Chapter Six
Warnings
Ezra
It was the week before exams (mid-terms for my students, finals for Aria). I hadn't seen Aria for a week and a half because she was up to her eyeballs in final projects and studying for exams. But, thank God, I'd see her for a little while tomorrow night. Tomorrow was Becca and Kendra's opening night in Chicago, so we were going to support them. We wouldn't have much chance to talk or any time alone since the show was on campus and she was just going back to her room afterwards, but it was better than nothing.
My phone rang. I didn't recognize the number, but I decided to answer anyway. I hoped I was wrong, but one of Aria's friends could have gotten my number from her phone if something had happened.
"Hello?"
"Mr. Fitz?" came a female voice I didn't recognize.
"Yes. Who is this?" I asked. Definitely not a friend of Aria's since she hadn't called me by my first name.
"My name's Alexis. You work with my father, Adam Fisher," she said, sounding nervous.
Holy shit. This was Mr. Fisher's daughter. The one who had transferred out of Aria's school.
"Hi, Alexis," I said. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but how did you get this number?"
"My dad gave it to me. I'm sorry to just call you like this, but I was hoping you might be free tonight? Maybe I could buy you a cup of coffee? My dad told me your fiancée is going to Savannah College of Art and Design for photography. I'd like to talk to you about why I transferred out."
"Yes, absolutely," I told her, eager to get more information and maybe unravel this mystery a little further. Unfortunately, my gut had been right. Things with the professor had gotten worse, not better.
"There's a hole in the wall coffee shop on tenth and Broad," she said.
"I know it. Right by the high school."
"Can you meet me there in an hour? I'll be wearing a blue scarf and gray sweater. My husband is coming with me."
"I'll be there," I said. "Thanks for reaching out."
"I just hope it's not too late to help your fiancée," Alexis sighed. "I was so mad at my dad for not telling you what happened. I know he was trying to protect me but helping people is more important."
Even if Alexis hadn't told me what she'd be wearing, I would have instantly recognized her. Because she was almost a spitting image of Aria. Not completely. They couldn't be twins or anything. But there was something about her that instantly made me think of Aria. Alexis looked...scarred, though. Like she'd never quite gotten over what had happened to her. Just like Aria with what she had gone through in high school, but worse somehow.
"Alexis?" I asked as I walked up to her.
"Hi. Mr. Fitz?"
"Call me Ezra," I insisted. "Mr. Fitz is reserved for my students."
"Okay," Alexis smiled. "This is my husband Jacob."
"Nice to meet you both," I said, shaking their hands.
After we got our coffees, which I insisted on paying for (they were, after all, helping me and Aria when they didn't have to), we sat down at a table in the corner. Alexis took a deep breath.
"Um, I'm not quite sure how to start," she said. "This is weird."
"Can you tell Alexis a little bit about your fiancée?" Jacob suggested. "That might help her figure out where to start."
"I can't put my finger on why, but you actually remind me a lot of her," I told her, pulling out my phone and pulling up the first of the self-portrait shots Aria had sent me. "Her name's Aria. She took that for her first photography assignment."
"The self-portraits. I remember those," she said. "I was so scared. She did amazing."
"She was pretty scared too," I chuckled. "That was actually a practice shot she took with a digital camera I gave her before she took the real pictures with film. She got really creative with them. She always does. You can scroll through if you want. Just swipe left."
"She definitely exposed herself," Alexis chuckled as she looked at the pictures. "Not how he probably wanted though."
Exposed herself. Just like Mr. Thomas had said to Aria when he'd asked to look at her practice shots. That couldn't have been a coincidence.
"Did you take a photography class while you were there?" I asked, hoping I wasn't pushing her too hard.
"Yeah, I did."
"Do you remember the professor's name?" I tried.
She sighed. "Kevin Thomas. I'll never forget him."
"He's why she transferred," Jacob said quietly, rubbing her shoulder. "Lex, this is why you wanted to come here. Tell Ezra what happened."
Alexis took a deep breath. "Mr. Thomas kind of seemed fixated on me and I could never figure out why. But from almost day one, he would make comments that on paper sounded like something a photography teacher might say to a student, except that he'd clearly give them a double meaning. And he'd, like, brush up against me and make it seem like an accident when I could tell he'd done it on purpose. Tried to slip me his number once, but I threw it out."
