Chapter 5
Eva
Aweek passed and I was settling into my new routine.
Christmas was four days away and I wasn't sure yet what I'd do over the holiday.
Classes were out tomorrow through the twenty-sixth.
Jo and Brittney were going to be going to their parents' houses.
I'd probably end up spending the days with Thomas since we were both here without family.
I'd seen Alex in class since our date, but he didn't approach me, or try to talk to me.
I considered apologizing to him again, but I didn't want to open the door for anything more, so I left it alone.
It was best that I focus on myself and school for now.
There was plenty of time to find Prince Charming later.
"Do you ever do anything besides study?"
I looked up from where I was seated on my bed, books and my laptop spread over the comforter and grinned at the girls. "Not really," I admitted.
"We should go out," Jo said. "Do something fun."
"What did you have in mind?"
They both shrugged and flopped down onto my bed as well. We'd all gotten closer in the last week. They were both sweet and funny and I loved hanging out with them. But that mostly consisted of us spending time here together when they weren't with their boyfriends.
"We could go to a bar," Brittney suggested.
I wrinkled my nose at them.
They laughed. "What do you have against bars?" Jo asked.
"Nothing particularly." I sighed, and straightened up. "I haven't ever been to one."
The looks they gave me were pure shock. "Never?"
I shook my head. "My parents kept me on a tight leash."
"That's it," Brittney said. "We're going out. You can't come to America and not hit at least one bar."
"Get dressed," Jo ordered.
Looking down at the school work I had, I sighed. There was a lot to do, but I was feeling restless. "Fine," I said. "I'll go."
They jumped off the bed, squealing as they ran to get ready.
Laughing, I went to my closet and flicked through the clothes hanging there.
There were dresses, skirts, blouses, but I knew this was a casual thing.
Most American women seemed to wear jeans or leggings and I wanted to fit in.
My father would lose his mind if I went around wearing the tight leggings so many girls here favored, so I went with jeans and a cute, flowy top, and a pair of high heels.
A whistle came from behind me. "Girl. Those shoes have red bottoms." Jo was looking at my heels with lust in her eyes.
"They do," I said with a grin. "Want to borrow a pair?"
"You have more than one?" she gasped. "Yes, please." I tossed her over another pair and she sat on the bed and tried them on. "A little big, but I don't care. I'll shuffle all night if I have to."
I still hadn't admitted to my roommates who I really was. They had questions, I could tell. About Thomas. About the money I had, though I tried not to flaunt it. But they were still being polite enough not to ask.
A car horn blared outside. "That's Brad. Come on!"
She grabbed me by the arm and I had just enough time to scoop up my purse before she pulled me out of the room.
We all piled into Brad's car. Jo was sitting up front while Brittney, Paul, and I were in the back seat.
It was a tight squeeze, but I didn't care.
Excitement filled the air as we drove. I hadn't bothered buying a car yet, and I wasn't sure I would.
I hadn't done much driving, since we usually had cars and drivers back home who took us from place to place.
Thomas insisted on driving me everywhere here.
When I offered to take the bus he'd nearly had a heart attack.
Once we parked, we went into the bar and I looked around.
It was all dim lighting and loud voices.
There were TVs playing over the bar top, but you couldn't hear them over the din of the place.
People were laughing and drinking and seemed to be having a great time.
They took me to the back, where there were some pool tables.
I mostly watched as the others played, and drank different sugary drinks that Jo insisted I try.
Soon enough the alcohol had my head spinning.
Because I never drank, I didn't have a tolerance built up and it didn't take much to get me drunk.
It wasn't that I didn't like drinking. And I didn't have an aversion to having fun, but I just had never really been allowed to.
My father was very strict and it was drilled into our entire family that we must behave like ladies and gentlemen and do the family name proud.
I rolled my eyes as his stern voice echoed in my mind.
I loved my father. He was the one I had always run to when I was scared, but I also resented the rules he placed upon me.
"Hi, Beautiful."
