Cooper
As I step up to the sink, the door behind me opens with a soft creak. My hand lands on the soap dispenser just as a voice breaks the silence. “Long time no see, Cooper. Did you miss me?”
My blood runs cold, and my eyes snap to the mirror. There. Standing behind me is the monster that haunts my nightmares. He smirks, body relaxed, as if his freedom isn’t on the line. I feel his gaze like knives against my skin as it rakes across my body. He readjusts himself, licking his lips as he does. In an instant, I’m thrown back to being fifteen years old, cowering before him, hoping that if I make myself small enough, he’ll just leave me alone.
He saunters up to me, stopping a mere inch away from making actual contact. Tremors overtake my body, and I say a small prayer to the universe that he won’t notice.I learned a long time ago that the universe is never listening, as far as I’mconcerned.Silas’s smirk turns into a grin. I spin to face him, refusing to be vulnerable with him at my back.
I barely manage to not puke all over his suit. “Y-you c-can’t be in here.” I hate that my voice shakes. That he still has so much power over me.
“It’s a public bathroom. I have as much right as anyone to use it.” His hand reaches up towards my face, and I flinch back, but then his audacity ignites a fire in me. I am not the same boy he knew. Fuck him for thinking he can still intimidate me.
I straighten to my full height, meager as it may be. I refuse to cower before him anymore. “There is a restraining order in place. You aren’t allowed within one hundred yards of me outside of the courtroom. I wonder what the judge would have to say about this little stunt of yours. Why don’t we find out?” Despite the fear shredding my insides, my voice is hard, projecting a confidence I don’t really feel.
??
In a flash, Silas’s hand is gripping my jaw with bruising force. “You threatening me, boy? Seems like you’ve forgotten your place. Forgotten what happened the last time you tried to act like a tough guy.” His thumb traces my bottom lip before forcing its way into my mouth. I gag at the intrusion. “Perhaps you need a little reminder.”
Terror makes my vision white out, but I fight against it, needing to stay aware around him. Coming back to my senses, I realize I’m practically climbing the sink in an unsuccessful bid to escape his touch. He’s moved with me, and we’re now standing flush against each other. His grip on my jaw tightens until I can practically hear my teeth creak.
“You think you can escape me, boy? I own you. This body”—he grabs my crotch and squeezes to emphasize his words—“belongs to me. It will belong to me until the day you die. You’ll never be able to forget my touch or remove the marks I left.” Hemoves his hand from my groin up to my arm, tracing over one of the scars hidden beneath my sleeve.
Once again, I swallow down the vomit creeping up my throat. The fire I felt earlier blazes back to life, and I shove him off of me. His eyes widen in surprise as he stumbles back, but then his face reddens with anger and he rushes me. Unprepared, I put up very little fight as he spins me around and slams my face down against the sink edge.
When he rubs his hardness against me, I feel the blank space in my head pulling at me, the solace of disassociation calling out. I could let go. It would be so easy to fall into my safe place. The place where this happens to someone else. The place where this is all just a movie on repeat. The place where Silas has never been able to reach me.
??
No.That soft voice in my head doesn’t belong to me. Hearing Teddy’s voice, even just a hallucination in my mind, brings me back from the edge.
No.This time the voice is my own. It’s weak, but there.
No.Thinking about all the progress I’ve made this past year, the voice grows firmer.
“No!”I refuse to continue being his victim. I slam my elbow into his ribs. Pain shoots up my arm, but I ignore it, sidestepping and quickly moving around him, ensuring that he’s no longer between me and the door. He turns, taking a single step towards me, before the venom in my voice stops him in his tracks.
“I know you came in here intending to frighten me into backing out of all of this, but you fucked up. I’m no longer a child, Silas. I’m no longer weak and afraid. You may have beaten me into submission once upon a time, but that little boy is gone. And the best part of all this? You might have actually escaped justice if you hadn’t pulled this stunt. The new bruises you put on me, though, just sealed your fate. I’ll be damned before I keepquiet any longer. I hope you enjoy being somebody’s bitch in prison.”
With that, I turn and sprint out of the bathroom, just clearing the doorway before smacking into a firm chest. The clean smell of bergamot and ocean surrounds me. Teddy. When his arms encircle me, I fall apart. Everything I held back in the bathroom rushes forward in the safety of the arms of the man I love.
“LB, wh—” The bathroom door creaks as it opens behind me, and Teddy’s entire body goes rigid. “What the fuck were you doing in there?” His voice is glacial, a tone I’ve never heard from him before. I pull at his face, forcing him to look down at me, and the violence shining there takes me aback. “Can we go?” I whisper. “Please.”
He doesn’t even hesitate. He pulls me away from the bathroom and leads me down the hallway. When our family and Jillian, the prosecutor, move to approach us, Teddy angles us so that he’s standing between them and me.
“Jillian, can we speak with you, please? You’ll need to bring an officer with you,” he says.
“An officer? Everett, what’s going on? Cooper, baby, are you okay?” Mom’s anxious voice breaks through the fog filling my head.
“I’m okay, Mom… Well, I will be. Silas just cornered me in the bathroom.”
At this, everyone gasps. Mom looks ready to start a war, but it’s Jillian that ends up capturing everyone’s attention.
“I’m sorry, the defendant did what?” Her voice is dangerously low.
“He… Uh, well, he…” I trail off, eyes flicking over to my family.
Noticing my discomfort, Jillian steps forward. “Why don’t the two of you come with me? It sounds like I will be filing a few additional charges.” She sends her assistant in search of anofficer and then leads Teddy and me to a small office, where we wait for her assistant to return.
When a cup of coffee is placed in my hands, I realize I’ve zoned out. “Sorry,” I say, taking in the people in the room and realize that an officer has joined us.
