His threat truly made my body shudder; he sounded so angry. When he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, I could see the veins in his neck quite clearly. Yes, he was furious.
“Who the hell do you think you are?” Travis spat out. He tried to assert himself as the alpha male by pushing Donovan and, by extension, me too, as I was standing behind him. Clearly, he shouldn’t have done that.
I heard the exact moment when Donovan’s clenched fist collided with Travis’s jaw. After Travis fell onto the sidewalk, Donovan intended to keep hitting him. I’m sure he’d wanted to do this for a long time.
He only bent down to get close to his face. Only the three of us could hear what he said next: “I’m the one person you don’t want to mess with.”
Following that, Donovan grabbed my wrist, and we headed to the parking lot. Many whispers were heard as we left. This was definitely going to be talk of the school.
“This is what I meant by dangerous territory, Alicia,” he clarified.
I said nothing, I didn’t dare to, I was dying inside. Why does this happen to me? I should have been invisible from the first minute.
Donovan must have noticed my state, so he opened the passenger door of his Chevy and gave me time to sit down. After that, he also got in and started the car.
“Did he hurt you?” he asked while driving. His hands gripped the steering wheel tightly. “He was holding your arm quite hard.”
I didn’t even realize my arm hurt until Donovan mentioned it. At this moment, I couldn’t focus on anything other than the idea of hiding under my sheets for an entire year.
I rolled up the sleeve of my sweater, and yes, it was a bit red from the recent pressure. I heard a curse uttered under his breath.
“It’s not a big deal, in a few minutes it won’t be anything,” I reassured, trying to calm him down. I wasn’t expecting this kind of reaction from him, and let alone him pulling Travis off me. “Thanks for intervening.”
“You shouldn’t have to thank me. You should stop looking for trouble, don’t you think?”
This is the third time he’s saved me, I knew that. First with Jessi, then with the drunks, and now with Travis. But did he want to blame me for all that? It’s not my fault to have such bad luck. I didn’t choose for my cousin to hate me, and even less did I choose to attract Travis.
“Excuse me? Is it my damn fault that that idiot became obsessed with me?”
“You should have rejected him from the start if you didn’t want him.”
“I did!” I defended, raising my voice. “Why did you delete all my calls?”
He wasn’t expecting that question, and I wasn’t expecting to ask it. But I can’t believe he’s acting like such an idiot right now, and I wanted to know what reason he had for treating me this way this morning.
“I didn’t delete them.”
“Is he going to deny it?”
“Why were you so angry this morning?”
“I wasn’t angry, I’m always like that.”
He was on the defensive, I knew that behavior, I was an expert at it. I wasn’t going to be able to talk to Donovan today, that was clear, however, I knew he was heading to his house.
We couldn’t be together now. Or ever. We weren’t a good match.
“Fine, we won’t be good travel companions today. Drop me off at home,” I requested, and he made a U-turn.
If the window had been open, I would have flown out of the car.
It wasn’t even two minutes when he lashed out at me. It had seemed strange that he didn’t want to yell at me. “By giving him your number, were you rejecting him? If you wanted to, you could have gone with him last night. There was no need for you to stay with me.”
I think he just admitted that he deleted all my messages.
“Well, that’s what I wanted to do at that moment, we were having a good time. I forgot I had to meet Travis. I only agreed because the guy was genuinely trying. We agreed on just one date, and then he would leave me alone.”
I saw him frown and lick his lips, the answer didn’t seem to please him.
“We’re here,” he informed, parking the car without looking at me.
I waited a moment, wanting him to say something more to let me know we were okay.
He said nothing.
“Fine, if that’s how you want it.”
I got out of the car and stormed into the house.
Why did my chest hurt when I heard Donovan leaving?
***
Donovan didn’t show up for class yesterday. It’s not like before, I’m not relieved by his absence, in fact, I wished to see him. That’s why I’m here now. On his doorstep. I tried to control my impulse to come see him, but it was much stronger than me. I know I’m a contradiction, I’m aware that I say I want to distance myself, but I do nothing but get closer, however, I know the reason. Donovan is literally the first person who knows about my past and doesn’t judge me.
He’s not embarrassed to be seen with me. I could talk to him and I didn’t need to explain every detail for him to understand. He understood.
I liked that he looked at me like any other person. He never showed disgust or shame towards me. There were fantastic feelings mixed into all of that.
I had April, she’s my first friend since primary school, but it’s different, I can’t talk in the same way with her. I always have to be careful not to mention my past so she won’t ask.
Although half the time since we met we spent arguing, Donovan was by far, the best company I’ve had.
I knocked on his door a few times, but no one answered. I tried a little more, but there was still no response. There was no one home.
I turned around to go back to the bus stop. I was a fool to come without calling Donovan first… Which, I would also have found impossible, he has my number, I don’t have his.
At the same moment that I was going to cross the other side of the street, a horn made me jump again. It was Donovan’s car, along with two others following him.
Donovan parked on the sidewalk hastily and, in the same manner, got out of the car. His eyes were wide open when he approached me at full speed.
“You have to go. Now,” Donovan whispered in my ear, he’s almost begging me.