Bullet(24)

I’d thought we would be done, but she grabbed my hair from behind and pulled me onto the floor. Holy shit…that hurt. It felt as though tiny needles were poking through my skull. When I hit the floor, so did the back of my head.

Before I could even register what was happening, she was squatting over my stomach. “Valerie, you’re mine now. And Ethan’s not here to save you this time.”

I tried to fight back, but she’d pinned my arms down with her knees, and I couldn’t move. Charlotte had a snide look on her face. “First, let me tell you about my evening.” I started to squirm, but I couldn’t move. “We went out to eat first. He looked good enough to eat. And those eyes…mmm…so I grabbed his hand under the table and made him touch me. And guess what? I had my first orgasm right there in the restaurant. But all that did was make him want me more, so when we got to his truck, I let him have me anyway he wanted.”

I was repulsed. I did not want to hear about Charlotte’s sex play with my Ethan. I don’t know how I did it, and maybe it was because she wasn’t paying attention anymore, but with all my force, I arched my back and managed to gain enough wiggle room that I could throw her off. And then I got on top of her. “I told you, Charlotte, I don’t want to hear it.” I growled at her and then got off. I walked away, sure for some stupid reason that she would leave me alone this time. I was now walking down the wide walkway between the dorms. I paused and watched her through the glass door and, even though she’d stood up, she stayed her distance. Finally, I turned around and started walking to Ethan’s dorm room, and I started to feel better. I didn’t know if I was hurting worse physically or emotionally, not that it mattered. I’d need some time to heal up, but first I wanted to finish what I’d planned. Stupid me, though. I was lost in my thoughts and wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings, and Charlotte must have slipped her heels off, because as I walked past the humming soda machines, I couldn’t hear her feet on the polished tile. She jumped on me from behind, throwing me onto the floor. She held me down, with me lying on my stomach. She wormed her fingers through my hair and started bashing my head against the floor.

Oh, God, that hurt. I tried to twist my head so my nose wasn’t taking the brunt of the blow, but my forehead was getting plenty. Even though I was pushing against her hand, she’d managed to throw my head into the floor once, and it hurt like hell. The second time, I knew what to expect and was fighting it, but I felt lightheaded and nauseous.

“Why, Charlotte? What did I ever do to you to make you hate me so badly?”

She snarled and paused. “You think you’re so perfect. You do everything right. You’re so nice, and you’re this perfect little f*cking virgin. And then, to top it all off, you just waltz into our room mid semester with one of the hottest guys on campus. Sorry, but a little goody-two-shoes like you doesn’t deserve a guy that hot with a cock like that. You wouldn’t have any idea what to do with the damn thing.”

I growled again, using the muscles in my neck to push against her hand, but it was becoming a losing battle. “And he wanted me, Valerie. In fact, he said he wished you were more like me. He could never love you. You play too sweet. You don’t want to get your hands dirty. And so it’ll never happen.”

Her words hurt worse that her physical beating was. And, believing that Ethan might have actually said those words, I lost hope. She sensed that and said, “Loss for words, bitch?”

Slam! went my head into the floor again, and I saw a white flash.

“Get the f*ck off her, Charlotte.” Zane…oh, thank goodness. He must have started to worry when I didn’t arrive right away.

I lay there and felt her being pulled off my body, but I was losing consciousness. I drifted off, and the next thing I remembered was Ethan rolling me over, holding my head in his hands. My eyes closed again, and I heard him say, “Zane, let’s get her up to our room.” I couldn’t remember that trip, only that they helped me—mostly carried me—back to their dorm room.

When I opened my eyes again, I noticed I was on Ethan’s bed, and I didn’t know where Zane was. “Val, are you okay?” He brushed my hair off the bloody mess on the right side of my head. I blinked but didn’t say anything. “Good thing we came when we did.”

“Ethan…she said…”

Gently, he laid his finger on my lips. “Shh…don’t talk.”

