Page 7 of In the Danger Zone
“I’ll leave you alone,” Evan said. “I will. I’ll go back inside. Just be careful walking back to your dorm, okay? It’s dark out.”
I rolled my eyes. Please. Like he cared. Like he was concerned with my safety. Asher probably sent his friend out to try and lure me back inside – and then the fun would start. He’d corner me. Just like he did in school.
“Can you promise me that much?” he asked. “Can you just promise me you’ll be careful?”
“D-Don’t act like you c-care.” I turned around with a lot of caution, staring back over my shoulder. Being around Asher had taught me to never turn my back on him. I couldn’t trust Asher’s friend either.
Evan stared at me with a fake look of worry in his eyes. Of course it was fake. Because Asher and his friends would never feel that emotion for me.
I kept moving, finally getting so far away from Evan that I could turn around. My hands were still shaking, my brain processing everything that had just happened. Asher was at college.Mycollege. And the look he had sent me in that kitchen told me he wasn’t over his hatred for me.
Shoving my hand into my bag, I quickly sent Leena a text. Hopefully she wouldn’t be too mad at me for ditching her. She was a new friend to me and I didn’t want to risk our freshly formed bond, because I so badly needed someone to be on my team. But I couldn’t go back into that house knowing that Asher was in there.
He still hated me. Why wouldn’t he? He had always hated me and he never – not once – felt guilt for what he had done to me. All the bullying, all the violence. That made himhappy.
There was no way he had moved on from being that person. A monster was always a monster.
Chapter 4
DAISY
When I got out of hospital two years ago, I had spent way too much time online. It was mostly because I was still recovering and didn’t have anything else to do. But that had been a mistake, because a good chunk of my days had been wasted away trying to find out what Asher was up to. That was because I was desperate to see if he felt any bit of remorse. Any. Even just a tiny bit.
But what did I see on his Instagram account? Photos of him partying. Photos from the day he attacked me – him later that night, smiling away during some fancy dinner with his parents. And where wasIduring that time? Stuck in a hospital bed.
His TikTok account was the same. It just showed me videos of him out drinking and partying after winning a game just days later. Facebook didn’t reveal a single bit of regret over what he had done either.
Every day while I tried to get better, I felt my heart hurt more and more.
He wasn’t sorry. He was probably sorry I didn’t die, really. I checked his accounts obsessively: every single one I could get my hands on. There was nothing that showed me that Asher Callaway experienced regret. That wasn’t an emotion he felt.
I had told myself I had to stop. My parents said the same thing. Asher didn’t care on the day he almost killed me and he didn’t care a day after or a week after or a month after. It simply wasn’t a problem for him.
So I stopped. I stopped looking him up and googling him and desperately hunting down just a slither of shame, because it didn’t exist inside of Asher, and it hurt my whole heart hurt to know that me nearly dying didn’t wake him up. It didn’t change him.
That was where I went wrong, because if I knew Asher Callaway was attending the University of Western Oregon, I would have picked a school on the other side of the country. The other side of the world would have been a safer choice, actually.
It wasn’t fair. I had worked so hard to get into college. Money was a huge problem for me and my family and always had been, so a scholarship was the only option. I had known that for a long, long time and did every last thing a good student should have.
When I was choosing schools, I had specifically made sure to pick a college far away from Maine, just so I could avoid Asher and the town that hated me for daring to be his victim. Thingsstilldidn’t work out for me.
Why did he have to ruin everything? Why did he have to takeeverythingaway from me? He didn’t even want to study. All he wanted to do was play hockey, so why the hell wasn’t he doing that?
I sighed, staring at myself in the mirror. The weekend had passed by fast and I was hyping myself up for another week of classes. And normally that should have excited me – Ilikedlearning.
The misery on my face could be seen from a mile away. Gone was the excitement for a new school, new people, a new world without my past.
All I could do was keep my head down and avoid Asher like my life depended on it. And it did. Because last time we were together…
I coughed and moved towards my desk, my eyes falling on the pretty, pink greeting card that sat on the wood. The message on the inside often got me through cold days.
Flipping the card open, I let my fingers trace along the words.
Daisy
You are stronger and smarter and braver than you think. This will pass. The faces you see won’t be around you forever. They’ll move on and so will you. But you’re going to find bigger, brighter, and better things when this is all done with. I promise you that this isn’t forever.
I am thinking of you and wishing you all the best on your recovery. Stay strong, Daisy. You can get through this. Please get well soon. I want to see you shine. I know you’re going to.
