“Alright, well, tell your parents I send my best and thank them for the housewarming gift they sent, will you?” he smiled as he shook my hand and then Brian’s before turning and heading back to his car.
“Does your father know everyone?” Brian asked.
“Just about,” I replied with a grimace. “I feel like I’m always under surveillance.”
Brian winced as the words hit their mark, then turned and said, “But maybe he’s got good reasons for trying to ensure your safety.”
It was my turn to wince, and I nodded and then shrugged. “Perhaps.”
“I think we should head back to the dorm, Ava,” Brian suggested. “Who knows where that nutjob went, and if you’re not going to report him, then we need to be somewhere safer so I can better monitor the situation.”
“Why do we have to let him dictate what we do?” I protested. “He ran off like the coward he is, so there’s nothing to worry about!”
“Unfortunately, I do think there’s something to worry about,” Brian said seriously. “He’s obviously becoming bolder and more dangerous. He choked you, Ava!”
“That?” I said. “Oh, that’s nothing! I’m used to that with him, and that’s not violent.”
Brian stood staring at me with his mouth open for a long while before he shook his head and bent down to pick up the trash bag and remnants of our picnic. “I don’t even want to know…” he murmured as he put his hand on my lower back and guided me back to the path that led to campus. “Ava, he is getting progressively bolder and I’m afraid he’s using these confrontations as a means of measuring how much he can get away with.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. I was used to Dominic’s strange and erratic behavior, after all, I’d lived with him for a year and things had been much weirder back then. Brian had no way of knowing that this was mild in comparison to what Dominic used to be like.
“I mean, I think he is planning to really harm you,” Brian said. “I don’t think you’re safe.”
I nodded to indicate that I understood what he was saying, but down deep, I didn’t actually believe Dominic was capable of doing anything that bad. How could he hurt me? He said he loved me, didn’t he? The thoughts raced through my brain as we briskly walked back to the dorm. The earlier playfulness had disappeared, and I felt frustrated.
“He’s not a bad person, you know,” I said quietly. “He was actually quite good to me at times.”
“Oh, really?” Brian said as he scanned the path ahead of us never taking his hand off of the gun at his side. “Could have fooled me.”
“You don’t have to be so judgmental,” I pouted.
“I’m not being judgmental at all,” he replied. “I’m simply concerned about your safety as it’s my job to ensure it, and if you won’t report him, then I have to figure out another way to keep you safe.”
“Yeah, that’s right, don’t piss off my father,” I was being stubborn and I knew it, but he was being stubborn, too. “God forbid that Daddy Dearest gets wind of this mess and actually steps in and says something.”
For the rest of the walk back to the dorm, Brian said nothing. He simply scanned the landscape from behind his dark glasses while I stomped ahead; angry for reasons I wasn’t even sure I understood.
*****
“So, tell me more about Dominic,” Brian said as he locked the door to my dorm room and then double-checked it to make sure no one could get in.
“There’s nothing more to tell,” I replied as I grabbed the remote and turned on the television. Brian walked over and shut it off, then turned and stared at me for a minute.
“I’m serious,” he said. “I need to know what happened between the two of you.”
“You know, sometimes you are a real pain in the ass,” I said with an exasperated sigh. “I don’t want to talk about Dominic or my relationship with him or anything else about my life if you’re going to be so judgmental!”
“Ava, you don’t understand,” he said as he sat down on the couch next to me and put a hand on my shoulder. “I’m not trying to be judgmental, I want to know more about you and Dominic so that I can figure out how to better protect you.”
“Well, it feels more like an inquisition than an inquiry,” I shot back.
I sat staring out the window for a long time. I couldn’t look at Brian because I didn’t want him to see what I was thinking, but I knew that he was right. The more I could tell him about Dominic, the better he’d be able to anticipate his next move. I was torn, though. I didn’t know if I could go back down that road and tell Brian about my life with Dominic while I felt so conflicted about it. I wasn’t sure if Brian would understand why I still felt drawn to Dominic despite what had happened and why I’d left.
Heck, I wasn’t even sure I understood it.
“Ava, it’s okay,” Brian said. “I know this isn’t easy for you to talk about, but I’m not going to judge you. What happened is in the past, but I need as much information as possible to keep you safe.”
“I know,” I admitted. “But I don’t like the fact that I need protection in the first place. I don’t like needing someone else to keep me safe.”