Chapter Twelve
Zuri
Tests are my enemy.
It’s the reason I’m sitting in the library, after eleven o’clock at night on a Tuesday, when I could be in bed with Ash.
She’s made me so happy over the last few weeks. She made me happy before that, too.
When I’m with her family, it’s often easy to forget what they do. Seeing Ollie nagging Rory to do homework, Cillian playing piano for Ollie, or Shai and Cillian playing guitar and piano for Rory and Ollie.
When Tiernan and Dean slip upstairs to their room to read classics together, something Aislin told me they do, and I saw them once when the door was cracked open, and they thought no one was home.
When they share meals and tease each other, and Rory paints Shai’s nails, and all the new model planes they build together.
The way they all love Aislin fiercely, tease each other mercilessly, and just…love. They all love big, and Ash loves the biggest. She makes me feel full in a way I’ve never experienced, and that’s how I know I made the right decision.
And it’s absolutely not what I should be thinking about right now when I have a major anatomy and physiology test tomorrow.
I look back at the book beside my open laptop and try to focus.
The library is blissfully quiet tonight, and I’m able to dig in and actually get some work done. I’m not sure exactly how much time has passed when I hear a noise and look up just as I see Curtis coming to the table.
His blond hair is messier than usual, like he’s run his hands through it a million times. He’s likely frustrated about a test like I am. The little bit I got to know him, I learned he’s very vigilant about school and grades, putting a lot of pressure on himself.
“Hey, Zuri,” he says with a smile. “Can I sit?”
“Sure,” I tell him, not wanting to be rude. “How have you been?”
“Stressed. Overwhelmed. My physics teacher has it out for me. I think she hates me.”
“I’m sure she doesn’t hate you,” I tell him. “But I get how it can feel that way sometimes.”
He looks at me for a moment, like he’s not sure what to say, before replying, “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
“You can study with me here for a bit. I can help if you need it, but I won’t be here too much longer.”
He beams in this sweet, almost needy way that makes me feel slightly guilty for not trying to be friends with him more. “Really? That would be great!”
I glance at my cell and see that it’s eleven fifteen. I write out a quick text to Ash to let her know I’ll be leaving here by midnight and will meet her at her dorm. It’s closer to the library, so we’re staying there tonight.
“Who was that?” Curtis asks.
“My girlfriend. I was just letting her know when I’d be back.”
“Oh. Is that the dark-haired girl I always see you with?”
I never realized that Ash and I had passed him when we were together, but I guess it makes sense that he’d see us around campus. “Yeah. Let’s get to work, though.”
“Okay,” he says easily, pulling his laptop from his backpack.
I don’t get much more studying done myself as I work with Curtis on his physics and listen to him complain about his professor basically doing her job. Was he always this whiny? I guess I didn’t get to know him well enough before to notice.
We’re only at it for about half an hour before Curtis squints, pressing his fingers to his temples.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, concerned because, honestly, he doesn’t look that good all of a sudden. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I just got hit with a migraine. They wipe me out fast when this happens.”
“Shit. That sucks. Here, I’ll help you pack everything in your bag.”
“No, no. I can do it,” he insists, and I watch Curtis fumble through it. He’s sweating profusely now, shaking, and clearly agitated.
“I just really need to get back to my dorm. I have my migraine medicine there.” Curtis stands. It’s immediately clear he’s not steady on his feet as he sways, then grabs on to the table. “I’m dizzy.”
“Should I call someone?” I reach for my phone.
“No, it’s okay. I’m just going to walk back to my dorm. I’ll be fine once I’m there.”
He tries to walk away again and makes it a few steps before he wobbles and grabs on to a chair to steady himself. “Wait. Stop. Sit down. I’ll walk with you.”
I pack up my things, then hold his arm as I help Curtis out of the library.
“Thanks. I’m embarrassed that I need your help. They don’t usually come on that fast,” he tells me.
“No worries. That’s what friends are for,” I say with a smile. “Which way?”
