To Catch Your Fall | Heathoah

24. What Happened?

TW: Hinted sexual assault

Noah

"Hey there, you okay?" James says as he brings me up into a sitting position.

If my brain didn't feel fuzzy before, it definitely does now.

"I uh...huh? I should be the one asking you questions. What are you doing here? When did you get into town?"

"College was cancelled for the week due to the snow storm that's coming up. Thought I'd come visit here while I have the time off. Glad that I did."

His hand rubs through the hairs on the back of my head. They catch something back there and I wince.

"Shit! Sorry, how's your head?" He asks, cupping my cheek instead.

"It's um...sore? What happened?"

"You fainted. Fell right back on it. We're lucky you didn't do any serious damage." He tells me, and then it all rushes back to me.

Ethan's new boyfriend. It being Nick. Him giving me that look. Me not being able to move. The buzzing. Falling...

Immediately I start shifting around, trying to catch sight of him.  

"Hey, hey, it's okay. He's not here anymore. I made sure of it." James pushes his face back into my eyeline, hands on my own.

It feels like every bit of tension leaves my body at those words. Slumping back in my seat, I scrub at my face. 

Nick isn't here anymore. He's gone. But, I thought that before when Emily fired him, and he still came back.

Can't be too relaxed just yet.

"Um, Emily had to tell me what happened. None of the others know!" He adds on the second part when he sees the look on my face. "For all they know, you were just dehydrated." 

"But.." Something sinks in then. "What about Ethan? I mean, he's dating him now. If Nick did...that to me when we weren't even together, what would he have planned for someone he's seeing."

Ethan may be a pain in my side almost all the time, but he's still one of my students, and nobody deserves to go through what I did with Nick. 

"Emily is talking to him right now. Don't worry, we won't let Nick get near him."

James rests a hand on my shoulder, and that's when I finally fully let myself sink into him.

Okay, Emily is telling Ethan what Nick is really like. He won't be able to try and hurt him. Ethan will be fine.

The tears come then. It's impossible to stop them. James doesn't push me away though. If anything, he pulls me closer. Not that I should've been expecting him to.

His soothing words barely break though my sobs, but I appreciate him being here for me. Like always.

I'm safe. Nick is gone, James is here.

A few minutes later, I try to reflect on one of the first things that James told me. He gives me a confused look when I slightly pull away from him.

"James, what do you mean you made sure Nick wouldn't come back?"

"Oh that, yeah, I beat the shit out of him." His voice is so casual that I have to ask him to repeat it.

"Yeah, I left him running out of the place bloody and covered in bruises. He hurt you, and I was not going to let him get away with that."

It would be really heart-warming and cute of him to say, if not...

...I pass out again before I can finish that plaguing thought.