**WARNING** There is mild violence in this chapter.
***
The next forty minutes felt like I was dough in a giant oven, and for the next thirty minutes, the oven began to shrink. I lost my smile then.
Whatever was happening had deluded me to see the four walls of the canopy closing in with me inside. It was too real. I began suffocating. The conversations, music and laughter in the small space were only maiming my brain more. I totally forget how to breathe.
Someone said half of the stocks had been sold. We might need more supplies. I should make calls. But I don't know to who. I didn't completely understand the request. I just stood there, strained until my eyes caught the person walking into the canopy.
Arlen.
My heart began to beat again-the worst kind of beating, though.
He approaches me alongside Tyron and four older boys I don't know.
I began to turn away, but Tyron chased after me, throwing his arms over my shoulders.
"Look, it is my favorite British on the planet."
He spun me around, and I came to confront the rest of the gang. Arlen's hands are in his pockets; he looks anxious. He averts his eyes away from me. His face was not precisely smooth as the first time I saw him in his house.
Leigh really left a number on him.
"How can I help you."
"She's moody." Tyron chuckles. "I promise she's always lovely." He told the strangers accompanying them.
"Arlen? Tyron?" Lilith rushes over when she acknowledges them.
She winced at Arlen's appearance and grabbed the two boys' hands towards the gentleman section, unknowingly setting me off the hook.
I heard her apologising for Leigh's behaviour. She chuckled as she explained, "Don't take it personally. He slapped me last night. I think he is experiencing late adolescence."
"What?" Tyron and Arlen gasped in unison.
"I was only showing Ava our business. I didn't involve his ass when he exploded. Long story short, he tends to be angry these days. So watch your back."
My heart jerked a thousand times. Before I could look away, Arlen's eyes met mine.
While Tyron was concerned for Lilith, Arlen stared back at me with understanding. He knows. He knows why.
When he averted his eyes from me, he looked down at his phone; Tyron was hugging Lilith now. My phone vibrates in my hand. I glance at the screen. It's a message from Arlen. It reads; How many have to hurt because of you?
How dare him?
With anger, I peered at him. His jaw clenched, and he looked away. He knows the burden he sent as a text message to me. He knows the damage it would do. He just wanted to break me when there was no more stiffened strength left in my bones.
My phone dings again, but Arlen wasn't holding his phone, so I wondered who it might be.
Evie: Okay, I can't reach Jacob's phone. Ava, you have to get here.
Did I forget about the ongoing plan for a moment?
My eyes widen; I peek over my shoulder to where Arlen and the boys are and back to my phone screen, where a message is waiting to be sent.
Leigh!
He still hasn't called back.
I struggled with two decisions, whether to send it or not. My fingers were twitchy until I could propel myself to swipe out of the message thread.
I found the girls conversation and typed,
Ava: Okay, Arlen is here. Tori, please keep an eye out if he follows me.
Tori: Why do I get the tedious job?
Evie ignored Tori's complaint and sent the room number in my favour.
Sneaking out of a crowded canopy was surprisingly easy; people don't keep tabs on your disappearance.
Tori was outside; she gave me a thumbs-up before I fled toward the tall building.
With a drumming heart, every intake of heavy breath and every forward step I took, I had to look behind to ensure I wasn't being followed until I came before the room Evie texted.
For what could be a minute, I ponder if I should knock. The long hall was quiet, and I was the only one here. The silence brought me to an edge. I begin to wonder how Evie got the pass. Well, passkey, since the doors have electronic keypad locks. Eventually, the idea of texting Evie came to my mind. And the second after, the door was opening itself.
"I have a MacBook. Tori said he had it with him at the bar earlier. Everything has to be in here." She held out the silver object.
"Okay." I thought earlier I was hyperventilating. I was wrong. The condition of my breathing had never been this disorganised. My eyes were sore, and my throat was too.
"Do you know anything sentimental about him?" Evie asked while she advanced to the bed and sat on it.
"His birthday?" I terrifyingly asked.
"Okay! Okay? What's his birthday?"
She also seems nervous. She was chewing her nail, staring hopefully at me.
Calculatedly, I tried to remember, but the thing is, there is nothing forgotten that needs recollection in my brain. We never had an intimate conversation, even when we were friends. At this moment, I realised I barely knew Arlen, and I was screwed.
"I don't know." I despairingly muttered. My eyes burn with tears.
"You have to think." She pressed, and I ended up shouting, "I don't know." Crying finally.
"I don't know anything about him. Except he wanted everything, Leigh has." My voice is hoarse from wrecked emotions. I was hopelessly falling apart.
After a few seconds of having a steady gaze on me, Evie pulled the MacBook over her lap and began mumbling, "Leigh." Few keyboard taps. "Quarterback." Few keyboard taps. "Professional." Few Keyboard taps. "Fuck!" She cussed angrily, tossing the system from her lap. She pulled on her hair with her fingers. She was desperate to get into the laptop. They all wanted to protect me from eternal devastation, but all signs say I am doomed. There is nothing they can do to stop my drowning.
