LIOW Ch. 10

Right- Despite the legal warning he was given, he would stop at nothing to take her away from her new town, but he drove away after he had seen her and Cyrus leave his sight.

Cyrus walked her up to her room, and she invited him inside to talk some more before they parted their ways and went to bed.

"So, um... Who is that guy you've been talking to? If you don't mind me asking. I'm just curious." he sits beside Abigail on the edge of her bed.

"His name is Jeremy, we were friends back in middle school, and he moved away when we were in eighth grade. Don't worry, nothing is going on between us, he just popped up out of nowhere, and we're catching up now, I guess." She shifts her position and turns her body, pulling her legs toward her chest and wrapping her arms around them.

"Ah, okay."

He paused for a moment, staring down at the floor with his hands cupped together in his lap. "Why won't you let me know you? Like, I understand that you're afraid I'll take advantage of you, but why?".

"Because," She hesitates, "I don't know."

He sighs and shakes his head slightly, then looks at her, "I'm not Jared. Nowhere near close to that prick. I would never do what he did to you."

"I know that. I'm just scared to get close to you because anything can happen when it's least expected. That's what happened between me and Jared. At first, my parents loved him, and everybody thought he was a good guy. Even I did, but then he turned out to be a selfish, overprotective, and abusive douchebag. I met his parents a year into our relationship and when they found out he was abusing me, they kicked him out of their house and refused to let him come home. And then he tried to rob my parents while I was at work, and when I got home, he thought I was out with someone and took me to someplace, kept me there for a couple of nights until Marissa found me and took me to her house. He stalked me, tried to kidnap me multiple times, and hide me from my family and friends, and when we finally broke up, he got mad and destroyed my house. I haven't been able to trust anyone since, nor get to know anyone."

He repositions himself onto the bed and crosses his legs, "Come here."

"What?" She lifts her head.

"Come here."

She scoots toward him, and he wraps his arms around her as she turns her body around, leaning back into his chest. He buries his head in between her neck and shoulder.

"If I wanted to keep you for myself, I would've dragged you into my room already. But I'm here, keeping you safe. You don't have to tell me what happened, I believe you." He wraps his arms tighter around her stomach.

She took her own hands and placed them over his, holding onto him as he kept her body warm.

They rested like that for what almost seemed like forever until he noticed that Abigail had fallen asleep in his arms. He carefully moved his hands and removed the covers so that he could tuck her into bed. After placing her down, he stared at her, sleeping so peacefully. He kneeled at her side and gently swooped a strand of her hair out of her eyes, kissed her forehead, then turned off the rest of the lights and left her room, quietly closing the door behind him. He stood at the door for a moment, leaning back against it with his head tilted upward.

He let out a deep breath, gulping for air, and finally went back to his room and went to sleep.

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A group of people were standing in the hall outside her door, chattering and causing loads of commotion. She groaned, moved her blankets, and got out of bed, stretching her limbs. She marched toward the door and opened it furiously. They all stood in silence, glaring at her as she stared at them with rage.

"What?! Care to have some empathy? I was sleeping and you all woke me up."

"The perks of living on campus, am I right?" One of them snickers and throws an arm over someone's shoulder.

They all burst out into laughter and trampled down the hall toward the elevator. She let out a deep breath and shut her door. "Idiots." She mumbled to herself as she trudged over to her closet to pick out some clothes.

She takes out a plain white shirt and a pair of jeans and retrieves her white converse shoes from her shoe rack, then texts Marissa to let her know that she is ready to leave and meet up.

Are you ready to go? _ Abby

Yep, I'm just waiting for Nate to leave for work._ Marissa

Why? Did you not tell him you're going out with me?_ Abby

No. He doesn't like when I get drunk._ Marissa

Well he can cry about it because he drinks almost every day, and you're a grown woman._ Abby

I know, that's what I'm saying. Sometimes I think he forgets that I'm older than him._ Marissa

Just tell him we're going out to the mall to look around and that afterward we're going to a restaurant. If he volunteers to go with you, tell him I said we're having girl's day since we haven't hung out in a while._ Abby

Okay_ Marissa

Let me know when you leave, it's already six o'clock. I'll see you later._ Abby

Thirty minutes later, Marissa texted her and they both were finally ready to leave. As soon as Abby opened her door and walked out, Cyrus stopped her before she could make it to the stairs.