"He's been doing the same thing to Aria," I told her.
"I hope she's stronger than I was," she said, her voice catching. "On the last day of class, after the final, he asked to see me alone. He specifically said alone. When I stayed behind he told me that there was a way I could guarantee myself an A in his class. If I slept with him. I'd gotten a C on one big assignment so he and I both knew that the best I could get would be a B even if I aced the final."
Well, I'd unfortunately been right about him manipulating students by holding grades over their heads.
"If you don't mind my asking, what did you tell him?" I asked.
"I told him to go to hell," Alexis sniffled. "That I was engaged and I loved my fiancé more than I wanted a grade. He, um...he didn't like that very much. Basically, I ended up doing what he wanted anyway, but not willingly."
Jesus. He'd raped her. And probably more students. Poor girl. She was crying by the time she was done, and Jacob pulled her in for a hug.
"She tried to press charges, but he was smart," Jacob continued. "He used protection, so there was no DNA evidence. Without that, there was nothing to tie him to the rape, so the district attorney refused to charge him. And the dean refused to take a freshman's word over a respected professor's. So he got to continue to teach there at the school and he'd keep reminding her of what he'd done every chance he got for the entire next semester. She couldn't take it anymore and transferred out, closer to where I was based. We got married a lot sooner than we'd originally planned on. After that, I just didn't want to wait anymore. She's graduating this year, with honors if she keeps up the way she has been."
"I'm so sorry, Alexis," I said, trying to keep back tears myself. I just couldn't understand what would make someone violate another human being like that. "Thank you for telling me. You're very brave to be willing to share your story with someone you've never met."
"I just hope it's not too late to help Aria," Alexis said. "I don't know if the fact that she's engaged has anything to do with this or not but it's certainly a strange coincidence. But it's not like she can do anything now. She can't drop the class right before finals."
"She tried to drop it. But she'd missed a couple days because she got bronchitis. She had a doctor's note, so they were excused, but he tried to tell her that he didn't let students who missed classes withdraw passing," I told her, shaking my head.
"Jackass," she muttered. "Just tell her no matter what to make sure she never ends up alone with him. That's all she can do at this point. Do you think she'd be too freaked out if I sent her a message on Facebook? Tried to talk to her?"
"No," I said confidently. "She's pretty outgoing. She'll talk to you. Especially if you tell her that your dad works with me. Matter of fact, if you want to send me a friend request so she'll see that you know me, you can. Then you can find her profile easily too."
"Sure. What's your email address?"
I gave her the email address I used for Facebook and she found me easily. We talked for a little while longer, and the more we talked, the more Alexis reminded me of Aria. It was uncanny how much they had in common. If the two of them ended up talking about anything other than Mr. Thomas, they'd become fast friends.
"Do you mind waiting until tomorrow night to reach out to Aria?" I asked, realizing I should probably tell Aria about this before Alexis just sent her a random message. "She's up to her eyeballs in final projects and studying for exams, but I'll see her tomorrow. I'd like to give her a heads-up, and she won't be in his class again until Thursday afternoon anyway."
"Of course," she said. "An introduction might make this go smoother. Thanks for meeting us on such short notice."
"Thank you for reaching out," I said. "I really appreciate your courage telling me your story. I hope it's not too late for it to do Aria some good."
"You have no idea how much I hope that too. If I can keep someone else from going through what I did, it's worth having an uncomfortable conversation with a stranger," Alexis chuckled.
The next night, I went to Aria's dorm room rather than meeting her at the theater like we'd agreed on. I wanted to talk to her alone for a few minutes before going to the show. I walked in to find Aria looking like something was bothering her. Hopefully the flowers I'd brought would cheer her up a little. It had felt wrong to get flowers for Becca and Kendra for their opening night without also getting some for Aria.
"Wait, did I forget something important?" Aria said as she put the flowers in a vase.
"No, it just felt weird buying flowers for Becca and Kendra without getting some for my fiancée too," I chuckled as I kissed her. "I've missed you. I feel like I haven't seen you in forever."
She just hugged me, sighing as she rested her head on my chest. I immediately returned the embrace and kissed her hair. Yes, something was definitely bothering her.
"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked.
"I have told you it's scary when you do that, right?" she sighed.
