On Her Own

Chapter 2

Richard had brought Rachel to his room. He didn't know what was going on between them, but whatever it was Rachel didn't seem to like it. She hadn't said a single thing since he found her holding hands with Roy, and that had been hours ago now.

"Rach, why don't you hang here for a bit? I'm gonna go get us some pizza for dinner." She merely nodded from where she lay on his bed next to him. His room was cold and she shivered slightly when he got up, taking his warmth with him. He grabbed an extra blanket from the end of the bed and laid it over her, tucking her in.

Rachel grabbed his hand before he pulled it away from the blanket and placed a light kiss on his palm. He squeezed her hand gently, and leaned down to place a kiss on her forehead. She let go of his hand and sighed softly. He was so good to her and she was keeping this huge secret from him.

He stood up, grabbed his wallet and left his room, locking the door behind him. He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair before heading over to the little pizza shack near his dorm. He knew she was shaken from whatever had transpired between her and Roy. He would let it be for now, let her calm down a bit, and give her the chance to tell him herself before he started asking questions. She would tell him when she was ready.

Paying for his pizza he turned and began making his way back to his room.

Getting up, Rachel went over to his closet and stole a pair of his pajama pants and one of his shirts. She changed quickly, grabbed his laptop and crawled back under the blankets. Logging onto his computer she went online and checked her email. She had thought with the holidays approaching, their might be an email from her mom but she was wrong. There was one from Roy though. She opened it and scanned it quickly, feeling like she was going to throw up by the end of it.

She took a shaky breath and closed the lid before putting it back on his desk. She had just gotten back under the blankets when Richard came in carrying a hot pizza for them. She wanted to puke from that email. He sat down in front of her on the bed, with the pizza between them.

Richard had gotten her favorite, hawaiian pizza, but she couldn't bring herself to enjoy it. She had barely taken two bites of her first slice while he was starting his second one.

"Are you feeling alright Rachel?" Richard had been watching her carefully. She looked pale and had barely even touched her food. She'd bring it up to her mouth then would seemingly change her mind and put it back down.

She shrugged and looked down at her slice before laying it back in the box. She couldn't do it. She wanted to puke and it was all his fault. He was the one who started this mess.

"Have you eaten anything today?" He knew she never ate breakfast, and didn't eat any lunch today that he knew of. She shrugged again before hugging a pillow to her chest.

Finishing his slice, he put the leftover pizza in the fridge before laying on the bed with her and turning the TV on. She curled against him, fisting his shirt in her hand as he stroked her hair. Richard looked down at her, she still hadn't said anything and that worried him.

"Rachel?" She was watching the TV, not really seeing it.

"What about your roommate?" Her voice was just above a whisper.

He kissed the top of her head, relieved. "He left on vacation with his family."

She nodded slowly and closed her eyes, worming closer to her boyfriend. "Goodnight Richard,"

"Goodnight Rach, sleep well." The TV faded into the background as consciousness left her.

Richard woke up the next morning to the sound of his alarm going off. Groaning he reached over and silenced the annoying device. He looked over at his girlfriend and smiled. She was sleeping peacefully, one of her arms wrapped around his waist. He moved her arm and quietly got out of bed to get dressed.

As soon as he had pulled away from her, Rachel rolled over and curled into a tight ball. He hated to wake her up, but he knew she had class in an hour. Richard finished dressing before sitting on the edge of the bed and laying a hand lightly on her cheek. She stirred slightly.

"Rachel, time to get up." He stroked her cheek with his thumb.

"Rachel, Rach you need to get up." Moving his hand to her arm, he squeezed it lightly.

She bolted up to a sitting position and glanced around frantically. He was watching her worriedly. Taking a slow deep breath, Rachel climbed out of his bed and went to his closet to find the extra clothes she left there.

"You alright Rachel?"

She nodded with her back to him. "Yeah, just had a bad dream." She hoped he wouldn't call her out on the obvious lie.

Richard was worried about her, and planned on watching her closely. He knew she wasn't ready to tell him on her own, so he would have to figure it out for himself.

Once they were both ready, Richard brought Rachel to her room to grab her stuff and walked her to her english class.

"I'll catch up with you later, have a good class." He noticed that she tried not to flinch as he placed a kiss on her forehead.

"Sure, I'll see you later." Her voice was soft and sad as she walked into the class that she had skipped for the past week and a half.

Rachel looked over to where her seat was. Roy sat next to her and was already at his desk. The professor wasn't there yet. Starting towards her seat, Rachel promised herself she wouldn't let him get to her. He couldn't do anything, they were in a room full of other people. Sitting down, she pulled out the paper she had started before she began skipping and stared straight ahead, waiting to pass it in.

