Chapter 3

Mal looked over at Evie as fear penetrated her eyes. "I'm sorry, I have to go. I can't talk to him," she whispered.

"Mal, what's going on?" Evie asked, the concern evident in her voice.

Tears welled up in Mal's eyes as she stood, the penetrating fear evident in her eyes. Once Ben was out of sight, she walked out of the room as quickly as she could, leaving Evie behind her.

"Mal? Mal!" Evie exclaimed before chasing after her. She found Mal in their dorm room with her tear-laden face resting in her shaking hands. She slowly walked up to Mal, her eyes filled with genuine concern, and sat next to her on the bed. "Mal, please tell me what's going on. What happened with you and Ben?"

Mal looked up at Evie, her eyes still wet with tears. "Ben attacked me," Mal explained between sobs.

"What, how?" Evie asked.

"The night I had dinner with him, we started talking about the wedding after we finished eating and I told him that I wasn't sure if marrying him was the right thing to do. He became absolutely furious and told me that he would make sure I had no choice but to marry him," Mal explained between tears. "He beat me, dragged me to his bedroom and he…"

Evie placed her hand on Mal's shoulder. "What did he do?" she asked.

Mal took in a deep, shaky breath and closed her eyes. "He stole something from me. Something I can never get back," she said, trying her best to force back tears.

Evie's heart filled with rage as Mal spoke. "I'm gonna kill him," she seethed as she rose to her feet.

"Evie, it's okay. That's really not necessary," Mal said in a futile attempt to calm her down.

"The heck it's not!" Evie screamed. "Mal, you were beaten and raped by a so-called man who was supposed to love you. No one gets to treat my girl like that. Why, I ought to…ugh! I could butcher him!"

Mal looked at Evie with a look in her eyes that Evie couldn't quite place. "Evie, can I do something?" Mal asked, looking down as she spoke.

"Yes, of course," Evie said as she sat down next to Mal and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Whatever you need to say or do, you can do it. This is a safe space."

As Mal looked deeply into Evie's eyes, she lost a large part of her self-control and did something she never thought she would do. She rested her hand on the left side of Evie's face, placed a long, soft kiss on Evie's lips and pulled away slowly. Evie looked at her with a shocked look on her face.

"I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have done that." Mal stammered. " I should've known you'd never feel the same. I just had hoped…"

Evie rested her forehead on Mal's. "Who ever said I don't feel the same?" she asked before pulling Mal in and kissing her harder than Mal had kissed her. But Mal, instead of staying still, tangled her fingers in Evie's hair, pulled her closer and kissed back with just as much force, if not more. When the two girls finally pulled apart, they were absolutely breathless. Little did they know that, not only did they have an audience, but that the audience had everything but good intentions.