Page 8 of Requiem

“What do you mean? We have to try. Guys like him don’t change.”

In her eyes I see myself. How broken I was that day in the woods when something was taken from me, I’d never get back. Her sadness washes over me like a wave. I blow out a deep breath. “I believe you. I saw what he was doing.”

“He didn’t rape me.”

“But he molested you and put his hands on you. There’s already bruising.”

“You think the cops care what happens to an out of town Black girl living on scholarship money?”

I bite my lower lip. “I know what it feels like when no one cares.”

She laughs. “Your skin is paler than snow. I doubt you can relate. No offense.”

“You’re right and wrong. You might think I have some privilege. Maybe I do. But as a woman… I can relate. Girl to girl—I’ve been abused too. Been hit hard.”

I blow out a breath about to reveal a truth to a stranger. “When I was eleven. A teen boy I knew choked me. He put his hands around my throat and squeezed until I couldn’t breathe all the while whispering in my ear how he enjoyed it. I even think he was hard. He eased up at the last moments and gave me CPR, leaving my unconscious body in the woods by a stream. I had no family. And I knew if I reported him, I’d be a dead girl for real. There would be no second escape for me. His family would end me, or they’d hand me off to a home where eviler men would do worse. I feel you okay?”

“It’s not the same.”

“I know it’s not. But it’s something. Who was that guy, anyway?”

“My boyfriend, Leo.”

“Did he always treat you like that?”

“No. He just acts like that in front of his boys. But he’s never put his hands on my like that before.” Her phone starts lighting up with his name flashing across the screen,

“I can’t go back to my dorm. He’ll find me.”

“Where are you from?”

“Jersey.”

My eyes cut away. I put the SUV in drive and set the nav for my place. “Do you live on campus?”

She nods.

“Fine. Then we’ll go to the campus police.”

She snorts, “They’d lock me up. Leo is here on scholarship too. Basketball. His GPA is shit though and unless he aces his summer semester here, he can’t play next season. Leo’s a big deal at State. They sent him down here to the satellite campus so they could water-down his chem and calc classes and get away with it. I’m a sophomore. Biochemical engineering major. And so stupid for thinking he was into me. All he was into was getting me to help him do his assignments.”

I turn, facing her in the dark. “If you’re a biochem major that makes you a genius. I don’t even have a high school diploma. I skipped out.”

“What’s your name anyway?”

I don’t even hesitate. “Romina. But I go by Jamie now.”

She nods. “I get that. My aunt’s running from somebody, too. She left her baby daddy and went into a shelter. They helped hide her from that point on so he can’t find her. Can I crash at your place tonight?”

I nod. “Sure.” As we drive in silence, thoughts twist and turn in my mind. I could do that. Hide people. Help them. But I’d need a link to the underworld… the black web… people who can do what Zio’s hookup did for us. Somehow, someway, someday—deep-down in my gut I knew I had found my calling. I was going to help women. Rich women. Poor women. Fat women. Any woman who needed a safe haven from abuse of any kind. I had mad skills and it’s time I harnessed them but first I need a degree and some money.

“Sweet crib.”

“Thanks. It’s a special place. My uncle… he just died and well. It’s the only thing left of him.”

“Shit. That sucks.”

“Yeah.”

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