Chapter 25 #2
“We already paid using the discount. He can’t exactly take that back now.”
“But who’s gonna be the best man?”
“I’ll figure it out,” Charlie said. “Someone else will step in. We have time.”
Avery couldn’t believe it was that easy. That Morgan and Charlie were just doing this, no questions asked.
“Everyone’s gonna hate me,” Avery muttered. “Even more than they already do.”
Morgan pulled Avery in for a hug while Charlie rubbed Avery’s back. Avery’s eyes burned with tears.
“You’ve got us no matter what,” Morgan whispered.
Avery wiped her eyes. She felt so held. So supported. So loved.
Avery went back inside the house after her conversation with Morgan and Charlie, wanting a moment alone to process everything.
She ran her fingers through her matted hair, which was still soaked in sweat from the hike and salt water from crying.
She was desperate for a shower, but using Noah’s towels or shampoo would only make her feel dirtier.
Resigned to her filth, she put her hair in a bun, then went to the kitchen to grab another beer from the fridge and sat on a stool in front of the island.
She was eager to get out of Noah’s house as fast as she could, but while she was here she might as well drink his alcohol.
Noah suddenly appeared in the kitchen carrying a water bottle.
Avery jumped. He twisted open the lid, lowered the empty bottle into the sink, and turned on the faucet.
He had one of those massive forty-ounce Stanley cups that would take forever to fill up, so he wouldn’t be budging from that spot for twenty seconds.
Avery distracted herself by chugging her beer.
Halfway through his refill, he said, “We need to talk.”
He dug his hand into an opened bag of Ruffles beside the sink, then put a chip in his mouth and licked his fingers clean.
Avery’s body jolted with a memory—those fingers on her skin, the way she rubbed her flesh raw in the shower the morning after he’d touched her and watched her blood swirl down the drain.
“There’s nothing to talk about,” she said.
Noah turned off the sink. Twisted the cap on his Stanley. “Actually, there is.”
He tried to make eye contact with her, but she wouldn’t look at him. Her pulse throbbed.
“This whole thing is ridiculous. You know that, right?” he said.
Avery slid her gaze to meet his. He took a few steps toward her, but she pressed her back against the stool, urging him not to come closer.
“You know, the thing about how I raped you.” He said the word like it was theoretical. “Come on. You can’t just go around saying shit like that.”
He took a long sip of his water. Avery imagined him choking to death, drowning.
“But you did,” she said plainly. “That’s what happened.”
Noah rolled his eyes. “Spare me,” he hissed. “You were all over me that night. And then we hooked up. It’s not the big deal you’re making it out to be.”
Avery drew in a long breath and moved her attention to her beer bottle, picking at the label and rolling up the wet paper into tiny balls.
She willed the strength from her conversation with Morgan on the porch an hour ago, from the way Charlie and Morgan had believed her so easily, to carry her through this confrontation.
She needed to remember everything she knew to be true about that night.
“Noah, I was just being nice,” she said. “Just because someone is being nice to you doesn’t mean they’re agreeing to fuck you.” She flicked one of the wet paper balls away. “Also, you knew I was dating Ryan. Why in the world would I be all over you?”
Noah slapped his hands against his sides. “What do I know? I thought maybe you guys were in a fight or had broken up or something. I wasn’t keeping track of every development in your fucking relationship. And you and I were hanging out all night.”
“We were all hanging out.” Avery looked him right in the eye. “In a group. ”
“You and I weren’t with the group the whole night. You followed me upstairs. You ”—and here Noah pointed at her—“wanted to be alone.”
“No, you’re misreading that entire interaction. It was an oven in that basement and you said you were going to get some air, and I agreed that was a good idea. That’s all that was.”
Noah let out an exasperated sigh. “What about when you were getting handsy with me in Ronald’s bedroom? You were very happy to be alone with me in there.”
Avery drank the remaining few sips of her beer and chucked it into the recycling bin, where it clanked loudly against other empty glass bottles.
“ Handsy? ” Her nostrils flared. She rose from her stool.
“You mean when I was trying to pry you off me? And then when you held my wrists behind my back against my will? Is that what you’re referring to? ”
“Against your will? Are you serious?” Noah’s agitation was mounting, spittle forming in the corners of his lips. “Girls like rough sex. Just look at Blair. She’s into it. And that’s what we were doing, too.”
“That wasn’t what we were doing, Noah. I was not ‘into it.’ I was trying to get away. And you would’ve known that if you’d checked in with me even once .”
Noah said nothing for a few seconds, just shook his head repeatedly as he moved to the other side of the island. Avery remained standing, panting hard.
“Jesus Christ, you’re a tease,” Noah muttered to himself. He met her eye again. “So now it’s my responsibility to ask if the girl is doing okay? Why didn’t you say something?”
Avery had tried to say something that night. Her limbs and tongue were heavy with booze, but she did her best to communicate that she did not want to have sex with him when they were in the bedroom. And it wasn’t enough.
“I did say something,” she said. Her voice was unyielding. “I said no. Or at least I tried very hard. You ignored me.”
Noah scoffed. “I didn’t ignore you. You didn’t communicate clearly enough.”
Even if Avery’s attempt to get Noah off of her was unclear and sloppy, shouldn’t the mere attempt have been enough for him to stop?
Why would he proceed to have sex with someone who wasn’t fully enthusiastically engaged in the moment?
She supposed when a man saw you as only a body and not as a human, the words that came out of your mouth didn’t matter.
“You can’t be this stupid,” she pressed on. She stayed strong, felt something powerful coursing through her veins. “Have you never been super drunk before? You’re not exactly functioning at maximum capacity. Anyone who looked at me would’ve known that I couldn’t give consent.”
“ Give consent,” Noah repeated in a derisive, high-pitched voice. “You sound like one of those ugly blue-haired feminists who don’t shave their pits.”
“And you sound like a rapist. Because that’s what you are.”
They stared at each other for a few beats, Avery holding steady on his steely gaze.
She searched his stone-cold expression for a flicker of fear.
He knew there were people who believed Avery now, people like Morgan and Charlie, which was a risk to his nice-guy, charismatic start-up founder image.
He’d have to explain to everyone—his colleagues at the Humane Society who’d helped him adopt the puppy, the Meow Monthly investor who’d connected him with a discount for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, his whole inner circle of friends and family—why he was no longer the best man in his friends’ wedding.
But that wasn’t Avery’s problem.
He went over to the sink and swiped his Stanley off the counter before leaning in close to Avery’s ear. His breath was hot and yeasty, frothing in his mouth. Avery remained still.
“You’re right,” he said, his voice low and hard, cutting in its quiet. “And I’d do it all over again so that bitches like you know your place.”
When he left the kitchen, Avery curled her hands into fists on the table. What a despicable excuse of a man. Of a human being.
“Fuck you,” she spat after him.
He didn’t hear her. He’d already disappeared. But it was the start of him finally getting what he deserved.