"Hey, where are you going?" He asks with his hands in his pockets.

"I'm going out with my friend to get drunk." She starts walking down the stairs.

"Ooh, can I come with you?" He catches up with her.

"Sorry, no. I told her it would just be the two of us. I haven't seen her in weeks, so it's just going to be a girl's night. Again, I'm sorry."

"Oh, alright. Well if you end up getting wasted, just call or text me to pick you up. I'll be here." He watches as she leaves the dormitory and gets into her car. He waves at her as she drives off.

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"I'm so glad we made plans and met up tonight, otherwise I'd be at home binge-watching tv shows. That's literally all I do."

"You're lucky you get to do whatever. You're jobless and you haven't gotten accepted into a scholarship, I'm at my dorm stressing over college and getting things done on time, which is nearly impossible because I rarely get any sleep. The students are loud and obnoxious." Abigail takes a sip of her vodka and leans back into the chair.

"Just scream at them and tell them to shut up. Even if that doesn't do anything, it knocks some sense into them. You and I are two different people, you're the kind who wants to be successful but is distracted by many things at once and has no energy whatsoever. I'm the kind of person who also wants to be successful but has no pride in doing anything." She chuckles and chugs down her drink.

"Yeah, I guess so."

Abigail gets a text from Jeremy as she takes another sip of her drink. She nearly choked when she read the text and it startled Marissa.

"What? What is it?" She leans over and tries to peek at her phone.

"I just saw a post on Instagram." She rereads the text.

I found this outside the dorm, is it yours?_ Jeremy

The picture showed a small stuffed bear on the curb with her name sowed onto the side of it. She was dumbfounded.

Yeah, that's mine. But how did it get there? I've been looking for that for a long time._ Abby

I have no idea, I just came outside and saw it. Do you want me to bring it to you?_ Jeremy

No. Just keep it until I get back, I'm out with Marissa right now._ Abby

Okay _ Jeremy.

After a while, Marissa passed out at the table while Abigail went to use the restroom.

"Hey, it's nine o'clock, we should leave." She taps on her shoulder.

"Where's Nathan?" She lifts her head from the table with her eyes squinted and scans the bar.

"He's at work. Come on, I have to take you home." She picks her up by the waist and stretches her left arm around her shoulder, dragging her to the entrance.

Jared blocked her path after she had opened the doors with Marissa dangling from her arms.

"Hey." He crosses his arms with an angry look on his face.

"Get out of my way. I don't have time for this." She tries to walk around him but he blocks her once again, so she stops and stares at him for a moment with a blank expression.

"Do you have a death wish? If not, I'd highly recommend you to get out of my way before I drop her and smack you stupid." She sneers.

He smirks, "How did you get so bold like that?"

She sighs and places Marissa on the bottom step of the entrance, then stands still in front of him with her arms at her side.

"What is your problem, Jared? Seriously, you're insane. Leave me alone or I'll call the police." She

"I'm not going going anywhere. Call the police, do whatever you want. You're being stupid trying to get away from me." He pleads.

She chuckles and then scoffs, "I'm being stupid? You're the one who's been stalking and following me for two years and you're also the one who laid hands on me when we were dating. You have serious problems, and I don't know where they came from. Stay the hell away from me." She motions her hands and walks back over to Marissa to pick her up and approach her car, which was parked right behind him.

"You started all of this." He laughs under his breath.