"Shit!" Evie cussed again, this time sounding as though she was forgetful of something.
"What?" I look over at her with a speck of hope. She is typing again.
"Holy shit," She exclaimed after a couple of seconds. The password is loading. I begin a quiet prayer for luck with lit-up eyes. "He's obsessed." That came out on a murmuring volume as we all froze at the wallpaper after the password successfully logged us in. "Ava?" She called-more like asked, just as our phone buzzed simultaneously.
We didn't have to look at Tori's message. We knew time was against us; she was reminding us.
Evie's fingers were shaky as she searched through the system. A few moments later, she poured ice upon my burning soul with three simple words. "I found it."
We exhaled a loud laugh, high-fived excitedly and jumped a couple of times before Evie rushed over to settings to begin the erasing.
In the outcome, I felt content. I felt immune, the kind a freedman from a dungeon after years of imprisonment would. I was warm; I felt the bliss, like the wind from a beach for the first time against my skin. I found happiness, which blooms in my soul like a sunflower meeting the summer season. For the first time in days, I weathered farewell to the burden on my shoulders. All I could think of was convenient and reposeful days ahead. I was optimistic and confident about progress. I swipe into iMessage and press send on the earlier text I had composed for Leigh.
"Hey, Leigh. I'm at today's festival, which reminds me of why I preferable need quiet, my tea and you in an air conditioning space. So I am about to ask you a favour; I was wondering if we can trim the awkward part of yesterday out of the memory? Our time together was priceless, aside from the part where I ran us out of the road and into a rock, which I honestly didn't regret because you rode back with me close to your chest; it always has been my favourite place and comfort I will never get to express in words. The reason for this message, though, is that you should know I have concluded my stalling; I will be applying to Princeton. All I hope is that I have what it takes to fit in there, but I will give my best in the way to build our future together. Thanks for reading. I will see you soon."
I know for sure we can have forever now.
"Erasing..." Evie chortled as she pressed the last button and straightened upright, pulling me into a hug.
My heart skipped a beat at the thought of having no more threat.
If relief felt this exempting, I want it forever. It heaped my head with the interest of peace of mind. I felt like I have to talk to Lilith now. I need that part of the burden off my shoulders.
Evie and I were still embracing each other when our phone buzzed at the same time once again. We pull out of the hug and, this time, look down at Tori's text message.
Tori: Please tell me you're out of the room?
Bloody hell.
I look up at Evie. She's looking back at me. Blanched skin, probably like mine
"Let's go." I urged rhapsodically, and we sprinted for the door. However, before we pull the doorknob, the door opens from the other direction.
Shit.
The slight brilliance of colour we have left is drained from us.
I am sure at that point, we are busted. And I am proved right.
"Look what I have here." Arlen's eyes are dancing with flames, and I am breathing too hard. "What are you doing in my suite?"
His stern question, the censure and acid in the tone, his dangerous gaze, the three boys behind him with hardened expressions on their faces and the dominating scenery blocking my passage, I couldn't take them all in without losing my composure, "I-" I stammered.
One side of Arlen's face crinkled. His voice wintry, growling a whisper as he shook his head at both of us, "Ava, you're so naive. You think I would let you off easily?" He lurches forward, fuming. I flinch at the abrupt move, but he doesn't stop pursuing me until my calves hit the foot of the bed behind me. I paled up as my heart began blowing the walls of its ribcage for escape. Fury burns behind his eyes.
"I have people watching you. I know you wouldn't let this slide. Don't you think this is a little too easy to work?"
"Stay away from me." I put a hand amid the single inch between us. It triggered an ambition. He leered. His knee moved to the side of my hip and landed on the bed, going down with me.
I began to slap his face, chest, and everywhere my hands could reach, but he was too strong. He cooped me with his body and restrained my hands with one of his.
Everything duplicated in my vision. My throat dried up at the shallowness of my breathing. I heard Evie running over. I felt her weight when she climbed onto Arlen's. The heaviness created anger of being powerless in my head. My heart was now in my throat, and a tightening sensation resembled a fist around it while it throbs.
"Don't touch her pervert."
I also felt his breath blowing in my face when he furiously yelled at his boys to take Evie off him. I screamed. It was guttural; I felt the soreness in my throat.
His weight had numbed me. There is no way to help my friend even if I want to. My neck hurt, trying to reach up and bite him. He had dodged his skin from my teeth. I wanted to knee him so hard he would fall and die, but he was hovering over me much higher. I couldn't reach enough.
No matter how much I wiggled, he had caged me. I couldn't escape.
He left me with dashed hope. I was blue. I could only beg, "Let her go. She has nothing to do with this."