Zane came back in the room with a wet washcloth, and Ethan wiped the blood off my face. I winced. It hurt.

Ethan looked at Zane. “Maybe we should take her to the hospital.”

I tried to sit up. “No. I can’t. I don’t have any money, and they’ll ask questions, and—”

“Val, don’t worry about it. You’ve been through too much tonight already.”

I shook my head, sending new waves of pain through my bones.

“Enough. We’re going.”

I sighed but then told them we’d need my dad’s insurance card. It was in my purse back in my dorm room. Zane went to fetch my purse. I gave him my room key, but he said he’d give Jennifer a chance to answer the door first. He didn’t want her hitting him over the head with a chair or something. While he was gone, Ethan stroked the side of my head that hadn’t been beaten in. “God, Val…this is all my fault. I’m so sorry.”

“No, it’s not, Ethan. She’s psychotic. Always has been, I guess.”

“Yeah, but she probably wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t…been with her.”

I tried to smile. “That’s true…*.”

“I guess I deserve that.”

“I was just joking.”

“I wasn’t.” We were quiet then, and I closed my eyes, trying not to think of Charlotte wrapped around Ethan. Man, she’d known how to hurt me. The physical wounds would heal, but I didn’t know about the ones she’d inflicted on my heart.

I was having a hard time holding onto wakefulness, but soon I was in the emergency room, waiting for someone to look at me. When the doctor came in the room, he kicked the men out. He believed I had a minor concussion and said that someone should wake me up every few hours. If I didn’t wake up, they needed to call the doctor. He also treated my gashes and then sent me on my way. They said they’d bill my dad’s insurance. I needed to call my parents the next day and let them know what happened. I knew they’d be okay with the bill, but I wanted them to know the details instead of getting the bill or the statement from the insurance and wondering what happened.

It was late when we got back to the dorms…early morning, actually. Ethan said, “I want you staying in our room, okay? We need to keep an eye on you like the doctor said.” I didn’t protest.

Zane asked, “You need me to fetch anything from your room?”

I shrugged. “I don’t think so.”

He nodded. “I’m gonna go shower then.”

Ethan knelt over and untied my shoes for me. “I want you to lie down and try to rest. I’ll wake you up every few hours like the doctor said.”

“Ethan?” He looked up at me from where he squatted on the floor. He raised his eyebrows, waiting for me to speak. “Thanks.”

He frowned. “I don’t know what for. But…you’re welcome.” He stood. “Now, lie back, and I’ll pull the covers over you.”

I did as he asked, and he pulled the sheet and blanket over my body. He sat on the bed next to me and moved my hair off my forehead. “Tell me what happened. You think you can do that?”

I sighed. “You really want to know?” He nodded, so I strained to recall the events that had occurred earlier that evening, from the time I’d gotten to the bottom of the flight of stairs in my building up until he and Zane found me in the hallway. “But…what hurt the worst was when Charlotte said you told her you wished I was more like her.”

“She said that?”

“Yeah.”

He leaned closer to me. “I never said that, Val. I would never say that. I don’t ever want you to change.” He stroked my cheek with his finger. “Can you ever forgive me?”

“If you didn’t say that, I don’t need to.”

“Oh, yeah, I do need your forgiveness. I never should have gone out with her but…she was so goddamned tempting…”

I hadn’t needed to hear that either, and if he wanted my forgiveness, he needed to shut up. But, in that moment, he looked so vulnerable. For the first time since I’d met Ethan, he looked open…exposed, and he’d done it on purpose. He was laying himself bare to me, for me, and gone was that glint in his eyes he’d usually carried with him. He was pure then, and so I let my guard down too. “Ethan…I have to tell you something, something I should have told you so long ago, and I hope you’ll understand.” His eyes just looked at me, the question drawn in them. He didn’t need to ask. So I continued. “I…care more for you than I’ve ever let on. I thought you just considered me a friend, so I left it at that, but I can’t bear it any longer. I want you to know and then, well…where it goes from here is up to you.”