Chapter 3

The next day of classes was fairly uneventful. My classes were predictably boring, but at least that unsettling feeling of being watched had vanished. Whatever paranoia I experienced last night must’ve just been a fluke.

During my literature class, I sat next to Melissa and her boyfriend, Eric.

They invited me to join them at the bar, and after texting my roommates who enthusiastically agreed to go, I said yes.

So, here I was on a Thursday night, getting ready to go out. I still went for comfort, with stretchy high-waisted jeans and a cute purple crop top, liking how the color made my green eyes pop. Rather than wear heels, I wore a pair of ankle boots since I wasn’t in the mood for blisters.

Sel chose to dress up, wearing a warm red dress that accentuated the light brown of her skin. Big shocker, she was wearing heels tonight. Her dedication to her heels was impressive. Even when she was swearing as she walked, she never took them off and walked barefoot. She would stick it out, even if she was limping, and would only take them off when we were in our dorm room.

I drove to the bar since I wouldn’t be drinking tonight. Sel and I hadn’t turned twenty-one yet, so when the bouncer checked our IDs, he put a red wristband around our left wrists. Addie received a green one since she was a year older than us. Of course, this wouldn’t stop Sel from drinking. Nothing did when she set her mind to something.

Since Eric turned twenty-one this summer, he was able to buy drinks that he shared with Melissa.

“There’s my bitches!” She squealed when she saw us, throwing her hands in the air.

She pulled me into a tight hug, stumbling a step as she pulled away. “How many has she had?” I quietly asked Eric as Melissa pulled Addie into a hug, nearly making the two of them fall over.

Eric’s lips twitched as he watched Melissa squeal when another of our friends arrived. “This is her first one here, but she pregamed at my apartment with some others. Don’t worry, I’m cutting her off after her second.”

“That’s probably for the best,” Addie muttered as she took a seat on the stool beside Eric, adjusting her messed-up hair.

Sel had already wandered off, and it took me a minute of searching the crowd until I found her on the other side of the room, talking with a dark-haired man. “Would you look at that, she’s twirling her hair,” Addie whispered to me, pointing out Sel’s tell for when she was flirting.

I ordered lemon water since I was the designated driver and was not in the mood to drink tonight. Addie had decided to reward herself with a drink. She’d never been the type to get plastered or sloppy drunk since she was usually the one who had to take care of Sel and me when we went out.

As I took a sip of my water, I surveyed the dimly lit room. The low lighting allowed everyone to dance on the dance floor in the center of the room without feeling self-conscious. Blaring music made it hard to hold a conversation without yelling, and by the end of the night made your ears feel numb. The bar was at the back, forcing everyone to walk around the narrow space on either side of the dance floor. A couple of colored lights sat above the dancers, bathing them in purple and blue lights.

Melissa begged Addie and me to dance with her until we finally relented since she wasn’t the type to easily give up. Even though I trusted Eric to watch my drink, I still finished off my water before I followed them. My entire body stiffened when my shoes stuck to the floor, which I was pretty sure was permanently sticky.

The dance floor was packed full of writhing bodies, and it was hard to avoid being bumped into or avoid handsy men. Within no time, my elbow-length hair stuck to the back of my neck, forcing me to pull it up. I was wiping the sweat from my forehead when I felt a tingling weight settle between my shoulder blades.

My movements slowed as I glanced around at the dancing bodies pressed against me, but none of them were paying me any mind. With the mood lighting, it was hard to see if anyone on the sides of the room was watching me.

I tried shaking off the feeling, trying to convince myself it was all in my head, but the feeling persisted.

With the mood killed by this reoccurring paranoia, I headed back to the bar where Eric still sat, facing the dance floor and keeping Melissa in his sights. “Tired of dancing?” He asked after ordering me another lemon water.

“It’s too crowded.” It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Eric or think he’d downplay my feelings, but I didn’t want to ruin our night out or come across as paranoid—even though I was. Man, I should’ve let Addie drive; that way, I could drink and take the edge off.

As I took a seat beside him with my back to the bar, I continued scanning the mass of people, looking for anyone who may be watching me. From what I could tell, nobody was paying me any mind, and yet, I couldn’t shake the feeling.

What the hell was I doing? I was letting this stupid, unfounded paranoia ruin my night for the second day in a row. Whatever this was, it wasn’t my intuition telling me I was in danger or anything of the sort. That wasn’t a thing, and I seriously doubted anyone here was watching me, just like nobody was following me last night. This was all in my head.

With my new resolve to enjoy myself in place, I struck up a conversation with Eric, asking about his summer. We’d all kept in touch with texts, but that wasn’t the same as talking in person. Texting was always a little too impersonal in my opinion.