His instruction was bloodcurdling, "Shut up." He snaps. The last thing I recognise is his predatory eyes and his head coming abruptly.
Seconds later, I couldn't help the defeat that installed upon my body and kept me from moving. His voice was now echoing in my head like metal pipes hitting concrete and recklessly rolling down a surface. I was sluggish to flutter my heavy-lidded eyes; it was impossible to see anything, not because of the tears that swam my vision but the wild vibration of my skull.
"You don't get to make the calls now. I will do what I want with you. And we can be even." It was audible but distant and reverberating; it rang in my hurting head.
"What the fuck, man." It was a familiar voice. It was filled with panic. They called my name, and I willed words to roll out of my tongue, but I was too groggy to react.
Somehow my whole body began vibrating along with my headache, but it stopped eventually.
"What are you doing? They are underage, bro. Get off of her." I heard the one person that sounded on our side
I squeezed my eyes shut, and it shed cold tears that combined with the thick blood spurting from my head and absorbed my skin. I was numb, expecting the worst.
"Back off."
"Arlen, this is crazy. This is insane. It is Ava, Man. Leave it alone." His voice was breaking. The person must have dragged Arlen away from me because I felt the space and slight fresh wind that took away his bitter scent, and I also heard a clash and stamina struggle.
"I am not asking for your opinion."
"I will not let you hurt them." The familiar person stiffly retorted.
Someone must have shoved someone into something because there was a crashing sound, but I ruled out it wasn't Arlen because his voice was nearing me.
"Tyron, don't make me throw you out." He heaves angrily, coming around me. This time I sense my shirt being ripped with a cold metal that made brief contact with my skin.
My limps struggled to close my chest, but I was restrained by great force again.
If things were alright, I would thank Tyron for standing up for me.
"Stop it, get of off her. She's losing blood." Evie gruffly screamed.
That's when it began making sense to me. He collided his head with mine to shut me up. It is why I have blood dripping down my face. It is why I have vibrations in my brain. Arlen hit me. He was going to take advantage of me. He was a monster in a body I had once admired.
"Don't touch her." Evie kept crying, begging Tryon for help, but it sounded like he was outnumbered.
There was quiet. An awfully long one while Arlen placed kisses around my chest.
"I want you all to watch. Start taping it. The bastard will see. I would have what he memorised, given he legally shouldn't possess." Arlen spitefully groaned in my neck and nibbled on the skin of my collar bone. It becomes a bite. I began to cry until I couldn't hear my voice. He did it again and again around my chest, neck, shoulder, and everywhere he could reach. It was horror in its wake. I almost thought I would die.
"You asshole." Tyron finally came for him and ripped him off of me once again.
I crawled down the bed for the first time; it was mostly a fall. My eyes blinked open; my vision was barely clear, everything was red, but I saw Tyron over Arlen's chest, punching him just as I wished to do myself.
Some tall man was holding Evie back, and two were moving toward Tyron from behind.
I know we had lost, but I wanted to reach the door; maybe there might be some room service people who could help.
"Get him away from me." Arlen hissed. He was getting up. And the boys were hitting Tyron now.
I added speed toward the door. However, I was too slow. He gripped my ankle and pulled me back. I lost control of my hands, and my chin knocked against the hard floor.
Everything then worsened-dizziness blanketed my laid-back body. There is difficulty in concentrating and swallowing or moving my body.
I can hear the faint sound of his footsteps getting closer and the loud screams from Evie until they become inaudible behind the thumping of my heart and the pain in my head. I was shaking with anticipation, stressing over time, for when he will reach and the limit he might go to hurt me. Three seconds was all it took before he yanked my shorts down and out of my legs. I scarcely cognise the trails of his fingers, but I knew he was touching me.
"You think you can break my heart? I can hurt badly too. I will mark you mine. You will see. You feel it. You wouldn't want him anymore." He tautly grumbled.
The anger and the endurance to fight back are all gone. I must have lost too much blood. I didn't have it in me to try to save myself. My heart was beating out of my chest, but my mind had surrendered to the harm that I had spent years always believing could be avoided. How can't I escape right now? How can't I help Evie out of the trouble I had dragged her? I had always wanted to be the difference, to fight back, to dominate instead, but here I am, flat on the bed, bleeding and overpowered, having no more strength to protect myself and my friend.
Then the door swung open. It was some foot away from my head. I heard the loud thud when it hit the wall behind it and the hurried footsteps that flowed into the room, bringing in hope in the tensioned expanse.
"Ava?"
I know that voice. It was the only one that could protect me at the moment.
There was no more physical weight putting me down. Arlen had instantly stretched up.
My body began shaking from the tears I was weeping. She came around and hugged me with something that wrapped my half-naked body.
"Hey. It's okay. I am here. It's okay." She said. But I fear the damage had long been done. I am just as lifeless as a fresh corpse found in the early morning. That's why she's cradling me with everything she has.