
“Why? Why would you save me, Cullen? Don’t you want to ruin my life?”
There are red spots speckled across her cheeks and nose, and her eyes are bloodshot with tears.
“You think I want to sit in here and listen to let that piece of shit have his way with you? Nasty. I was doing you a favor.”
“Well if you’d like to do me a favor, why don’t you just leave me the fuck alone? You clearly don’t need to worry about ruining my life,” she sobs. “I’m doing that just fine on my own.”
Tears stream down her red face, and I clench my fists. “What, you think you did that? You think you invited him in?”
“Didn’t I?” she cries, wiping her face on a white hand towel.
Letting out a heavy exhale, I roll my eyes. “Fuck, Everly. That guy is a tool. You didn’t invite him or deserve that shit. Sure, I want to make you pay for what you did to me, but you didn’t deserve that.”
“Well, men like that seem to love me, and I only have myself to blame. So, haven’t I had enough abuse for one night, Cullen? Can you just leave?”
Without a word, she turns off her light and crawls into her bed, turning her back toward me. Standing there for a moment, I watch her cry silently, feeling both helpless and angry.
Turning away, I’m ready to leave her here, but then I see the mess he left when he attacked her. Papers from her desk are all over the floor. Her laptop is laying closed beneath them, so I lean down and pick up everything, even the overturned chair they must have knocked over.
It takes me about an hour to get everything cleaned up so when she wakes up in the morning, she won’t have to deal with seeing what happened tonight. No one needs that reminder.
Without a word, I slip out the front door, and head toward the bus stop.
9
Everly
It’s fifteen minutes into class when he finally marches in, causing a disruption I try to ignore as he takes his seat on the top row. Our eyes only meet for a split second, but I have a hard time looking away from him in those tight jeans and T-shirt that hugs his body so snug I can see the soft ridges of his muscles. I lose my train of thought for a moment and I see the way it makes his mouth turn up only slightly at the corners. He likes getting into my head.
When I woke up this morning, Cullen was gone. The mess was clean, everything from the dishes in the sink to the papers knocked onto the floor. A strange sense of shame washed over me as I remembered what happened with Eric. Why, why, do I feel the need to take responsibility for that? I hate that I’m trying to take the blame for something he did to me. It only makes me hate him more.