Page 34 of Mouse
I looked back into her eyes to see the happy daze of her orgasm being chased away by uncertainty.
“I-I shouldn’t have touched you,” I said and turned on my heels to flee.
“Wait,” she said, her short legs working fast to catch up with me.
I climbed the stairs, taking them two at a time. I had to get to my room, needed to lock myself away.
“Please, Mouse, wait,” she called out and I could hear the tears breaking in her voice.
My feet froze but I couldn’t turn around to face her.
“Why are you here?” I asked, my voice sounding as if I had swallowed gravel.
Ingram should have been at home. She should have been safe and tucked into her bed.
“It’s my birthday. Chris and Ky are watching Chry for the night because the girls wanted to take me out to celebrate,” she said and I heard her shuffle a little closer to me. “We were up at the bar…”
I shook my head not believing the words that were coming out of her mouth. I realized why she seemed a little different and why her tongue had tasted like sweet fruit.
“You’ve been drinking?” I asked but it was more of a statement than anything.
I should have wished her happy birthday instead of focusing on the fact that she’d had a few drinks.
“Yes, But I only had two. They were looking out for me, I knew I’d be safe.”
As much as I wanted to say something I knew I had no right to. I’d had my first beer at sixteen and that didn’t even have anything to do with the club and all that my mom tried to shield me from.
“They walked me back to one of the rooms in the back,” she went on when I didn’t say anything. “I was to sleep there. But I couldn’t sleep. I wanted…”
“What, Ingram. What did you want?”
I shouldn’t have been asking these things. And as much as I wanted to stay in the dark, wanted to be blind, I already knew the answers.
“You,” she whispered.
My head shook as images of her flashed in my mind.
A seventeen-year-old girl, her belly swollen and her eyes wide like she was scared of the world around her. A girl desperate to reconnect with her brother. A girl that had been through hell but had somehow clawed her way out.
But a girl, nonetheless.
With a deep breath, I found the strength to lie to the one person I swore I’d never lie to. Tears stung my eyes as I began to speak, spitting the things I knew she’d need to hear to make her run.
“Ingram.” My fists clenched at my side. “You think you want me but you don’t. You don’t even know me. It’s just some stupid little girl crush that you’ve held on for far too long. Look around, Ingram. I never made you any promises. I didn’t hold out for you and you aren’t even the type of chick I’d want by my side.”
Her gasp was sharp and it felt like it cut through my ears.
“No, I suppose you are right,” she said after a long moment and I heard her backing away. “You are not the man I had hoped you were.”
I turned just in time to see her rush towards the stairs.
Time stopped all around me.
Flashbacks of the night she’d been taken flooded my brain.
The chase. The man dragging her by her arm.
The fear on her face.
