“They were about to rape her, I think,” Dillon says. “We were out walking and saw they had her trapped between them. Max had a hold on her waist and Elias grabbed her… we stepped in and got her up here. Lydia was there and keeping watch, but she didn’t see us sneak up.”
“Are you okay?” Aaron asks me. “I uh… that triggered some awful flashbacks but… I’m okay. This has just been going on for a while. They’ve tried to get into my room before at night.”
“Why do I feel like you’re holding back?” Aaron asks.
“Because I am,” I whisper.
“Tell me, "He says as he sits on my computer chair and pulls it close. I go through everything that happened over the last four years. I leave out what Connor and Dillon have said. They just saved my ass, so the least I could do is not rat them out.
“Will you please let me put you in an off-campus apartment?” Aaron asks. “That’s where you were supposed to stay anyway.”
“I don’t want to make things worse for myself. It’s already humiliating that I have to clean the goddamn school to be here,” I say.
“I know,” he sighs. “If you will let me pay your last semester tuition then you won’t have to.”
“Aaron,” I sigh.
“If you don’t let him, we will do it for him,” Dillon says.
“No,” I say. “It’s not a big deal. I just need to get through graduation and I’ll be fine.”
“Chloe... if we hadn’t come up, they one hundred percent would have raped you. You also know that guys like that will see it as a challenge and keep coming after you,” Dillon says.
“Yeah. Some people just don’t take no for an answer,” I say bitterly. I immediately regret saying that because they wanted to take me to dinner. They weren’t trying to hurt me. Did they go about it the wrong way? Absolutely, but they didn’t mean any harm.
“Chloe, honey... I promised your father when he was dying that I would treat you the same way I would my own daughter. Now... I don’t have kids, but I know damn well your father wouldn’t give you a choice, would he?” Aaron asks.
“No,” I say with a sigh.
“What would he tell you?”
“That my safety is more important than my pride,” I say. “That’s what he said when he made me quit softball because none of the coaches or the school would make accommodations so that I wouldn’t have to travel with them.”
“Okay then,” he says. “You have three weeks left in this semester and I’ll move you into the apartment over Christmas break. Until then, I don’t care if I have to walk you to and from each class and the dining hall. I will make sure you are safe. As far as the guys, I will check the cameras. If I catch it on camera, they will automatically be expelled.”
“Oh, so they can come after me for getting them kicked out months before graduation?” I ask.
“They can be mad in jail because that’s where the footage will go,” he says.
“Oh, because that went swimmingly for me last time,” I snap.
“You have Connor and Dillon here as witnesses, plus cameras,” Aaron says.
“We will walk with her until she can get off campus,” Dillon says. “Even after, we will make sure she gets around okay.”
“Thank you, guys. She cleans the library every morning during the week so I can come hang out with her then.”
“We are up there most mornings anyway. We can go help her so she’s not alone in there.” Connor says.
“Well, that settles that,” Aaron says. “Chloe... let them help, okay?”
“I feel like I don’t really have a choice,” I deadpan.
“No, you don’t,” Aaron says. “You kids be good.”
“We will,” Dillon says. He stands and opens the door for Aaron only to see someone standing there with a pizza.
“Enjoy your food,” Aaron says. “And Chloe?”