“Recorded it,” she repeats.
I have to force myself to make eye contact. Her gaze is unfocused, her lips parted. Her chest is rising and falling like she just stopped in the middle of a sprint.
“You were there, and you recorded it,” she says, like she’s trying to get the words to make sense.
“Yes, but?—”
“You filmed him raping me.”
Fuck me, it sounds a thousand times worse out loud than it did in my mind.
“Don’t you get it? It’s our way out of this fucked up?—“
“You could have stopped him.” She blinks, and just like that, her eyes are luminous with unshed tears. “You could have…” she trails off, shaking her head so hard one of those tears spill down her cheek.
“I know. And I’m sorry. I should have?—“
“Youfuckingcoward.” The words shake as they leave her trembling mouth.
“Haven, please?—”
She shoves past me, shoulder knocking against mine. “Fucking coward!”
“Where are you going?”
“As far away from you as I can!” she yells, heading straight for the exit without looking back.
“Will you just listen to me?”
I race down the stairs after her, grabbing her arm.
“Let go!” She yanks at her arm, but I just tighten my grip.
“This is exactly what he wants. We need to stick together, not?—”
“Wedon’t gotta do fucking nothing,” she says, punching me in the side.
When I ignore the jab of pain, she drags her feet like a four-year-old.
“Could you just—” I try to lift her off the floor, but she’s squirming around too much. The student liaison, Nora, has her back to us, but I swear if she looks in our direction, she’ll be on the phone to campus security.
Something makes me look over my shoulder.
Rooke, satchel in hand and wearing a quizzical smile, is making his way down the stairs after us.
Jesus, this feels like a fucking horror movie.
Taking a sharp turn, I angle us toward the library. I can’t let Nora spot me manhandling Haven like this, and I don’t dare release her with Rooke a few yards away.
En route, I try to reason with one very pissed off girl.
“Look, I’m not the fucking enemy here?—“
She glares up at me as I drag her toward the library. “That’sexactlywhat you are, you delusional fucking asshole! Now let. Me. Go!”
Haven drops her entire weight, tearing out of my grip, and scrambles up with a such a foul glare directed at me, you’d think I was trying to abduct her.
Suppose I was, kind of.