She stopped as soon as she reached out to grab Marissa. She marched toward Jared and punched him in the face, which knocked him back hard enough that he fell onto the ground. She steps closer and leans her head toward his face, "No, you prick. You laid hands on me first when you assumed that I was cheating on you. And then you kidnapped me from my parents house when I stayed with them that night after you did nothing but hurt me. YOU started this, and I will put your ass in hell if you don't get up and leave." She backs away and watches as he struggles.

He gets up and wipes his lip with his finger, looking at his blood. He faces Abigail, who was glaring at him, then begins strutting away to his car while groaning from the pain in his leg.

Marissa stood up and sprinted at him, tackling him onto the ground. She started pulling at his hair and shouting at him which alerted the people inside the bar. Groups of people came outside and watched as Jared tried to push her off.

"Marissa that's enough, stop." Abigail tries pulling the two apart and fails as Marissa accidentally shoves her with an elbow.

She stands up and kicks him in his crotch. "That's what you get!" Her words slur as she tumbles across the concrete. She then passes back out and Abigail catches her before she falls to the ground.

Police showed up and arrested Jared after Abigail called them and got everything under control.

"Are you drunk, ma'am?" One of the officers asks after handing her a blanket.

"I've had a few drinks, but I feel fine. Are we going to be arrested too?" She raises her head from the concrete to look at the officer.

"No, but we're going to bring you into the station and have you answer a few questions on behalf of how this situation started, and I'm gonna give a few calls to have someone take your friend home. Are you hurt?"

"No." She brushes her hair out of her face and looks back toward the ground.

-----------

After being questioned about what exactly happened, she drove back to the dorm. It was already past ten o'clock, and the dormitory had been locked. When she arrived, she sat at the support beams of the entrance and looked up at the clear sky, studying the stars.

Someone unlocked and came out of the doors and approached her when they noticed she was sitting by herself.

"What are you doing out here?" Fog trails from their voice as they speak.

She turns her head and looks up at them, then looks back at the sky.

"I just got back. I was out with my friend." She drags her hand along her arm to try to warm herself up.

"Well it's cold out here, don't you wanna go inside?" They ask while gazing at the parking lot.

"The doors were locked, but I'm fine. I just need some air." She replies.

"Alright then, suit yourself." They pull their phone out of their back pocket to answer a call after it starts buzzing.

"What's up man?"

His response to the other person made Abigail scream inside.

"Are you kidding me dude? You need to stop doing this. When I get there you're getting a mouth-full from me. And don't ask me for anymore favors, you're gonna have to ask someone else to get you out." He hangs up and then tucks his phone back into his pocket, quickly walking off to the parking lot.

"Hey," She gets up and catches up to him. "Who was that?"

He turns to answer, "My brother Jared, why?"

"Jared?" She stares at him, looking surprised.

"Yes. Do you know him or something?" He raises an eyebrow.

"Yeah.. Uh... We used to date, but he's been stalking and following me ever since we broke up." She explains. "You know that's why he got arrested tonight? He followed me and my friend when we went to go drinking, and almost wouldn't let us leave. I called the police on him."

"I did not know any of this. I'll talk to him about it when I visit him. Thanks for letting me know."

"No problem, have a safe drive."

He got into his car and drove away. Since the doors were now unlocked, she went inside and locked them before going upstairs and returning to her room. That was until she remembered that she needed the bear from Jeremy.

Meet me downstairs by the locker rooms, bring the bear with you._ Abby

Okay_ Jeremy

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"You look horrible. Are you okay?" He asks as he approaches her.

"Well that's not saying much. I'm fine, I'm just tired."

"Here." he hands her the bear.

"Thanks. Goodnight Jeremy."

"That's all? You didn't want to talk or anything?" He asks softly.

She purses her lips and answers in a confused tone, "No. It's been a late night, I need some sleep. I'll catch up with you tomorrow. Goodnight."

"Goodnight" He replies quietly and lowers his head after she disappears.

After walking up the flight of stairs, she entered her room and plopped herself onto the bed with her clothes still on. She didn't even change them, she just fell asleep spread out across her bed with her feet dangling off the edge.