Mia was my evermore.
And I’d known since the moment my soul felt hers.
My lungs shrunk as my heart shook in her name.
“Mia’s holding up, that one. You’d be proud of those girls, you know. Her and Bria spent the summer organizing a support group for girls suffering from sexual abuse. She’s been keeping busy, that’s for sure.”
Freeing a steady breath, I smiled. Mia was okay—a temporary fix until I could see her.
“It’s a shame what happened,” she added.
And just like that, my smile dissolved. “What do you mean?”
“The bullying against her, Dean Lynch didn’t tell you?”
“Bria?”Don’t say my girl’s name, Rhonda.
“Mia. Found the dead cat herself right under her bed last week,” she snipped another layer of hair as it fell at the corner of my eye, “Poor girl has been through enough.”
My fingers gripped the arms of the chair, and the ache twisted into anger. She had to be mistaken. Mia had never gone out of her way to upset anyone, at least not since I’d found her. “Has she had any meltdowns? Made visits in here or solitary since I left?”
Was she still the same light-brown eyed girl?
Was she still my Mia?
“No, as I said, she’s been doing real good,” she sighed and tousled my hair, “alright, you’re good for a fortnight. Time to hit the shower.”
Jerry, the bald guard, came back with my belongings in a trash bag, and I spent my shower thinking of Mia, trying to control my emotions at all costs.
I needed to see her.
But not like this.
My hands ran up and down my face over and over under the water, in an attempt to drown out the slow-building rage inside me.
Someone had targeted Mia.
My clothes had been washed, and I slipped into my gray pants and black tee, feeling more like my old self, though the spells of sickness still loitered inside me and my emotions grew after each passing second. Rhonda checked me over before Jerry walked me back to my dorm.
“This isn’t my dorm,” I stated, standing in front of Mia’s door beside Jerry.
Jerry didn’t bother with an explanation as he unlocked the door and turned the knob. The door swung open, and a gust of new memories engulfed me. Swirling the memories I’d buried deep in my subconscious.
The padded walls had been removed.
A desk sat against the wall on the right.
A bed complete with headboard and footboard welcomed me.
“Where is the girl that was here before?” I asked, my gaze touching every place I’d made love to her.There. There. And there.
“Hell if I know. This isn’t my wing. I’m on third,” Jerry said and gave me a nod. “Don’t forget, dinner at five-thirty.”
Then the door closed behind him, leaving me to fend for myself against the pictures inside my head. After dropping my bag on the floor, I sat at the edge of the bed and closed my eyes. It was all too much. Nausea whipped around in my stomach, anguish seeped through my pores and stabbed every part of me, and above all, I was bloody exhausted. The clock above the door read lunch had passed, and she would be with Dr. Conway for another forty minutes.
Collapsing over the mattress, I closed my eyes.
Unavoidable images of her lying under me, light brown hair sprawled across the pillow while her hips swayed in eagerness to be filled flashed like a movie. I remembered her supple pink lips turn raw from the damage mine had done while the rest of her shook under the pleasure I gifted her. Watching her come undone while still inside her, being a part of it, the purpose of it, the pulsating …