I looked over at the man who was standing near me, grinning. "Hi," I replied.
"You want to dance?"
I frowned and looked around him. There was no music playing and nowhere to dance even if we wanted to. "No, thank you."
"Come on. We can make our own music together."
I wasn't used to pushy men. The few who were my age who managed to make it past security—and my father—knew to be respectful. I didn't want to sound rude, but I was more than a little drunk and didn't want to do any kind of swaying. "No, thank you," I repeated.
He leaned closer and I edged away as his stale breath wafted over me. "Come on, Beautiful," he said, his voice slurring. He was drunk too, though I wasn't sure how much that mattered when he was being so pushy about wanting to dance with me.
"I'm sorry," I told him again, trying to be polite, "but no."
"You're getting on my nerves," he growled. His hand shot out and grabbed my arm in a painful grip.
I gasped, trying to yank free, but it only made him tighten down harder. "Please let go," I requested, trying to be as polite as I could without losing my temper.
"Hey!" Jo's voice cut through the air like a whip crack. "Let her go!"
He turned toward her and I saw Brad moving alongside her. The look on his face was furious as he took in the man holding onto me. "You heard her. Let go of her."
I jerked my arm free while he wasn't paying attention. Paul and Brittney were standing near my friends now. The drunk man was between me and them. I tried to step around him, but he kept shifting, keeping me stuck between him and the wall I'd been sitting near.
"I'll call the cops," Brittney threatened, glaring at him.
"Fine," he said, throwing his hands up in the air. "I don't want to dance with her anyway." He turned to glare at me. "Stuck up bitch." He spat the words at me, then stumbled off toward a group of guys that were watching us.
I rubbed at my arm where he'd grabbed me and sighed. "Thanks for coming over."
Brad nodded at me, then looked over toward the guy who'd been bothering me. "You okay?"
"Yeah." I gave him a small smile. "I'm fine."
"Come on," Jo said, "let's get out of here."
"I think I'll head home," I said, looking around the bar again.
"We all will," Jo insisted.
"We'll have to walk," Brad cautioned. All of us had been drinking, so no one could drive. "But it's not far."
Nodding, I followed them out of the bar, trying to ignore the dirty looks I was receiving from the group of men in the corner.
I wasn't trying to be a stuck up bitch. I just wasn't used to any of this and was floundering a bit as I tried to figure things out here.
School was fine. That was the easy part.
And my new friends made it incredibly fun to gather socially and hang out.
It was the men I couldn't quite get my footing with.
I wasn't sure what I was looking for, but both men who'd shown an interest in me hadn't made me feel safe.
More than that, they scared me. I wasn't some wilting wallflower, but my instincts were screaming at me that they were no good.
We stopped at Brad's car and I grabbed my leather jacket out of it for the walk home.
It was cold enough that the night air invigorated me and cleared my head a little.
We'd only gotten a few blocks and Jo was gasping with each step.
"I love these heels but man they hurt." She slipped them off and walked barefoot.
"Your feet are going to freeze," I told her, worried about her getting sick.
"Better that than them falling off," she replied with a smile. "I'm going to have to scrub them with bleach, too."
Raucous laughter floated through the night air, and I turned to see where it was coming from. Dread pooled in my stomach. "Those guys are following us," I whispered when I looked forward.
"From the bar?" Brad asked, not bothering to turn around. He sighed when I nodded. "I hoped they'd get the fucking hint."
"They're catching up fast," Jo said, her head turned, watching them.
Brad and Paul stopped and put themselves between us and the men. There were five of them to our two, "What's your problem?" Brad called out.
"You took that bitch away before we could teach her a lesson," one of the men called back. They were still a ways behind us, shouting across the distance.
Jo grabbed my hand and squeezed as she pulled out her cellphone. "I need your help." She didn't bother to explain the situation to whoever was on the other end of the phone, just looked around for street signs and gave an address. "I'm so sorry. Please tell them to hurry."