She knew she couldn't explain why she missed class so she knew the only way to get her grade back up was to do well on the final in a few weeks. She was determined to pass this class with a B+ and knew she had a lot of work ahead of her. She wasn't going to let her fear of Roy keep her from passing this class. She knew she could survive an hour twice a week. She had to. As long as she wasn't alone with him she would be fine.

When her professor dismissed class for the day, she practically jumped out of her chair. She quickly made her way to the door and went to get a snack out of the vending machines before her next class.

The week had gone by slowly for Rachel. It was finally late Friday night. She had managed to avoid saying more than two words to Roy during both sessions of english and she had finished reading two of the chapters she had missed while she wasn't in class. She was pretty proud of herself.

With a small smile she relaxed into her boyfriends arms. They were lounging around in her room. Toni was out at a party and planning on spending the night at her boyfriends.

"Hey, Rachel?" His voice was quiet as his arm trailed lazily up and down her arm.

She looked up at him, she was more comfortable with him right now than she had been lately. When he didn't speak immediately she traced the outline of the silver chain that hid beneath his shirt and closed her eyes, her head resting against his shoulder.

"Can we talk for a minute?" She nodded against his shirt, leaving her eyes closed.

"You've been acting different lately. I know there's something wrong…" He trailed off, wanting to see if she would tell him or see if she'd make him tell her what he saw.

"I've just been stressed about my grades, I'm fine." She looked up at him. Only half of a lie. Though he didn't know that she had skipped english class for a while.

"Really Richard, I'm fine." She added when he looked unbelieving. She heard the lie in her voice and he most likely did too, it was more of whether or not he was going to call her out on it.

The hand that had been moving along her arm stopped, and he sat up a bit so he was looking down at her. "Why are you lying to me?" He didn't sound hurt only confused, his eyes were boring into hers.

His gaze locked on hers and she couldn't bring herself to look away. "I-I'm not l-lying, what gave you that idea?"

He sat up all the way, and saw her tense. "You stuttered, and I saw the email from Roy on my computer. You never logged out last time you used it."

She looked scared and tried to move away from him. But Richard put a calm, steadying hand on her shoulder, stopping her.

"What's going on between you and Roy?" His voice was barely above a whisper. He knew whatever it was, it wasn't good. She was scared of Roy, and Richard could see it.

"You're not going to be happy when I tell you." She was trembling lightly under his hand. She wanted to pull away.

"It's all right, I won't be mad. I promise. You need to tell me, Rachel. I'm worried about you." He made sure to keep his voice light and gentle. After reading that email, a lot of his girlfriends behavior had made sense to him, but he wasn't entirely sure what was going on between them.

"You shouldn't make promises you can't keep." Rachel whispered, jerking his hand away from her shoulder and rolling over so her back was to him.

He moved a little closer and trailed his fingers through her hair. "Don't hide from me, I want to help you. I want to be there for you, but you have to let me in first." Richard moved and sat in front of her, with his back against the wall and his legs bent over her stretched out legs.

"I'm scared of him." She admitted quietly to the blankets.

"He tried to do something…" She shook her head softly and stopped, unable to say more. But Richard had read the email, he knew what Roy had tried to do to her. What he still wanted to do to her.

"When?"

"After a halloween party, a few weeks ago…" She couldn't look at him.

"Oh Rachel…" He reached out to lift her chin, only to see tears falling down her cheeks.

One of his hands fisted at his side. Richard wanted nothing more than to go find Roy and beat him to a bloody pulp, but he had someone else to take care of first.

So instead he pushed away the anger, forcing himself to calm down, and pulled his girlfriend closer.

She resisted a bit until he let go of her.

"Rachel, I promise you, I'm not mad at you. I'm not upset in any way. This isn't your fault." He heard a choked sob come from her. She looked at him timidly for a moment before she, ever so slowly, inched her way into his arms.

"I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to be mad and worried about me…" She trailed off quietly, looking down at his shirt instead of him.

"I'll admit, I'm mad but not at you. Roy tried to hurt you Rachel, and he's the one I'm mad at." Richard held her close and rubbed her back. "You did absolutely nothing wrong though. I'm not mad at you. You did the right thing telling me. I'm not mad at you." His voice was a soft whisper next to her ear.

"Does Toni know?" He knew the two were really close and told each other everything so he was surprised when she shook her head. It took a lot for her to keep secrets.

"Thank you for telling me." He sighed sadly and brushed his lips across her forehead, and for the first time in a few weeks she didn't tense against him.