I look at her incredulously. “You cannot seriously be making excuses for him right now? He just assaulted you, Theia!”
“I know what it looks like, but I don’t think he meant to do it. He loves me.”
“Theia, that’s not what love looks like. He put his hands on you.”
She wipes her eyes, trying to compose herself. “I’m not going make any decisions tonight. I’m going to sleep on it, give him some time to sober up and think about what he did, and then I’ll talk to him another day.”
I sigh. “Theia, don’t do this.”
“Sage, we’ve been together for almost six years, and this is the first time he’s doneanythinglike this. I think I owe it to us, owe it to myself not to do anything rash. Maybe if I talk to him, I can convince him to see someone. We can do couples counseling. I can’t just give up on the history we share.”
“Theia, just promise me. If he so much as raises his voice at you, degrades you or raises a hand to you, you will leave.”
She pauses, chewing her lip.
“Theia!”
“Alright, alright. I promise,” she says, holding her pinky up. I link my pinky with hers, kissing my thumb as she kisses hers. It’s the pinky promise she taught me when I was first placed with her family, and we reserve it for only the most serious of promises. “I won’t let Aaron hurt me again.”
8
Sage
Ienter the sorority house armed with multiple bags of goodies. While I don’t live in the Kappa house (despite tradition), I do have a set of keys to the house, as do the rest of the executive board. The front door has a numerical keypad, and every member gets the code. All members have twenty-four-seven access to the house, but certain spaces are locked at all times. The basement being one of them. We mainly use the space as storage for all our rush supplies, but there are also a few other items and appliances down there, including the target of my focus—the large, industrial-sized sink.
As I walk through the house, I notice Naomi sitting at the dining room table with her roommate, Maeve. She flips through the textbook in front of her, chewing on the end of her pen in concentration.She’s so cute.
“Hey, Naomi, looking to take a break? I could use a spare set of hands right now,” I ask, giving her a wide smile.Could I do this on my own? Absolutely. Am I taking every chance I can get to spend one-on-one time with the gorgeous woman in front of me? Yes, I am.
She looks up, returning my smile before closing her textbook and leaving her pen to save her place. “I’ve been working on this assignment for a couple hours now. I can afford to take a little breather.” Naomi stands, walking toward me.
This woman is effortlessly beautiful. Even with her hair up in a curly top knot, glasses on, wearing an oversized T-shirt and leggings, she still looks every ounce as beautiful as she did all done up at Rush. “What do you need help with, Sage?”
A small shiver runs through my body, hearing my name on her lips.God, I wonder what it would sound like to hear her moan my name.With a small, imperceptible shake of my head, I release that thought before pointing to her shirt. “Is that a shirt you care if it gets ruined?”
She looks down at the shirt. It has some sort of vegetables on it, with the year2016and a cross. “Is that a VeggieTales shirt?” I ask with a laugh.
She smiles sheepishly. “I like it, it was the Vacation Bible School theme that summer.” She pauses, considering my previous questions before nodding. “On second thought, yes, it’s fine if this shirt gets messed up.”
“Fabulous! Follow me,” I say, handing her one of the bags before leading her down to the basement. I put the bag down on the folding table next to the sink, emptying the contents.
“So what are we doing today? Tie-dyeing T-shirts?” she asks as she checks out the gloves, bottles of dye, clips, and brushes.
“Not quite. You are going to help me dye my hair,” I say, sectioning the top part of my hair and clipping it up.
“But this is blue and purple dye!” It’s cute how surprised she is. I should have known she probably hasn’t had many friends with vibrantly colored hair.
“Yep! I’ve done the normal colors—ginger, brown, red, black, and my natural blonde. I wanted to switch things up and do a vivid color for once.” I then unzip my sweatshirt, revealing the old cheap sports bra I usually wear to dye my hair.
Naomi gasps, looking right at my chest, noticing the barbells poking through the thin fabric of the bra. “Wait, are thosenipplepiercings?” she asks, whispering the word nipple. She’s already started coming out of her shell, but it’s cute that she still gets embarrassed by certain things. Like the word nipple.
“Yep. Got them done when I was…nineteen? First piercing I got done, actually. After my ears, of course. Then I got lost down the rabbit hole of body mods,” I explain, putting gloves on and mixing up my dye. I pin my bottom section out of the way, taking out the top. I start applying the lavender dye to the top, fully saturating the hair. “I just need you to make sure I’m not missing any pieces in the back. And then help me rinse the dye out.”
Naomi nods, looking at the back of my head. “Did it hurt?”
“Did what hurt?”
“The piercings,” she says, gesturing to the ones on my chest.