I could feel a drop of sweat escaping my hairline. An eerie silence fell between us. When I couldn’t take him standing there staring blankly at me anymore, I spoke again. “Mrs. Jensen next door is out of trash bags, and asked if she could borrow one,” I chuckled nervously. “I know she’s older, and it’s tough for her to get to the store, so I figured I’d bring her a few so she wouldn’thave to worry about it. I’m gonna run these next door.”
It took every ounce of strength I had, but I managed to smile and take a step towards the door. As I did, David put his arm up against the door jamb, blocking the entire exit.
“Do you think I’m stupid, Avery?” His voice was eerily calm.
“Wh-what? Of course not. Why… why would you say something like that?”
David reached into the inside of his coat and pulled out a stapled stack of papers he’d tri-folded to fit into the pocket. Before I could ask what it was, he threw them down at my feet, causing me to jump and take a few steps back.
From the little I could see, it appeared to be a graph with a bunch of information. A log, maybe? I couldn’t read what was printed from where I was standing, but every nerve ending in my body screamed not to bend over to pick it up. David was still spread out in the doorway blocking my escape, and, despite my best efforts, I felt myself taking another step back.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t find out about your little grease monkey boyfriend?”
“Grease monkey? You me-mean the guy who changed my oil? Honey, I already told you there’s nothing…”
“You’re a lyingwhore!” David screamed as he lunged across the kitchen. I grabbed onto anything I could on the counter as he wrapped his arms around my waist and my feet came off the ground. Pain exploded all down the side of my torso and arm as I slammed down on the tile, the cutting board, a pair of scissors, and three pens clattering to the floor around me.
I hadn’t even gotten the wind back in my lungs before David was on top of me. He grabbed a fistful of my hair and held my head down on the floor against one of the papers he’d thrown at me earlier. I groaned and struggled against him as the friction burned, grating against my skin.
“You stupid bitch. You think I don’t know that he’s the one you’ve been sending letters to in prison?”
David’s grip on my hair tightened as he dragged my face up and down the sheet of paper.
“Please, I don’t know what you’re… ugh!” With a grunt, I managed to roll my hips enough to bring my knee up to his groin. With the weird positioning, it took two hits for David to drop his grip and move enough for me to free myself. I started crawling away from him, and he cursed and grabbed my ankle. I rolled over onto my back and grabbed the cutting board I’d dragged off the counter when he took me to the ground.
As David crawled a little closer, I used both hands to lift the wooden cutting board and slammed it acrossthe side of his face as hard as I could. David yelled and grabbed his jaw with both hands as I clambered to my feet. I never looked back. I didn’t even close the front door behind me. I jumped in the driver’s side of the car and fumbled with the keys, knowing any second David was gonna come through the doorway and get me.But he didn’t.
I managed to get the car started, and, with screeching tires, pulled out of the drive and raced down the street.
Chapter Fifteen
James
“You’re making me nauseous,” Jack muttered as I made what must have been my 40th pass by the work bench he was sitting on. He was thumbing through his phone, and didn’t even bother to look up.
“It’s been two hours since Avery headed in to talk to his parents. Something’s wrong.”
“You said he was telling his parents he was breaking up with David, and is gonna ask to move back in with them. That’s not an easy conversation to have, man. Give the boy some space. Jesus.” Keeping my contemptfor his nonchalant attitude to myself, I didn’t respond. Jack spoke again. “You still haven’t told me what your plan is with the cop.”
“There’s noplan, Jack. Avery is going to move back in with his parents and break up with him. End of story.”
Jack finally looked up from his phone screen, but only to throw his head back and laugh. “Okay, so your love ugly is delusion. Nice.”
I paused my steps to look at him. “Excuse me? Mylove ugly?”
Jack nodded. “Yeah. You know… there’s always at least one ugly trait that emerges when someone falls in love.” He shrugged. “Some people start ignoring their friends and family; some completely let themselves go… it’s perfectly natural. Your love ugly is that you’re completely fucking cracked because you actually believe that son of bitch who walked in here and threatened to haul us both off to jail just because Avery got an oil change, is going to just let you have him. Assholes like that don’t just go quietly into the good night, James.”
“Don’t call meJames. You say it like a fucking slur.” My pissy tone had more to do with knowing that, for once, Jack was 100% correct.
Jack snorted, “I didn’t sayJames, the big homo.” He punctuated the retort by sticking his tongue out at me before burying his attention back into his screen.
I turned around and grabbed my keys before giving my back pocket a pat for wallet confirmation.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“I’m going to check on him. I have the worst feeling. And, if you’re right about the cop, then Avery might be in trouble.”
Before I could make it through the open roll-up to the back parking lot, the alarm beeped, alerting us that someone had come in through the customer entrance. Jack and I exchanged a glance, and, a second later Avery appeared in the doorway.
