Page 81 of Break Me
Twenty-Four
When someone yankson my arm as soon as I step foot onto campus Monday, having walked from my car with my head down and earbuds in, I don’t really react.
My first thought is Tess. She hasn’t wanted to talk since what happened in Riley’s apartment on Friday. I haven’t wanted to push her.
But the fingers clamped around my wrist aren’t soft and warm like my best friend’s.
I yank the earbuds out and whirl around, scowling.
Dumont is positively seething. His fingers dig a little deeper into my arm.
“What. The. Fuck?” he hisses at me.
I try to yank my arm back while simultaneously stuffing my earbuds in the back pocket of my jeans.
I only manage to do the latter.
I blow out a breath and glance around us. We’re kind of secluded here, just off the commuter’s lot, behind the massive brick buildings of Campbell, in a patch of grass surrounded by some shrubs. A shortcut I usually take.
One Dumont would know about, because he’s walked me to my car once before.
And, ya know, he works here.
“Let go of me.”
He doesn’t. He steps closer, fingers still digging in my arm. His eyes are nearly bugging out of his head and my heart picks up speed. Am I scared? Of Dumont?
Any other day, I would’ve said no. But that was before Caden’s dad...
I blink away the image of his lifeless body, blood pooling around him in the white carpet.
The feel of the knife ripping through his body.
Benji…
My throat feels like it’s closing up. I vaguely register Dumont’s grip on me has loosened.
“Ava?” he whispers. “Are you okay?”
I take a deep breath. I shouldn’t be thinking about this. I have this irrational thought that the more I think about it, the more likely Benji is to get in trouble. Although why I should care...he would deserve it. Even if he convinced the police he doesn’t.
I think of Thames. The feeding tube. My mom at home with one down her throat.
“Let go of me,” I say again, the words sounding distant to my own ears.
Dumont tugs me closer and I stiffen as he gently presses my head against his chest, wrapping his arms around me.
Bile threatens to come up my throat, but I’m frozen in place. And somehow, Benji knows about him, too. About what we’ve done together. But it’s no surprise Benji knows. He followed us to the bar. He cornered me in the bathroom.
He hurts people and calls it a career.
“I called and texted you all weekend,” Dumont says against my hair. I don’t hug him back, and I’m still stiff in his arms, but I’m too tired to try to push him away again. Dad woke me up in the middle of the night, thinking Mom was leaving us. But she didn’t. She held on, even though she hasn’t opened her eyes since.
I should have stayed home.
But I’m still a coward.
Riley has called me, too, and I haven’t called her back. I still don’t know exactly what happened with her and Rolland and a part of me doesn’t want to know. I don’t want to know how Caden said those things to his dad without a shred of grief or regret. How he pulled Riley to her feet and let his best friend finish killing his own father.
