Page 153 of Play Fake
I reach out and gently rest my hand over hers, grounding. “Start from the beginning.”
She takes a shaky breath. “It didn’t happen all at once. At first, it was just little things, comments, guilt trips, pushing my boundaries. And I’d tell myself it wasn’t that bad. He was stressed. He was drunk. He didn’t mean it.”
She laughs bitterly. “Classic, right?”
My chest aches. “Ava…”
“This morning,” she continues, voice cracking, “he came over and started yelling at me because I didn’t go to his game this weekend. We had the wedding, he knew I couldn’t go. I was literally at the wedding with you, but he said I was probably sleeping around instead. Which is insane. He’s the one who’s been hooking up with other girls. Iknowhe has.”
Her hands start to shake. “I told him I was done. That I couldn’t do it anymore. And he just…snapped. He shoved me. Hard. I hit my face on the dresser when I fell.”
I inhale slowly through my nose to keep my voice from betraying everything I’m feeling. “Ava. Oh my God.”
She wipes at her cheeks, but more tears spill over. “I’m so embarrassed. I should’ve walked away a long time ago. I let it get this far.”
“No,” I say firmly, squeezing her hand. “No. You don’t get to blame yourself forhischoices. What he did is not your fault. Not even a little.”
Her breath hitches, and for a moment, the tough, confident Ava everyone knows slips away, leaving the raw, hurting version of her sitting here in front of me.
I shift closer and pull her into a hug. She stiffens for half a second before she just…breaks. Her arms wrap around me, her shoulders shaking against mine.
I rub slow circles on her back, keeping my voice low. “You’re safe now. We’re going to figure this out. You’re not alone, okay?”
She nods against my shoulder, tears dampening my shirt.
In the back of my mind, a flare of anger rises, not at her, but at him. Coleson. The idea of him laying a hand on her makes my stomach twist.
But right now isn’t about my anger. It’s abouther.
I pull back after a minute, keeping one hand on Ava’s arm like I’m making sure she doesn’t disappear on me. Her eyes arered-rimmed, her cheeks blotchy from crying, but there’s a little less panic in them now that everything’s out.
“Okay,” I say softly. “First things first, we need to get some ice on that eye before it swells more.”
I stand and cross to my tiny freezer, pushing aside the sad remains of my finals-week frozen dinners. There, buried in the back, is a half-forgotten bag of frozen blueberries.
I hold it up with a small grin. “All I’ve got are these.”
Ava sniffles, a watery laugh slipping out. “What happened to frozen peas? Isn’t that the universal injury thing?”
I grab a dish towel, wrap the bag in it, and bring it back over. “This is college. I’m not exactly stocked for emergencies.”
She lets out a soft laugh that turns shaky halfway through, but it’s something. She presses the makeshift ice pack to her eye and winces. “God, I look awful.”
“You look like someone who’s been through a lot,” I say gently, sitting back down beside her. “And you’re still here. That’s what matters.”
She goes quiet at that, adjusting the towel-wrapped bag against her face.
I give her a second to breathe before I speak again. “Ava…we need to figure out what you want to do next.”
Her brows knit together. “What do you mean?”
“I mean—do you want to report this? To campus security? Or the police? Or talk to someone at student services? We can get you to the health center to get your eye checked too. Whatever you decide, I’ll go with you.”
Her throat works as she swallows. “I don’t know. I don’t…I can’t think straight.”
“That’s okay,” I say quickly. “You don’t have to decide everything right this second. But wewillfigure it out. You deserve to feel safe, Ava.”
Her fingers tighten on the bag of blueberries. “I don’t want everyone knowing. I feel so stupid.”