"Aria, anyone would be able to tell you're upset right now. What is it?" I pressed.
Aria sighed again and sat down on her bed. I went to sit next to her and she grabbed something off her desk and handed it to me. When I looked down, I realized it was the final portfolio she'd turned in for her photography class. I'd looked at it the night before she turned it in last week.
"Open it," she said.
I did, and I saw a piece of paper with a C on it. I wasn't such an expert on photography, but even I could tell that this was an A-quality portfolio, and obviously Aria knew that too. With the conversation I'd had with Alexis last night fresh in my mind, I immediately realized his game.
"Ezra, he's trying to get me to challenge it," Aria told me after I'd had a second to process what I'd seen. "I know this is an A-quality portfolio. So do you. And I know he does too. But if he thinks I'm going to put myself in a position to be alone with him so he can try to get me to sleep with him or whatever for a better grade, he's sadly mistaken. I'm taking the C. I just want to be done with this class. He can even fail me if he wants. I don't care what it does to my GPA. I'll just retake it with a different professor next semester."
I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself down. I wasn't going to be any help to her while I was panicking like this. And obviously Aria knew this guy's game too, so she wasn't going to do anything rash.
"I have to tell you something," I started. "Remember on Thanksgiving I told you about the teacher I talked to whose daughter transferred out of here after a year?"
"Yeah," she said. "What about him?"
"I got a very unexpected phone call last night. From his daughter. Apparently he'd told her that I was asking questions and she was upset with him for not telling me everything that happened to her. She said she knew he was trying to protect her, but helping someone avoid what she went through was more important. So I met her and her husband for coffee last night and we talked."
"What did she say?" Aria asked.
"I think I should let her tell you herself," I told her. "Her name's Alexis Brooks. She friended me on Facebook last night and she's going to send you a message tonight. I asked her to wait until I could tell you who she was before she reached out to you. All I will tell you is that Mr. Thomas had everything to do with why she transferred and she's never really gotten over it. Just…please be careful for the couple of classes you have left with him and listen to what she has to say. Promise me."
"I promise," she said. "I know his game. It takes two to play it and I'll let him fail me before I let myself be one of those people. I'm not going to put myself in a position to be alone with him if I can avoid it."
There was a knock at the door.
"It's open," Aria called.
Jordan walked in.
"Sorry, I didn't realize you were here, Ezra," she said. "I thought you were meeting us at the theater."
"Yeah, he was," Aria said before I could say anything. "But he got here a little early so he came to the room instead. We were just getting ready to head out."
Jordan looked at Aria quizzically, I guessed trying to determine if she'd said anything to me about the portfolio yet without actually asking her.
"Yes, I told him about the portfolio," Aria told her.
I wished I had Jordan's number so I could text her and give her a heads-up about what had happened to Alexis. The more people who knew, the safer Aria would be if Mr. Thomas tried anything tomorrow or Tuesday.
"Nice flowers," Jordan said, clearly trying to change the subject. "He spoils you."
"Someone has to," I said, kissing Aria's temple. "You ladies ready to head to the theater?"
"I'm ready," Aria said. "Jordan?"
"Yep. Don't forget your camera and the new memory card."
Aria had told me she was going to surprise Becca and Kendra by getting some pictures of them in the show. Her camera had a theater setting, so she'd be able to get shots that looked like something a professional photographer would take without using a flash. She'd been thrilled when she figured that out and had tried it at a concert she and the girls had gone to a few weeks ago. I hadn't seen her this excited to take pictures in a while. Not since everything had started happening with Mr. Thomas.
"Got it," Aria said, grabbing her camera bag as she stood up. "New card's already loaded and ready to go."
I stood up too and grabbed the flowers off of Becca's bed, and we headed out the door. I'd hoped to get a second to talk to Jordan before the show, but no luck. We literally got there with three minutes to spare and the lights went down almost as soon as we found our seats.
Aria had told me that Becca could lose her Southern accent when she put her mind to it, but I hadn't completely believed her. I was floored to discover that not only had she turned off the Southern accent, but she'd obviously spent some time perfecting a Chicago accent for this show. If I hadn't known she was from Alabama, I would have never guessed from how she sounded in this show. She only turned on the Southern accent when her character was supposed to be acting like she was from the south. She really was phenomenal. The entire show was very well done.
