Lips trembling.
The kind of fear that wasn’t new—just familiar enough to have worn her down.
Not someone who’d learned to fight it.
Someone who had learned to endure it.
“They’re trying to bully you, aren’t they?” I asked softly, turning my attention to her.
She hesitated.
Then nodded—small, jerky, almost ashamed.
Her voice, when it came, was thin. Fragile.
Like something that had been forced into silence for too long.
“Yes... they are.”
She swallowed hard, her voice unsteady.
“Enzo’s been after me since the first day. Asking me out, over and over. I told him no. I told him I’m not interested in him—or anyone—but he doesn’t listen.”
Her fingers curled tightly at her sides, like she was holding herself together.
“He says it doesn’t matter what I want. That he’ll have me anyway... that he always gets what he wants.”
Her voice dropped lower.
“He started following me. At first it was just... showing up wherever I was. Then it got worse. Waiting outside my dorm. Walking behind me to class. Standing outside the hall like he knew exactly when I’d come out.”
She let out a shaky breath.
“He corners me whenever he can—hallways, stairwells... anywhere there aren’t many people. And today...” Her voice faltered.
“Today he brought his friend.” She gestured faintly toward the shorter one. “They started pushing me toward this corner, saying if I tried to run... it would only get worse.”
Her gaze flickered—instinctively, fearfully—to Enzo’s pocket, where his hand still rested.
“They said if I report it, no one will believe me.” Her voice dropped to almost nothing. “That they’d make sure of it.”
Enzo laughed.
“Careful, little mouse,” he said, tilting his head with a predator’s amusement. “You really think running your mouth to her will save you from me?”
His tone wasn’t just a warning.
It was a threat.
I stepped forward.
Positioning myself between them and the girl.
My voice stayed even.
“Enzo,” I said, looking directly at him, “I could break both your arms and kill you before either of you draws another breath.”
A pause.
