The Bikini Syndrome | WATTYS2019

» thirty-eight: an encounter of the worst kind

If Holly had to make a list of her body's most useless reactions, the highest ones on her list would've been goosebumps and breaking out into a cold sweat.

Because that's what happened when she first saw him.

Holly had been on her way home, deciding to walk along the pier. She wanted some company, even if it was just the sound of clinking silverware and muffled conversations, just to drown out the sound of her own thoughts.

He was standing in front of a group of giggling girls who were basking in his attention. They were definitely too young to have been out this late on a school night, and Holly decided they must have snuck out. Each wore short shorts that barely covered their buttcheeks, crop tops or cold shoulders, and those stupid vintage thin-rim glasses that everyone seemed to find cool these days.

(Holly did think it looked cool, but ever since every girl on Instagram decided to join in, she kind of despised it.)

She wanted to veer the other way. She didn't want to get involved with him ever again if she didn't have to. Just seeing him triggered for fight-or-flight reaction.

But when she saw him put his arm around one of the girls and try to lead her away, Holly knew she couldn't ignore it.

She couldn't live with herself if she had even in the slightest, somehow let Rohan harm another girl. She couldn't let what had happened to Sadie or her happen to someone else.

After all, the very reason why she'd decided to press charges in the first place, or even got into this mess in this first place was to make sure he wouldn't have another victim.

Somewhere along the way, Holly had lost sight of this.

She walked towards Rohan briskly, not giving herself time to think or change her mind or even be scared.

"Get your hands off her," Holly said, trying to sound cold, even business-like, if only to hide how the fact that her mouth tasted like ashes and her entire body was trembling. She wasn't sure if he could see the trembling, but Holly felt like she had been on one of amusement park rides that flipped you upside down and all around until you could barely walk straight.

Rohan turned around, casual smile still pasted on his face. When he saw Holly, surprise flashed through his eyes, but it passed as quickly as it had come.

"Babe, com'n, don't be jealous. I'm just going to walk these girls home. It looks like they've had too much to drink," he said, putting on a cheesy, wide grin.

Holly was still shaking, but now part of it was from anger. So he really was going to do something to those girls, maybe one of them or all of them. Either way, it was really sick. And now he was trying to paint her as some kind of jealous girlfriend?

Holly wanted to hurl at the thought.

She clenched her hands into fists as a way to stop the trembling, and tried to plant herself more solidly into the ground. At five foot four, she wasn't exactly the most intimidating, but she took courage from her anger and the fact that she was in an area with a lot of people. Rohan wouldn't be able to try anything funny here.

"Did you want to make me jealous so badly? If you wanted me to take you back so badly, you could've called. Oh wait - but I blocked your number and put a restraining order on you!" Holly said loudly. She tried to laugh, but it more or less got stuck in her throat, so it sounded like someone had put it through a cheese grater.

Rohan's eyes narrowed into slits, as if not expecting her to fight back. He'd probably meant to embarrass or shame her, or even hope that her fear of him would make her turn tail and run as soon as she spoke. Their last encounter in the parking lot of Cafe By The Sea still left a bitter taste in Holly's mouth.