When the lights went up during intermission, Aria checked her phone and she'd gotten a message from Alexis. She sent a response asking if Alexis might be free to talk after the show was over; Alexis said she'd stay up as late as Aria needed. I felt like a huge weight was lifted off of my shoulders knowing that Aria and Alexis would be talking tonight. Aria wouldn't be going into Mr. Thomas's class blind tomorrow.
Aria, Jordan, and I headed backstage after the show to see Becca and Kendra and congratulate them on a great opening night. They emerged from the dressing rooms after about ten minutes in street clothes, but still with stage makeup on.
"Becks, that was fantastic!" Aria said, going to give her a hug and then turning to Kendra. "You too, Kendra! The show was incredible."
"I wish these were coming from your parents, but since they obviously aren't here, I figured someone had to do this," I said, handing Becca her bouquet of flowers, and then turning to Kendra. "And whether or not your parents are here, Kendra, you deserve these too. You were both amazing."
"Aww, thank you, Ezra," Becca said in the thick Southern drawl we all knew and loved, giving me a hug.
"I have a surprise for you both too," Aria said, pulling her camera out of its bag. "Remember that new camera setting I was playing around with at the concert a couple of weeks ago? It was because I wanted to see if it would work tonight."
Aria turned her camera on and showed Becca and Kendra the shots she'd gotten during the show.
"Aria, these look like something you'd see in a magazine or newspaper," Kendra said. "They're amazing. Thank you so much."
"This memory card is for you guys," she said, swapping the card out with one that she had in a memory card case in her bag. She handed the card from tonight's show to Becca.
Suddenly Becca froze in her tracks, staring past me at the stage door. I turned to see what she was looking at and I recognized Becca's mother from move-in day. A young girl, probably a junior or senior in high school, was standing next to her. I guessed she was Becca's sister.
"Mom," Becca choked out, clearly in too much shock to say anything else. "Lindsay."
"Your father was furious with us, but we couldn't miss your opening night," Becca's mother said. "Becca, you were wonderful."
"What Mom said," Lindsay said as she walked up and gave her sister a hug. "You knocked it out of the park, sis."
"Thanks," Becca said.
"So, are you going to introduce me to your friends?" Lindsay asked.
"Sure," Becca chuckled. "This is my roommate and one of my best friends, Aria, and that's her fiancé, Ezra. That's my other best friend, Jordan. And this is my girlfriend, Kendra." She took Kendra's hand, probably half for support and half to show her family she wasn't ashamed.
Becca's mother looked a little taken aback at Becca so boldly introducing Kendra as her girlfriend. Lindsay, however, immediately greeted us warmly and shook all of our hands, just as Becca had done with me and Aria's parents on move-in day.
"We'll leave you with your family," Aria said. "Great job tonight, Becks. I'll see you when you get back to the dorm."
"Thanks, Aria," Becca said, giving Aria a hug. "Thank you for the pictures. They're amazing."
"You're welcome," Aria said, then turned to me and Jordan. "Come on, guys. Let's give Becca some time with her family."
I walked Aria and Jordan back to their dorm, and Jordan went inside to let me say good night to Aria. As I kissed her goodbye and turned to leave, I couldn't help the sinking feeling I had in my stomach that despite Alexis's and my warnings and Aria's own gut instincts, Mr. Thomas would still manage to do something horrible before the semester was over.
Aria
I barely slept at all after talking to Alexis. I was too scared of what would happen when I went back to Mr. Thomas's class. Unfortunately, even if I did everything I could to avoid being alone with him, if he asked to see me alone and refused to talk to me until everyone else left the room, there wasn't much I could do about that. It had been too late to text Ezra and tell him I'd talked to her by the time we were done, but I texted him when my alarm woke me up for math class.
Talked to Alexis last night. Wow. Poor girl. And brave to be willing to talk to us. I promise I'll do everything I can not to end up alone with him.
It wasn't thirty seconds later that I got a text back. He'd obviously been waiting to hear from me.
Please do. I don't even want to think about someone hurting you. I love you.
I love you too, I texted back. And I miss you. Can't wait for exams to be over.
I know, he responded. Me too.