“I’m in Hamner Hall.”
The quickest way to get us there is by going the back way, along the path close to the woods behind our school.
I pause for a second, the back of my neck tingling.
“We can take the long way,” Curtis says, like he’s reading my mind, but really, at this point, I’m just ready to get back to Ash. Why take an extra ten minutes when I don’t have to? There are people around. Not a ton, of course, but some.
“Nah, it’s fine. Let’s just do this.” I thread my arm through Curtis’s again as we follow the concrete pathway around the library. A lot of people jog and run back here during the day. There are trails that go through the woods, too. It’s one of my favorite parts of the campus.
Curtis continues to stumble some along the way, wincing, sweating, and shaking. I’ve learned a lot about migraines, of course, but I’ve never personally seen someone suffer from one this severely before.
We’re close to a bend on the trail, behind dark buildings, though there are lights along the path, when Curtis stops. “Hold on. I think I’m going to throw up.”
He pulls away from me, taking a few steps, giving me his back, while he bends over, gagging a few times. I watch while he drops his bag, then kneels, still sounding as though he’s trying not to vomit.
“You good?” I ask, unsure what to do.
“Fine.” He breathes heavily, hands in front of his torso so I can’t see them, but his arms are moving strangely.
“What are you doing?”
He gags again, which answers my question. All I want to do is get this guy to his dorm and get back to Ash.
“Hey, Curtis—” I start, just as he turns around.
“I just…can you help me?” he asks.
“Yeah, come on.” I grab his bag in one hand, then wrap my arm around him. His body is tense, and the second I’m holding him like this, I know something is wrong.
Curtis’s right hand shoots toward my face, cloth in his palm, his left arm holding me tightly, trying to wrestle and pull me in front of him so he can hold me tighter.
My heart leaps into my throat, survival instinct immediately kicking in. If this motherfucker thinks he’s getting the best of me, he’s got another thing coming.
My first thought is to scream, but then I’m opening my mouth, and I’m sure as shit not letting this guy chloroform me, or whatever it is he thinks he’s doing.
I try to twist out of his hold, and then he’s grabbing me with both hands, trying to pull me toward the woods.
This time, I do scream, since his arms are occupied behind me.
“Shut the fuck up! I’m so fucking tired of all you men-hating women!”
He tries to lift his arm again, wanting that damn cloth over my mouth, and I know if I let him do that, I’m screwed.
“Fuck you. Clearly, you deserve it.”
He pushes me toward the woods, but our legs tangle together, both of us stumbling to the dirt, not far into the trees.
The cloth falls out of his hand as he fights, trying to keep his hold on me.
I do everything to keep him off me, but Curtis is stronger than he looks; my kicking and screaming don’t seem to do much.
“Shut the fuck up!” he manages to roll on top of me, fighting to keep me down.
I thrust upward, doing everything I can to get free, while opening my mouth to scream.
The rag is gone, but he’s holding his newly gloved hand over my mouth now, and I’m scared to death there’s enough on it that he can still make me pass out.
“I’ve watched you, seen how much you’ve changed since you’ve been here.
You were nice at first, but then you thought you were too good for me.
Now you think you’re too good for all men, holding your anti-male rallies, and now even fucking a girl! I’m tired of women like you.”
His other hand goes to my throat, and I know that if I don’t do something now, I’m dead. This guy will strangle me, drag me farther into the woods, and I’ll become another statistic.
Fuck that.
I do the first thing I can think of, not even trying to rip his hand from my throat. I grab his dick, squeezing it as tightly as I can, not letting up when it’s Curtis who cries out this time.
“You fucking bitch!” he seethes, looking like a completely different person from the Curtis I thought I knew.
He has no choice but to pull his hand from my throat, though I still have his dick. I push him off me, squeezing with everything inside me.
Curtis cries out again, rolling himself into a ball, as I shove to my feet, pulling my foot back and kicking him in the stomach.
