Page 68 of The Addict

“What did he want?” I placed my palms on the counter and waited for the answer.

“It was more of a who…” Damian turned the corner, slowly sauntering into the kitchen, his arms crossed. “...then what.”

I made an effort to swallow down the lump forming in my throat. I somehow knew this would happen. The tears I had shed in front of him, the intimate moments we had shared… I should’ve known giving into him would have made him want more.

Even though I felt anxious about Damian’s response, I couldn’t help but smile at the thought beginning to form in my head. Imagining this conversation amused me. “What did you do?”

The space in the air around us grew tense. I waited, not knowing if Damian would even answer the question honestly.

“I told him that I didn’t care for the disorderly and disrespectful encounter from beforehand,” Damian took a deep breath. “And that if he continued to call our residence seeking you out, there would be consequences.”

You told him what to do? I smirked. “And what did he say to you?”

“Words I will not repeat. Then he hung up the phone.”

“Wow, sounds like he was really pissed,” I muttered before awkwardly squeezing past Damian to get out of the seemingly shrinking space. “I– uh, I’m going up to my room. Maybe we can order something out?”

I made it up six steps of the stairs.

“Noah.”

Shit. I halted.

“Yeah?”

“Did he,” A pause. “Did that Thorne rape you?”

I cringed.

“No,” I shook my head and inhaled deeply to prepare for the next part of this embarrassing conversation. “He didn’t, no. He wouldn’t–” Knowing that I was ready to defend a man who could have and would have carried out an assault, I stopped myself in my tracks. Even though the next statement was true, I couldn’t help feeling a deal of shame as I stumbled on the words, “I-It was mutual.”

I didn’t have to look back at Damian to know that there was a disappointed frown plastered on his mouth. I also knew that there were many more questions that he wanted to ask me, but for the sake of us both, I prayed that my reply appeased him, and we could leave the rest for another day.

“Ok. Thank you for telling me. I’ll see what I can do for dinner.” Damian spoke softly, his voice retracting as if he were walking out of the room.

I sighed in relief and was about to take another step when my cell phone began to ring from my pocket.

I cursed and pulled it out.

“Who is it?” Damian’s voice boomeranged, returning closer.

I thought fast. “Her name is, um, Chelsea. I met her today in class. First friend, I guess.”

I waited to see if Damian bought the lie, frozen on the step.

“Well, don’t be on too long,” were his last words before returning back to the kitchen.

I pushed the green talk button and placed the phone to my ear. “Hello? Chelsea, yeah, I’m here.”

As quickly as I could, I climbed two flights of stairs until reaching the closure of my bedroom, shutting the door quietly behind me.

I exhaled deeply, sliding down to the carpet with my back pressed against the cool wooden door.

A low laughter filtered out through my phone.

“The fuck kind of name is Chelsea?”

I spoke in a hushed tone. “Why are you calling me?”