"You're not teaching anyone a lesson," Brad said as Jo had her conversation. He didn't sound scared, even though there were only the two of them standing up to the larger group of men.
I pulled out my own cell phone and hit a number. "Thomas?"
"Yes, Ma'am."
I explained the situation while the tension in the air grew thick as the drunk men hurled insults at each other.
"I'm on my way," he told me. His voice was the epitome of calm. I'd seen Thomas in action once before when someone tried to grab my younger sister from a parade we attended. He was a formidable man, and I was so grateful he was on my side. "Stay on the phone with me."
"Okay."
Jo looked over at me. "Help is coming." She didn't look as confident as Thomas had sounded, but I knew she was trying to make me feel better about the situation.
"Let us have her and we'll leave you alone," the man who'd approached me in the bar called out again.
"Let's just go around the block, try to lose them," Paul suggested.
We increased our pace, turning and trying to outdistance them. Jo was texting on her phone, probably updating whoever she'd called about our location. We made it another two blocks before things got worse.
"They're running," Brittney squeaked.
That made us all turn and face the men as they caught up to us. They were grinning as they stopped a short distance away.
"Give her to us, or you're going to fucking regret it," the man repeated, his eyes raking over me.
My nose wrinkled in a cringe of disgust at the thought of going with these men. "There's no need for violence," I told them.
They laughed. It was an ugly sound and I knew then that violence was exactly what they wanted. This didn't feel right. I knew American men could be pushy, but this wasn't like anything I'd heard about. Why was this happening?
"What's it going to be?" the ringleader asked Brad.
"You're fucking insane if you think we're just handing our friend over to you," he replied, glaring at them. His hands balled up into fists at his sides.
This wasn't good. It was going to take Thomas at least thirty minutes to get here, if not more, even with the sparse late-night traffic. I wasn't sure who Jo had called—hopefully the authorities—or how long it would take for them to respond, but they were going to be too late.
A moment later the men proved me right. They spread out and launched themselves at Brad and Paul.
I gasped, eyes wide, as someone's fist connected with Brad's face.
He stood his ground, swinging back on the man as they began fighting in earnest. Paul was busy with two men, leaving two more to advance toward us.
One was the man who'd tried to dance with me.
I looked over at the girls and they looked as scared and angry as I felt. "Leave us alone," I demanded.
The men chuckled, low and deep, causing warning bells to sound in my head.
I took a step backward as the man invaded my space.
They were herding us, kind of like the border collies from back home maneuvered sheep.
The man in front of me was starting to separate me from the others.
I tried to dart around him to get back to the safety of my group, but his long arm reached out and grabbed me around the waist. I wasn't sure what came over me, but I was so angry with him for doing this that I let my, usually contained, temper free on him.
I started hitting him anywhere I could. His curses echoing through the night made me grin like a feral cat as I hit him in the throat hard enough to make him wheeze.
When his hand clamped down on my wrist, I leaned forward and sank my teeth into his flesh, biting down as hard as I could.
More curses. But then the world was spinning.
I gasped when I realized he'd tossed me over his shoulder and was walking away from the fight with me.
I pounded my fists on his back, did my best to kick him anywhere I could, but he was too strong.
Fear was beginning to seep in and take over my rage.
I couldn't let him take me. My heart was roaring in my ears.
The sound was so loud and guttural it sounded more like it was nearby than in my mind.
"Eva!"
Jo's scream renewed my fighting. It was hard to breathe with this man's shoulder digging into my diaphragm, but I had to do something. My father and mother hadn't raised a quitter. Suddenly, the man jerked to a stop, then stumbled.
It was my turn to scream as the pavement rushed toward me, or the other way around, but something caught me before I connected.
"Oomph," I grunted as steel banded around my body and I was jerked backward into a brick wall.
My fight or flight response was in control right now, so when I looked over my shoulder and saw another man there, I did what any sane person would do.
I elbowed him as hard as I could in the solar plexus.
I wasn't about to let any of these men take me away from the others.