The feeling hadn’t subsided, it kept crawling up my throat, trying to choke me. It all became too much and I had to excuse myself, heading toward the door. I would’ve gone to the bathroom, but I’d been here many times and knew they were disgusting and smelled like piss.

A crisp breeze greeted me as I exited the building and stepped to the side so I was out of the way of the entrance. The cool brick of the building seeped through my clothes as I leaned back against it, willing my heart to stop racing as I took deep breaths.

What the fuck was happening to me? This wasn’t me. I wasn’t the type to randomly panic like this.

The door to the bar opened and closed several times from people bouncing between bars. Because of that, I hadn’t paid attention to Cassius walking down the sidewalk, assuming he was someone entering the bar. It wasn’t until he was standing in front of me, towering over me, that I noticed him.

I let out a squeak and backed up, only to remember I was already leaning against the wall.

“What part of be careful at night, didn’t you understand?” His deep, rumbling voice was pitched low as he bent his head toward mine to maintain eye contact with me. His expression was hard to read since I no longer knew him and all his tells.

My heart was still racing from him appearing out of nowhere and his close proximity, but I feigned indifference as I tapped my chin. “Hmm, it must’ve been the part where you can’t tell me what to do.”

“Cute,” he murmured, but it didn’t sound like a compliment coming out of his sinfully plush mouth.

I went to slide along the wall to get away from him, but he blocked my path by placing his hand on the wall next to my head. When I glanced up at him, ready to cuss him out, I was ensnared by his deep blue eyes and was shocked to find him closer than before.

“I’m not trying to be an asshole Rhea, it’s for your safety.” His voice dropped to a soft whisper as he moved his face even closer to mine so we were only a foot apart. “It’s not safe for a girl like you to be out alone at night.”

His words rubbed me the wrong way. He might not have meant them to be an insult, but that was how I took it.

There was a small part of me that had started swooning—yes, I know how ridiculous that sounded—at how close he stood and how I could smell his woodsy cologne. But the more stubborn part of me that still held a grudge against him shoved the part of me aside.

Yes, I could’ve easily gone the other way since he wasn’t caging me on both sides, but that wasn’t what I did. I went the petty route. Surprisingly, he let me knock his arm away, his face remaining impassive as I moved away from him.

“I mean it, Rhea, stop walking alone at night,” he called after me as I grabbed the door handle.

“Stop telling me what to do,” I shot back before reentering the bar.

“And this is why you have the bottom bunk,” I muttered to a half-awake Sel as Addie hauled her into bed, and I yanked off her heels. Freshman year, she had the top bunk, and it had been a nightmare to get her up there. Add in our fear she’d fall getting out of bed in the middle of the night in search of the bathroom, and you had a recipe for disaster. Whenever she ended up black-out drunk, we never bothered putting her in bed. Instead, we left her in the bathroom with a towel folded under her head since she’d end up in the bathroom throwing up eventually.

“Do you know what I hate about this bitch?” Addie placed her hands on her hips as she watched Sel with a scowl.

“The fact she’ll still wake up before the sun is up without a hangover?” I placed Sel’d shoes in the empty spot in her shoe rack, knowing from personal experience she hated her shoes being left out of place.

“The girl had three drinks and six shots; she deserves some punishment,” Addie muttered as she headed into the bathroom, pulling her hair back into a bun before using a cleanser to remove her smeared eye makeup.

“Her throwing up in that nasty-ass bathroom was punishment enough.” I shuddered at the memory of the disgusting smell and how close Sel’s face had been to that nasty toilet.

After my run-in with Cassius, Sel’s throwing up was the most eventful thing to happen. Despite the feeling of being watched, I was able to ignore it for the most part and somewhat relax.

Taking a risk Addie would think I was a paranoid nut job, I confided in her about the weird feeling as I changed into my sleep clothes and went through my nighttime ritual. I was close with both of my roommates, but Addie was always easier to confide in. She sat on her bed as I spoke, brushing her hair but still giving me her full attention, not once laughing or treating me like I was crazy.

“That sounds like your fight-or-flight instincts.”

Her response had me frowning as I climbed into bed. “That only happens when you’re in danger.”

“Or perceived danger,” she added as she put a cream in her hair.

“My point still stands, that doesn’t make any goddamn sense. Granted, it makes sense if I’m walking alone at night, but not in a crowded bar. I know there probably were predatory guys lurking around, but it’s never happened before.”

“I wish I had all the answers,” Addie said with a sigh as she turned off the lights, and darkness fell over the room, other than the small shaft of moonlight streaming in from a gap in the closed blinds. How she made it to her bed without bumping into anything was beyond me. “But don’t worry, you’re never alone; we’ll help you figure this out.”

Her words helped ease some of the tightness in my chest as I laid back in bed. This was only my second day of experiencing this, and already I was drained. My body really needed to get its fucking act together, and soon.