Page 62 of Wild Child
Her hand found my arm, and the touch soothed my rattled nerves. "I know, Dev. I didn’t like it either, which is why I never went back. I packed up the next morning after barricading myself inside."
“Do you think you could have gotten different roommates?”
She shrugged. “Maybe. At that point, I didn’t care. I had already been miserable and didn’t think it was worth it to roll the dice. I hadn’t really found a major that I wanted to do, and I missed home. It just . . . it wasn’t a good fit.”
Her ending wasn't satisfactory to me, but I nodded anyway. She gave my arm a little squeeze, then her fingers slid away. Trails of fire lingered in their wake, and I wondered how it would feel to interlock our hands.
Never mind that her lips would probably start my heart ablaze.
"There were a few other close calls,” she said breezily, as if that could be so simply dismissed, “but all my self-defense classes had paid off."
"Self-defense?"
She nodded. "Yeah, I took classes with Benjamin and Serafina after you left. She’s been helping with them every few months. I didn't . . ." She hesitated, met my gaze, but then gave me the full dish of honesty that I deserved. "I didn't feel safe without you by my side all the time.” Her tone brightened just a little, but not enough to feel inauthentic. “The classes ended up being a good thing, particularly when the three guys approached me on campus.”
My stomach twisted in a sickening way. I stopped. She stopped. Then she turned toward me with a hesitant, almost apologetic look.
“Three guys?” I whispered.
She swallowed, the sound audible.
“Dev, it’s—”
“What happened?”
Troubled now, she spoke quickly. “It was a few weeks before I left college. I had a study group that ran late and had to leave after dark. When I walked across campus, a group of three guys called for me to stop. Said they had a question.”
My questioning glare could have burned through brick. She hurried to finish. Although she played a tough game, I could see the trouble in her gaze. This event, whatever it turned out to be, still bothered her.
“I didn’t trust them, particularly because they approached too fast and tried to push me against a building, where there were shadows.”
“What happened?”
My tone remained steady, but the agitation was evident. Her voice became a bit more distant. She nudged her toe at a clump of fading wildflowers and focused on a spot in the distance. Deep grooves formed between her eyebrows.
“I kicked one in the throat. The other two advanced. I had my car keys between my fingers and slashed one in the face. I stepped back to prep a kick, but the third ran away. I took off.”
“Did you report it?”
“I did.”
“Did they find those assholes?”
She nodded.
“You pressed charges?”
She nodded again. A long breath of relief rushed out of me. Nowonderher form had been so excellent at the gym.
“Good.”
I regarded her with an entirely new set of fears now. Once Ellie had returned to Pineville, I hadn’t felt as concerned. Clearly, I still needed to be. Her beauty, so wild and untamed, was too much by half. The disinterest she gave most people only made it all worse.
She chewed on her bottom lip, but didn't look away. The weight of the last three years sank into my bones. Not only had ghosts, injuries, and memories torn apart the fabric of my life and put me on a different path, but they did that to Ellie too. My sudden departure had rocked her world as much as it had mine.
I would have left no matter what—I had to help my parents and make sure both of us knew ourselves without the other. This had been the right path. But maybe it wouldn't have been so jarring if my pride hadn't been so great.
"I'm sorry," I whispered.
