“I’m going to run to the bathroom. Stay with Neo.” Lex kisses my forehead and then walks away.
I look for Mabilia but she’s now behind the bar with Tommy at the other end. Great, guess it’s just me and Lex’s scary brother.
“Why do you look scared?” Neo asks.
“Have you seen yourself, like at all?” I retort. “Shit, sorry. I didn’t mean that.”
“You have no reason to be afraid of me, Addison,” he says.
“It’s not really you. I don’t like males in general.”
“And you’re engaged to my brother? You’re not scared of him?”
“Lex doesn’t scare me.”
“Why don’t you like males?” Neo presses.
“What do you mean?”
“You just said you’re afraid of men. Why?”
“You don’t know?”
“If I knew, I wouldn’t be asking you.”
“I… ah… I was raped. At school,” I explain.
Neo’s face hardens. If I thought it were possible for someone to turn to stone, I’d be afraid he just did. “Is that why you left?”
I nod my head.
“Did Lex know?”
“I didn’t tell him. I left before he could see me.”
“You leaving destroyed him. He was a fucking lunatic without you around,” Neo says. “Don’t hurt him like that again.”
“I didn’t ask to be raped, Neo.” I push off the barstool. Now, I’m annoyed. I need to get out of here, away from this conversation.
“No, but you did leave without telling him why.”
“For his own good. What do you think he would have done?”
“Oh, I know exactly what he would have done.”
“Which is why I left, so he didn’t do something that would ruin his life. It’s bad enough mine was fucked up. I wasn’t going to fuck Lex’s life up too,” I say. “I need to go.”
I turn and march towards the door. Why does the place feel so much more crowded now than when Mabilia and I first came in?
“Hey, where you going in such a hurry?” A man steps in front of me.
I take a step backwards. “I…”Shit.
“Get out of her fucking way.”
I spin around to see Neo right behind me.
“Who the fuck are you?” the guy asks.
