The Sinner

46

A/N: trigger warning, this chapter goes in detail of abuse. please let me know if any of you need anything ever. i care about each and every one of you. you are all so so loved.

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"Corrine," The evil smirk on Tanner's face is the first thing I see. "Who would've thought we'd be at the same college, huh?"

I am so fucked. What the hell is he doing here?

The amount of torment in his voice is nauseating. He fully knows that I'm scared shitless to even be in his vicinity. I could stand up to him if I wasn't such a coward. And maybe then, if I actually went through with it, he'll be able to leave me alone for good.

That's when I realized that Rafe's not here. This is not going to end well.

He's consistently been the one to defend me. Even when I didn't say anything to him and only acknowledged him when I told him to shut up. He was always there for me, no matter what. That's why I appreciate him so much, yeah he's made mistakes, big ones. But he's always there to protect me when the time comes because I can't do it myself.

Okay, I need to focus. My brain is trying to distract itself from the issue, because it's trained to think that if I ignore the problem, it's going to go away. But that's not true, nor will it ever be. I need to snap out of it. Tanner is standing in front of you, right now.

You have to do this Corrine. You have to stand up for yourself this time. I have to be strong, there's no one here to protect me.

Rafe's not here to protect me.

That sentence was playing on repeat for what seemed like the next couple of minutes or so. I'm fucking scared, Tanner is not a good person. If he manipulates everyone in this room, and gets me alone, who knows what he'll do to me. When I finally look into his soul sucking brown eyes, I take a deep, nervous breath.

"Cory?" Ryan's voice brings me out of my thoughts. I glance at her, hoping she understood the alarming look I was giving her. "Do you know him?"

"We dated in the past," Tanner answers for me. She continues to stare at me not giving him the time of day, her eyebrows link together in confusion. "I'm her most recent boyfriend."

"I thought you were dating Rafe?" She says next to me. I was trying to keep that a secret from him. Tanner scoffs.

"I am," I say to only her. "He forgot to mention the ex part."

"I knew you were dating that low life," Tanner says while throwing his hands in the air. He stumbles a second later, showing us all he was very intoxicated. "Why don't you want someone that'll actually do something with their life?" I keep my eyes glued to the ground. "Come on, you should want better for yourself Corrine."

Shut the fuck up.

"Rafe, as in Rafe Cameron?" The clueless Joey kid says with excitement. "Rafe's the fucking man!"

"Joey, shut up," Ryan tells him warningly. He shrugs in off, he doesn't get it. No one does, Tanner comes off very charming the first time he meets people.

"I didn't know you were from Outer Banks man," Joey says and hits Tanner on the chest with his back hand. I don't even know what to say at this point. I'm at a loss of words that he's here right now.

"Born and raised my entire life," Tanner says with a chilling smirk. His eyes stay on me the entire time, like I was the only thing interesting. "What's this ripped shirt?" He reaches out to touch me and I step backwards, so my lower back was touching the counter now.