On Her Own

Chapter 6

They walked back towards the dorm together hand in hand. The sun had sunk below the trees, and the woods were dark.

Rachel was gazing at the night sky, letting Richard guide her when she suddenly broke the silence. "Richard?"

His reply was a gentle squeeze of her hand. "Thanks for today. I had a lot of fun."

He smiled down at her. "I did too Rach. I'm just glad to see you smiling and happy again."

The closer they got to the center of campus where their dorm was the more people were around. Rachel saw Roy leaning against a tree, just off the main path. He grinned at her and nodded. She swallowed and looked away.

Memories of that night began surfacing again.

"Do you want to go back to my room? We can get some dinner, maybe watch a movie?" Richard asked when they were almost back to the dorm rooms.

"Rachel?"

"Rachel?" He said again, tugging gently on her hand.

Blinking up at him a few times he watched her eyes focus on him. "Sorry, what?"

"I asked if you wanted to go back to my room tonight." He frowned at her, his eyebrows pulling together.

She smiled at him, taking his hand and draping his arm around her shoulders. "Sounds perfect."

They stopped at one of the campus' dining halls and got themselves some Chinese food. After they had eaten their dinner, they started on their way back to Richards room.

He watched her as they walked. It seemed whatever it was that had been bothering her before they ate, wasn't an issue now.

Richard opened the door to his room and let her go in first. He watched her go to his closet and strip down to her panties before pulling on one of his shirts, taking a two step lead and jumping onto his bed. She bounced slightly after she landed. She seemed happier.

He grinned, shutting the door behind him, changing into sweat pants and leaping onto the bed with her.

Crushing his mouth to hers, he pushed her against the bed, his fingers trailed along her sides. While their tongues dueled she rolled them over so she was on top. She pulled back just enough for air, staring into his eyes. She tangled her hands in his black mane of hair. He leaned up kissing her again, nibbling on her bottom lip as he rolled them over again.

He felt her gasp, they were falling. Before he knew it they were on his floor, with him crushing her. He pushed himself to his knees, straddling her. "Rachel, are you all right?"

She groaned and rubbed the back of her head. "Yeah, but next time, I think I'll just let you stay on top."

Sitting up, she leaned on her elbows. "You need a softer floor." She stated bluntly.

Getting up, Richard reached down chuckling and pulled her up by her hands. "You sure you're all right?"

She nodded as he cupped her face in his hands before kissing her softly. He nudged her sideways slightly before pulling her closer to him and falling back onto the mattress, with her on top this time.

She sighed softly as he rested his forehead against hers. "Thank you for taking me tree climbing today."

He smiled at her. "It was my pleasure."

She closed her eyes and he placed another soft kiss on her lips before pulling them fully onto the bed. Richard rolled so Rachel was laying on the inside of the mattress, closer to the wall, before sitting up and reaching for the TV remote that he knew was on the floor somewhere near his side of the bed.

Smiling inwardly when he finally found it, he turned on the TV and scrolled through the channels till he found a movie to leave on for the time being.

Rachel reached for his arm and moved it so she could rest her head on it, turning her head slightly so she could place a kiss on the skin of his upper arm.

With a small smile she closed her eyes, not bothering to watch the movie he had put on. She knew he did't care about watching it, they both preferred to cuddle when it was late at night like this.

He wrapped an arm around her waist and tugged her closer, she nuzzled her nose against his chest. Both were quite content as they drifted off to sleep.

The full moon came through the window of Richards room, pooling on the floor near the bed as Rachel carefully made her way to the door. She wasn't exactly a fan of leaving his room in nothing but her panties and one of his shirts but the bathroom was only two doors down. And no one will be wandering around the halls in the middle of the night, the rational half of her brain added.

Easing open the door, Rachel slipped into the dark hallway and started making her way to the bathroom. The hallway lights were never off, that was really strange. There was a sound behind her, and she froze where she was. Tentatively turning around, she saw a flash of orange hair at the other end of the hall. Her heart was pounding as she ran the short distance back to Richards room.

She knew that it was Roy out there. And she knew that he would love nothing more than to catch her alone in the dark. She was really beginning to hate the fact that they all lived in the same dorm. Trying to slow and quiet her breathing she walked back over to the bed. She didn't want Richard to wake up and find out.

She knew he was already worried about her.

She slowly climbed back into bed, just as she was pulling the blankets up around her, Richards hand covered hers. "Hey, are you all right?"

Richards voice was gruff with sleep, but his eyes were alert.

She curled up against him, hating the taste of the lie that rolled off her tongue, "Yeah, I was just in the bathroom."

His lips found her temple, and lingered a few extra seconds before his arm wrapped around her, pulling her against him and tucking her head under his chin.

She sighed quietly and let herself go back to sleep, knowing Roy couldn't hurt her while Richard was around.

The next day the two of them settled down on the floor of Richards room and spent the day doing their homework together.

Rachel had been on the jumpy side all day. She blamed the nightmares of Roy chasing her down endless dark hallways.

She was in the middle of a particularly hard math problem when she decided she needed a little break. Crawling over to Richard who was sitting on the floor a few feet away, she took his history book out of his lap; claiming the spot for herself.

