Page 33 of Did They Break You

“And now you’re doing it all again soChasecan grope you?”

Wow.“I didn’t see you try and stop him. Don’t blame me because you and your friends are incapable of self-control.”

He smiles but it’s not nice. “Are we?” he asks quietly. He steps closer.

I can’t go anywhere else and he knows it.

But he still keeps his hands by his sides. “You look scared now, Remi. You think I’m gonna fuck you in this bathroom? Due to me, what is it?” He tilts his head. “Beingincapable of self-control?”

I inhale through my nose, trying to catch my breath. “Cortland, please.” I narrow my gaze. “Fuck off.”

“I don’t think I will, Remi.” He glances down at my body again. “You like teasing Chase?”

My blood runs cold. I clamp my mouth shut.

“You didn’t even tell him to move.” He plants one hand beside my head and looks into my eyes. Beneath his backwards hat, somehow, they seem more menacing than they ever did before. “You didn’t even push him away.” He cages me innow, with both hands. “You didn’t learn any lessons that night, Remi?”

I take a shallow breath in and out, uncomfortably aware of my nipples hardening into sharp points beneath my hoodie. Of the way he’s blaming me for all the things I’ve spent a year blaming myself for. But I’m not going to tell him that. I don’t want to talk about any of this with him.

“I need to go,” I say, my fingers throbbing as I try to pretend he doesn’t affect me at all.

I think of Sloane and Van and wonder if they’re looking for me yet.

He tilts his head, smirking. “Do you?”

“You can’t do this. Not again.” I try to sound far braver than I feel.

He laughs at that, cutting off my words. “Cute, Remi, but here’s a little secret, since you haven’t figured it out yet.” He dips his head, so he’s level with me. “I can do whatever the fuck I want.”

My knees feel weak. I know I can’t fight him off. And this time, we’re both angry.

“Let me leave, Cortland.” My words are hoarse.

“Why didn’t you say that when it mattered, huh, pretty baby?” He nudges his nose to mine and with our mouths so close, I have to resist the urge to kiss him, to open my lips for him. Let him destroy everything I’ve been working so hard to build.

Higher walls.

Self-respect.

Boundaries.

It’s all crumbling, being with him again.

Because that night, I wanted him.I wanted him.I just didn’t think he’d pass me around. I didn’t think I was a toy. I didn’t think we’d ever get to a point where he’d let Chase nearly takephotos of me while I was naked, and drag a branch down my spine, threatening me with it.

That thought has me angry all over again, and I feel a little braver. I dart my hand out, gripping his shirt in my fist, and my mouth does open, my lips parting, but it’s my teeth I sink into his bottom lip, sucking his piercing into my mouth.

This time,hewhimpers, his eyes wide.

It feels good.

A rush of power.

I grip his shirt tighter, yanking him closer, and he leans into his hands on the wall as he stumbles forward, like he has to steady himself.

I keep pulling on his lip ring until I taste iron in my mouth.

I remember how much he liked the taste of my blood.

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