He grabs a handful of dirt, managing to throw it into my eyes, and everything becomes blurry. But the second I turn to run, there are arms around me, another person is suddenly there, smelling like oranges and sunshine, and I know exactly who it is.
Aislin.
“I got you, baby. You did good. You did so fucking good,” she says. “You’re good. Stay right here.”
“Okay.” My eyes are stinging, and I wipe them just as I hear Curtis cry out.
I turn, just in time to see Ash kick him over and over and over again.
It’s scary.
It’s badass.
“There’s some kind of rag or something. I think he was trying to chloroform me,” I tell her.
“Look in his bag,” she says, and I do, seeing the bottle.
There are more gloves in there, so I pull some on, trying not to get any of the liquid in the bottle on me.
There are other rags inside, and I do my best with shaking hands, scared like hell I’m going to get some on myself, but I pour it on the cloth while my girlfriend beats his ass.
He’s crying, dirty and bloody, when I get back to him.
“Here, give it to me,” Ash says.
“No. I’m doing this.” I kick him one more time, then place the rag over his mouth. His eyes are wide, and he’s struggling, but he doesn’t have much fight left in him, not after what we both did to him. Curtis has no choice but to breathe in the chloroform, clutching at my hands.
Ash steps up beside me. We watch as he lies there, bloody from having his ass kicked and gasping for breath, getting weaker and weaker until eventually, he passes out.
It’s an out-of-body experience after that. Ash directs me to grab both his and my things, and I do. She tries to drag him farther into the woods.
“I don’t want you to have to do this,” she says.
“He attacked me. He wanted to kill me. I’m…no.” I shake my head. “I’m in this.”
I take his other arm, and we drag him away, deeper into the trees, my heart racing the whole time. Ash immediately calls Tiernan.
She’s talking in a low voice to him, but I know they’re coming, and from what I can make of the conversation, Dean is staying behind to do his thing if there’s any camera footage.
The second the call ends, Ash is holding me tightly again. “I’m scared, but I’m not. It’s like I can’t cry. I can’t feel anything. I could have died tonight and—”
“It’s the adrenaline. When it wears off, you’ll crash. I was so fucking scared,” she says.
“How did you know?”
“When you said what time you were leaving, I was going to meet you. I got there and couldn’t find you. I looked at our location app and saw where you were.”
I remember fighting it a little when she first asked me about the app, but now I’m so fucking glad I did it.
“It was him.”
“Who is he?” she asks.
We look at the bloody, passed-out man a couple of feet away from us. “A guy I went out with last year. He’s…” Everything that’s wrong with the world. He’s one of thousands of men who are getting radicalized online to hate women—or at least, I’m assuming that’s what happened.
“Shh. We’ll talk about it later.”
We take the water bottle from my bag and rinse our hands.
I tense when I hear footsteps, but relax when Tiernan, Cillian, Rory, and Shai arrive.
Tiernan doesn’t say anything to us at first, pulling his foot back and kicking Curtis in the face.
When he turns and straightens his clothes, the look in his eyes is the coldest I’ve ever seen another person look.
I take a step back, but then his gaze lands on us, and every one of his features softens. “You both did good. I swear, it’s always one of the women around us saving the day.”
“No shit,” Cillian says. “Fucking badass.”
“I get to kill him, though, right?” Rory asks. “He touched my Ash and her Zuri.”
Aislin turns and looks at me, silently asking the question.
I don’t want to be responsible for someone’s death, but if we let him go, how many other women will he do this to? How many girls has he possibly already done it to?
“Do whatever you want. Just don’t…tell me about it.”
“Wait,” Ash says. “We’ll be okay?” she asks.
“We’ll always be okay,” I reply. I love her too fucking much for anything else.
I know who she is.
I know who they all are.
“Ollie is in the parking lot, waiting to take the two of you home. We’ll take care of the rest,” Cillian says. “I tried to get him to stay home, but he wouldn’t.”
“I’m not surprised,” Ash says, then to me, “Come on, baby. Let’s go home.”
I nod, knowing there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.