“She’sgonnakill me if I tell you this,” she whispered, her eyes glued to the floor.
“Tell me what?” Tristan asked, his heart rate accelerating rapidly.
Abigaildidn’tanswer him right away, but the moment her eyes finally lifted from the ground to meethis,he felt his heart stop.
“Something happened last night didn’t it? With Jake?”
Abigail shifted from one foot to the other before cursing under her breath.
“Abigail I’m about to actually freak out right now,” he said sternly, holding his hands out in front of her as a warning sign that he was about to lose control.
“Relax it’s not what you’re thinking,” she whispered, rolling her eyes.
“Not whatI’mthinking? Then what is it? Did she hook up with him or not?”
“No,” Abigail spat out aggressively. “Buthetried to hook up withher.”
Her words came out in such a rushed whisper he wasn’t positive he heard her correctly.
“I’m sorry, run that back to me,” he said, hiseyebrowsraising. Heimmediatelyfelt his body respond as if he were a war hero preparing for battle. His heart was pumping so quickly he could hear it in hisears,his fists were clenched and more thanready to collide with the face of the douchebag baseball player, and he felt a few droplets of sweat beginning to form around his hairline.
“He drove her backhere,but hewasn’tso quick to let her out of his car. Thank God I was home and noticed the weird car out front or Idon’tknow what would have happened.”
“I need you to tell me everything and I need you to tell me now,” His voice was loud andauthoritative,and she jumped slightly at thesound of it, but was also grateful that her best friend had somebody who clearly had such strong feelings about herwellbeingto react like this.
“She said he was talking shit about you the whole way homeand how she deserved better. And then she tried toimmediatelyget out of thecar,and he locked her in and tried to kissher,but she obviously pushed him away and that pissed him off. And then she said that he grabbed her, um, between the legs and told her to relax and thatyou’dnever have to know. Andthat’swhen I came outside and started absolutely freakingout. And I spooked him enough that heliterally pushedher out of the car and drove away.”
Abigail took a deep breath before continuing, unable to look into Tristan’s eyes. She could feel the energyradiatingfromhim andwasn'tsure she would be able to handle the intensity of his eyes.
“She was pretty shaken up and I stayed up with her all night. And it’s kind of just lingered over into today.”
“Why the fuck wouldn’t she tell me this?” He asked, tears threatening to spill over. “I’m going to fucking kill him.”
“Thatright there is why she doesn’t want to tell you,” Abigail replied, pointing a finger at him.
“Fuck no,she’smy girlfriend. Iloveher,” he said emphatically, causing Abigail to gasp slightly at his unexpected admission of love for her best friend, “And what a fucking asshole I am, getting drunk at a party instead of protecting her. Ishould havemade her stay with me. Why the fuck did Ilet her get in his goddamn car?!”
Tristan is now pacing the grass in front of the house, not noticing the rain falling heavier every second.
“Tristan, we all make mistakes. You can’t protect her every second of the day. But youcanpossibly fix this. She didn’t want me to tell you any of this, but she’s also been talking about you all day so... I know that she has been missing you. I just think she's scared to tell you what happened.”
Tristan stopped pacing and shook his head, not understanding why shewouldn’tconfide in him about something like this.
“I’m going to go inside and see her now,” Tristan said flatly.
“Wait let me at least tell her that you’re here and-”
“I’m sorry Abigail.” He gave her an apologetic look before using his force to push her out of the way of the door and forcinghis way through, walking straight to the back of the house where he knows her room is.
“Tristan!” He hears Abigail’s desperate whisper from behind and he stopsto look at her. “Don’tgo in there allaggro,okay? Just, like,be calm,” shesaid,making a smoothing motion with her handstotell him to approach her lightly. He nods his head in understanding before placing his hand on thedoorknobto her room and taking a deep steady breath before pushing the door open.
His eyes find herimmediately. She is sitting on her bed, her legs crossed, in a pair of pinksweat pantsand a white tank top. Her hair is curly and bunched on herheadand she hasa notebook open on her lap that she is feverishly scribbling into. Her eyes lift when she hears her door open, and she is stunned to see Tristan’s impossibly tall frame ducking through the doorway into her bedroom.
He immediately notices the redness of her eyes and his heart pangs at the knowledge that she’s likely been crying all day.
“Hey baby,” he says gently, moving as slowly as possible, as if she’s a scared animal that he’s trying not to spook.
“Hi,” she responds in a small whisper.