Grinning, he raised an eyebrow at her. "Was that really necessary?"

She nodded as he claimed her mouth with his. She melted against him as one of his hands tangled itself in her hair, the other hand slipping beneath the hem of her shirt and rubbing small circles on her hip.

She trailed a hand up his chest and traced over the silver chain for a moment before wrapping around his neck. She could feel the clasp of it pushing into the skin of her wrist.

Pulling back slightly he placed a soft kiss on her forehead. "I know these last few weeks have been hard but you are so brave."

She looked away from him, not wanting to think about why the last few weeks had been so hard for her.

He continued, lifting her chin so she would look at him. "You are so brave Rachel, you wanted to handle it on your own. That bravery and strength is something amazing."

He kissed her slowly, holding her tightly. Her hands were around his neck, she felt like she needed this. Needed him.

"You're the best boyfriend ever." She murmured, pulling back from the kiss.

"Oh, I know." He replied cockily, causing her to laugh.

He nudged her out of his lap and back towards her homework. "Now get back to work. We're almost done."

She pouted, hoping to put off leaving his arms for a few more minutes. "Come on, you're almost done." He reminded her.

She stuck her tongue out at him before going back over to her math.

"Soon?" She asked as she laid down on her stomach in front of her textbook.

He nodded with a small smile. "Soon."

Less than an hour later they were on their way to Rachels room. She wanted to sleep in her bed and call her parents, she wanted to know what the plan was for Christmas break.

She hadn't seen Roy since the night before in the hallway, and once Richard left her room she was planning on locking the door for the night.

When she opened the door to her room, Toni was on the phone, sprawled across her bed. She waved at Rachel before focusing on whoever she was talking to.

Richard pulled her against him and kissed her softly.

When he pulled back she looked up at him pleadingly. If Toni was in the room for the night then Richard wouldn't stay even if she asked him too.

"I'll stop by tomorrow after my last class alright?"

She rested her forehead against his chest and nodded. "Sure."

He grinned, lifting her chin and pecking her on the lips again. "Goodnight Rach."

She leaned in the doorway, watching him go. When he was out of sight, she stepped backwards into her room, shutting and locking the door.

"Why don't we go out and plaint the halls red?" Toni asked as she climbed off her bed.

Letting her backpack strap slide off her shoulder, Rachels backpack landed on the floor with a soft thump.

"Really Toni?" Rachel asked with a laugh as she threw herself on her bed.

"Are you going out tonight?" She asked after a beat of silence.

Toni looked like she was thinking about it as she sat on the edge of Rachels bed. "No, tonight it's just going to be you, me, and Batman movies."

Rachel grinned, loving the idea of it. "In that case, I think I'll jump in the shower. Then make a quick call home, I want to know what my parents are planning for Christmas."

Grabbing clean clothes and her shower bag, Rachel left her room with a quick glance around the hallway before hurrying to the bathroom for a shower.

An hour later Rachel had still been unsuccessful in getting a hold of either of her parents, and both girls were laying on their floor in their sports bras and shorts with a giant bowl of popcorn, watching The Dark Knight.

When The Dark Knight Rises ended it was well after midnight, and both girls climbed into bed.

"Goodnight Toni." Rachel whispered across the quiet room as she reached to turn on her nightstand lamp.

"Goodnight love, and whatever has been keeping you up at night, you can tell me."

Rachel sat up on one arm and looked at the British girl laying across the room from her.

"What do you mean?" She didn't want Toni to know yet, she didn't know how she'd take the news that their friend…wasn't really their friend.

Toni sat up on one arm as well and stared at Rachel. "You barely sleep anymore. And you used to hate having the lights on at night, now you freak out if the room is too dark. Is everything okay between you and Richard? Is he hurting you or something?"

"No!" Rachel said, panic leaking into her voice. "He'd never hurt me like that. He'd never hurt me period. Now I just want to go to bed. Goodnight." With that Rachel tuned to face the wall and closed her eyes, trying to go to sleep.

Once Toni was sure that she was asleep she went over and went through Rachels iPhone, sending Richards number to her phone.

Getting back in bed, Toni sent him a quick text. 'Hey its Toni. Can u tell me whts up with Rachel? She nearly flipped on me when I asked her whts up?'

In his room one floor up, Richard was just getting into his bed when he saw his phone light up. Scanning the text he knew that something needed to change.

He would talk to Rachel tomorrow, and if she didn't want to tell Toni then he would have to.

Toni was gone when Rachel woke up Monday morning which wasn't really a surprise since she liked to have coffee with her boyfriend before class.

Sitting up, she stretched her back out before going over to her closet and getting dressed.

Pulling on a pair of jeans, she threw a sweatshirt over her sports bra and grabbed her backpack. Opening the door she saw Roy leaning against the wall in front of her.

"Morning Rachel, I believe we have some unfinished business."

He moved so fast that she didn't have a chance to shut the door before he had pushed her back into her room.

He locked the door without taking his eyes off her.

Rachels scream caught in her throat, as he slowly stalked towards her…