You've read it all before. You know, the classic "Boy Meets Girl" story. But what happens when two broken people can't heal each other? What if happy endings are too hard to come by?
At twenty years old, Chloe Walsh is inexplicably tired of life.
I...
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I lean down on the stage until he's within earshot. "What the heck!"
Luke shakes his head. "He's here, Chlo."
His words hit me like a punch in the stomach. "Who?" But I already know who.
"Seth Green."
An image of me at fifteen, sitting up in a random bed, naked, my arms covered in bruises, my neck swollen, my fingers bleeding, sharp pains in my upper thighs. I remember grabbing the bed sheets, struggling to remember what happened the night before, and looking in the mirror, screaming when I saw what had been done to me. Seth Green. My brother's soccer teammate. Someone I had trusted, had even called a friend. He was only seventeen, still a minor, and his father hired the best lawyer in Los Angeles. He got off with one year of probation and eight months of community service. I got off with a tarnished reputation and a disgust for myself.
I scan the crowd, feeling my whole world cave in. "Where? Where is he?" My voice is hoarse, raw. I feel like an animal cornered in a slaughterhouse. I can't let him see me. I can't see his face.
I hop off the stage and grasp Luke's arms. "Doesn't he go to school in New York?"
Luke shakes his head. "He's transferring to Elysian University for graduate school. He's working at his dad's company in town this summer."
I'm shivering. I feel a panic attack coming on, the kind that makes my breathing shallow and my thoughts erratic. I follow Luke through the crowd, my eyes scanning every person, flinching at every male gaze on me. Luke's friends are standing by the back door, huddled together.
Luke's best friend, Grant, scratches his head. "We lost him, man. He was here a second ago."
Luke curses. "Are you kidding? That fuck can't face me?"
Grant juts his thumb to the front door. "He might've gone out the front to avoid running into us."
Luke turns to me. "Wait here, Chlo. I just need to look him in the fucking eye after all these years."
Luke, Grant and their other friends shuffle towards the front door, pushing through drunk people.
Whose smart idea was it to leave me alone? I scan the crowd of people in front of me, praying to God I don't meet the eyes of someone I have recurring nightmares about. Tears form behind my eyes. I'm terrified. Don't be a baby, Chloe. Seth Green can't hurt you now.
"Chloe," a voice says from behind me.
I am frozen, stuck in place, unable to breathe, unable to form a coherent thought. It's him. It's been almost six years since I've seen him, since I was forced to admit what he had done to me in front of a full courtroom of people, including everyone I'd known my entire life.