I was a zombie in my math and American history classes, and I barely ate anything at lunch. I literally could not stop thinking about what Alexis had told me and trying to figure out how to stop Mr. Thomas from getting me alone. I already knew I wasn't going to challenge the grade he'd given me on my portfolio, but I just had this feeling that he was going to come up with some reason to ask to see me alone. Now more than ever, I was glad I'd dated Jake for that month last year. I had a feeling the self-defense lessons were about to come in handy.
"Aria," Jordan interrupted me as I was leaving the cafeteria. "What's wrong? Late night?"
"I've never been more scared to go to Mr. Thomas's class than I am right now," I said, trying to keep back the tears that had been building up all day.
"Why? What's going on?"
I took a deep breath. "Look, Ezra works with someone whose daughter went to this school. She transferred out after a year. He tried talking to the guy, but the guy was pretty tight-lipped about what his daughter had been through. Just said that it was something similar to what I was going through and that she'd also gotten engaged young. Her boyfriend joined the Navy and proposed before he left to go to boot camp. Tuesday night, out of the blue, he gets a phone call from this guy's daughter asking him to meet her and her husband for coffee."
"So what did she say to him?" she asked.
"Actually, I ended up getting it straight from the horse's mouth. I guess she asked Ezra if it would be okay if she reached out to me on Facebook. He friended her so she could find me easily and so I could see that she knew him, and then asked her to wait until he had a chance to tell me who she was. That was why he got here early last night and came to my room rather than meeting us at the theater. Alexis sent me a Facebook message last night and I talked to her on the phone after the show. Mr. Thomas raped her at the end of her first semester here after harassing her all semester long like he's been doing with me. She doesn't know if the fact that she was engaged and wore her ring like me has anything to do with it, but she said he used to stare at her left hand nonstop too."
"Wow," Jordan said. "I thought he was a creep, but I never imagined that he was a rapist. How is he still teaching here and not behind bars?"
"She tried to press charges, but he used protection so there was no DNA evidence against him. Besides that, everything they had was circumstantial and it wasn't enough to convince the district attorney to charge him. Because he wasn't charged and the dean wouldn't take a freshman's word over a respected professor's, he was allowed to continue teaching here. And he rubbed it in to her face every chance he got. So after another semester, she transferred out closer to where her fiancé was stationed. They got married that summer. But seriously, who knows how many other students Mr. Thomas has raped and gotten away with it?" I said, hyperventilating by the time I was done.
"Probably a lot," she sighed. "Look, you know I'm not going to leave you alone with him if I can help it. Even if he asks to see you alone, I'm not going anywhere unless he throws me out. I promise. And we only have today and Tuesday left. You can do this. Come on. Let's go get today over with and then I'll buy you a coffee. Okay?"
I took a deep breath. "Okay. Thanks, Jordan."
Today's class consisted of making sure we had all of our supplies out of the darkroom and that our stations were clean. Throughout the whole class, Mr. Thomas was looking expectantly at me, like he was waiting for me to say something to him. He clearly expected me to try to challenge my portfolio grade. I tried to leave when I was done cleaning my station, but he asked me to stay. Jordan stayed with me.
As soon as the rest of the students had left, Mr. Thomas spoke.
"Miss Montgomery, may I speak to you alone please?" he said.
And there it was. I choked back tears. Jordan stayed firmly planted where she was.
"Miss Blake, would you mind giving us the room?" Mr. Thomas asked.
"It's okay, Mr. Thomas. I don't mind if Jordan hears anything you have to say to me," I tried. I knew it was futile, but I had to try.
"I'm sorry, Miss Blake, but it would be a breach of confidentiality to allow you to hear this. You're welcome to wait for Miss Montgomery right outside if you'd like," he said, sounding a little…breathy? Excited?
I steeled myself. I had no choice. I had to stay here. With him. Alone.
"You okay, Aria?" Jordan asked me.
"Yeah, I'll be fine," I choked out. "I'll be out in a few minutes."
Jordan walked out the door, looking almost as scared as I was. Mr. Thomas followed her, and on a hunch, I quietly pulled my phone out and set it to record before putting it back in my purse. And then I heard something that made my heart jump into my throat. Mr. Thomas shut and locked the darkroom door and then turned back to face me. Under the infrared lights, his eyes glowed with a sinister look I'd never seen before as he walked back towards me.