Blake
My heart rams against my chest as I stand there, holding Briar, waiting for her to say more.
My brain goes crazy thinking of what her ex could have done to her.
If he hurt her…If he put his hands on her, I will fucking kill him.
Her eyes are watery with unshed tears as she takes a breath.
“We were at a house party,” she says. “A bunch of his teammates were there, and they were all pretty drunk. I’d seen Logan drink before, but he was wasted that night.
” She sniffles. “He was being pretty handsy with me. Kissing me and touching me. Which was fine. I mean, he was my boyfriend for more than six months at that point. I liked being affectionate with him. When we first started dating, I told him I was a virgin and wasn’t ready to have sex just yet.
He said he was fine with it. He said he was happy to wait until I was ready. But that night at the party…”
Her voice shakes again.
“He was acting different. He kept saying how he couldn’t wait to take me upstairs to one of the bedrooms and take my clothes off,” she says.
“We had fooled around a little, but we’d never been naked with each other.
We’d never done anything more than make out.
But then he grabbed me and tossed me over his shoulder, then took me upstairs.
I thought he was joking around at first, but then he took me to one of the bedrooms and locked the door. He wouldn’t let me leave.”
My entire body goes rigid. “That motherfucker,” I mutter.
She sniffles. “He pushed me onto the bed and started kissing me and trying to take off my shirt. I pushed him away, but he pinned me to the bed with one hand and then groped my breasts with his other hand.” She goes quiet.
“He tried to shove his hand down my pants,” she says in a quiet voice.
“I froze. I was so shocked at how forceful he was being. But then the shock started to fade, and I just got so mad. I shoved him off of me. I stood up and started yelling at him. I couldn’t believe he was trying to make me have sex with him.
I told him I wasn’t ready and that I didn’t want to lose my virginity in a stranger’s bedroom at a frat party. He got so mad.”
Her lips tremble, and tears fall down her face. I wipe them away.
“He said he was sick of waiting for me. He said he had been patient with me and that I owed it to him to have sex with him. I refused. I told him it was over between us, and I walked out of the party.”
Adrenaline slams through my body. This unfamiliar, caged-animal energy zooms through me. I have the sudden urge to hop on the next flight to Chicago, track down Logan, and rip that fucker to shreds.
I cup Briar’s cheek in my hand. “Did he hurt you?”
“When he pushed me onto the bed and tried to pull my shirt off, it hurt a little. And when he shoved his hand down my jeans,” she says quietly. “But other than that, no.”
The anger simmering inside of me morphs into a bonfire of rage. “He still hurt you.”
“Not as bad as he could have. It could have been so much worse.”
The rage inside of me turns murderous. I’m a pretty laidback guy. I joke around a lot. I try not to sweat the small stuff and like to have a good time. Not a lot of things piss me off.
But hearing how Briar’s ex put his hands on her…hearing how he tried to force himself onto her…
I’ve never felt this before. This raw, unbridled, seething fury that pumps like molten lava in my veins.
“If I ever see Logan, I’m going to kill him.”
Briar’s eyes are as big as saucers when she looks up at me. “What?”
“I’m going to kill him for hurting you.”
She blinks, the shock in her eyes clear as day. Awareness catches up with me a second later. That’s probably not a very helpful thing for me to say to her right now.
“I’m sorry, I…” I clear my throat. “I’m sorry he did that to you. He’s a piece of shit.”
“He had me fooled for so long. He was so sweet and funny when we first started dating. But that night, I saw a side of him I never want to see again. It was like a switch flipped.”
She leans back and wipes her face with the sleeves of my hoodie.
“That wasn’t even the worst part,” she says, leaning back against the counter, hugging her arms around herself.
“The day after I broke up with him, I tried to meet up with my friends at school, but they wouldn’t text or call me back.
It went on for days. It felt like everyone was ghosting me.
And then I bumped into one of them at the coffee shop, and she made a snide comment about what a jerk I was for using Logan.
I was so confused. And then I bumped into one of Logan’s teammates at the coffee shop on campus.
He asked me out, but I turned him down. He seemed really surprised for some reason, which was weird because I never showed interest in him like that. He even called me a tease.”
I grit my teeth. What the fuck?
She lets out a heavy sigh. “I kept trying to reach out to all the friends I made, but they all blew me off. This went on for like a month. I finally confronted one of them in person and asked what the hell was going on, and they said that after I broke up with Logan and left the party, he told everyone that I used him so that I could get close to his teammates. He told everyone that I wanted to hook up with all the guys on the team.”
Her voice breaks, and she starts to cry.
“And they all believed him. I couldn’t believe it.
He was so mad that I didn’t have sex with him, so he started a disgusting rumor about me and told everyone.
His teammates, their girlfriends, all our mutual friends.
And they all believed him. Even when I tried to tell my friends that he was lying, they sided with him. ”
She covers her face with her hands as she cries softly. My chest shatters.
I wrap my arms around her and hug her.
“My whole life at Chicago University was ruined. I lost all my friends because of him,” she says.
I think back to the night when she called me sobbing, saying she wanted to leave Chicago and come back to Colorado.
“That’s why I left. I was so happy in Chicago for so long, but after that night, it was ruined. I didn’t have any friends anymore. Strangers would see me across campus and call me a slut or a whore. I didn’t even do anything.”
I hold her tighter, pissed off and heartbroken for her.
“I just needed to get away,” she says, her voice watery and broken.
“It’s okay,” I whisper. “You’re here now. You’re with me, and I’m not going to let anything like that happen to you ever again.”
She buries her face in my chest. Emotion lodges in my throat. She’s been holding this inside of her for months. She’s been in pain this whole time, struggling alone.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask softly.
“I just wanted to forget it. I didn’t want to think about it anymore.”
She leans back and looks up at me, her face red and swollen from crying. “And I…I was scared you’d think I was a coward.”
My jaw drops in shock. “What? No, Briar. I don’t think that at all.”
She lets out a breath, like she’s relieved.
She looks down and plays with the ends of her hair. “My parents think I’m a coward for leaving school and running away to Denver.”
That protective feeling surges through me. “Do they know what happened?”
Briar shakes her head. “I just told them about the breakup. I said it was bad, but I didn’t give them specifics. You’re the only person I’ve told. You’re the only one who knows everything that happened.”
I reach around her and grab the roll of paper towels, tear off one, and hand it to her.
She thanks me and wipes her nose. “I don’t want everyone knowing what happened, other than you. It’s humiliating.”
Need surges through me. The need to comfort her. The need to make her pain go away.
Gently, I grab her shoulders. “Listen to me. What Logan did to you was unforgivable. He’s a sack of shit. So are all the people who believed him over you.” I swallow hard. “I’m sorry it happened. I’m sorry you went through that all alone.”
Her eyes are teary again, but I can see the sadness fading away.
“You don’t owe anyone an explanation, Briar. Not even your parents. I won’t say a word, okay? I promise.”
“I know you won’t.” Her voice is so soft and sad. It makes my heart ache.
I hug her against me. She wraps her small arms around me, squeezing me tight. I tuck her head under my chin, hoping she feels warm and secure. That’s exactly what I want to be for her in this moment. A safe place. We stand there for what feels like minutes.
“Are you sick of standing here and hugging me?” she asks in a soft voice.
“Never. I’m addicted to your hugs, remember?”
She lets out a small, quiet laugh that makes that ache in my chest go away.
She leans back, and I cup my hands over her cheeks.
“What do you need right now?” I ask softly.
“Honestly? Some tacos. And maybe a milkshake.”
“I can make that happen.”