A Song For Another Time - A Hikaru Hitachiin Story

Chapter Thirty Three - The Price I Paid

[ Hey there, it's been a minute so I'll reiterate the trigger warning. This chapter has some fairly serious non-con and the next few chapters will be dealing with it. If you're not into any of that, the brunt of it will be over after Chapter 35.]

As Rose stared up into the green eyes boring into her, she had the faintest feeling that it was always going to come this. She should have read the signs. She should have done more to protect herself.

She should have just walked away on that first day when he held out his hand and introduced himself with that wide grin that, at the time, had made her feel like she might actually be able to start off college with a friend.

He had been so sweet to her that first semester, helping her navigate college life and showing her around Boston — the city he had come to know like the back of his hand, he'd said. When he saw her drowning under piles of books in the library, he'd offer to walk with her to clear her mind. When he noticed the huge bags under her eyes, he took her to his favorite grassy spot, right underneath a large red maple tree, and let her lay out on his jacket as he talked about his father's business.

Somewhere along the way, though, she thought that maybe he stopped seeing their time together as friendly interactions and instead more like small investments in a future he wanted — as if the moments spent with her were simply small loans of time that she would one day owe him in entirety.

And now, he was coming after her for repayment in full; foreclosing on her life as if it were already his possession.

In the aftermath Rose had tried her very best to avoid Lance at all costs. She'd withdrawn from the class she was most looking forward to. She went to her classes and returned straight back to her dorm, taking to studying only at her own desk and making instant noodles for dinner with microwaved water and slowly eating away at her stash of granola bars for her other meals.

In the end, though, maybe some things are inevitable. Just three weeks into the new semester, she found him waiting for her outside of her last Thursday class, a sly grin on his face. He immediately locked eyes with her and threw her a lazy wave.

Defaulting to the only option she really had, Rose turned her back to him and shuffled her way through the crowd in the hallway. Get lost in the crowd, she chanted to herself only to make it approximately 15 steps before she felt a tugging on the hood of her raincoat.

"Are you avoiding me," he teasingly asked her, pulling her by her coat so that they were side by side. Rose kept her eyes forward and began walking again the moment he released her hood.

"No," she responded.

"Is that so," he questioned with a smile as he walked beside her. "It sure seems like you are."

"I'm just busy," she grumbled, thinking it better to lie than to cause trouble. It wasn't enough to tame the beast though, and, looking back, that was the moment she should have broken away. Instead, she kept walking forward.

"No, I don't think that's it," he said as he stepped in front of her, his words like poisoned darts aimed at her nerves.

Lance halted her movement completely and she looked at him with furrowed brows, asking him what he thought he was doing with just a single, annoyed look. Instead of uttering any complaints, though, she merely stepped to the side and hurriedly pushed past him.

"Quit playing so hard to get," he growled at her, grabbing at her wrist to yank her back to him. Rose's surprise forced its way out of her lungs as she was forced right back to where she started, face-to-face with him yet again and it took intense inner focus for her to not break out and slap him on the spot.