Page 10 of Thrall
But that didn’t mean that nothing had happened. If nothing had happened, she wouldn’t feel like this, would she?
“Hey,” the RA said. “If something happened that you didn’t want to happen, even if you feel like it was just a little thing, it’s serious. That doesn’t mean you have to do anything about it if you don’t want to—not with the police, not with anyone. But the ‘serious’ part isn’t in question. Not to me, anyway. Okay?”
Lucy wasn’t sure why she laughed again. None of this was funny. Maybe it was the no-nonsense tone, jarring but not unpleasant after the distant, dreamy haze of the night before. Maybe this was how divers felt, surfacing too quickly. “If I did tell you,” she asked, “what would happen?”
The RA shrugged. From her, it seemed like a thoughtful gesture. “I’d put you in touch with someone from the Title IX office. Which I realize sounds like bureaucratic bullshit, but I know a few of the staff, and they’re good people. They wouldn’t make you do anything you don’t want. If you want to talk to campus counseling, they’d help you get an appointment. If you change your mind about the cops, they’d help you make a statement. Or if you tell them you want to do none of those things, they’d respect that, too. Whatever you want, they’d follow your lead.
“But I know even that’s too much sometimes,” the RA said. “So before you say anything, I wanted to warn you. Give you a chance to decide what youdowant to do right now. And if you need to think about that for a second, you’re not keeping me waiting. It’s a comfortable couch.”
Lucy swallowed, and sat back. She could see why anxious parents folded in the face of the RA’s calm competence. She had to be a few years younger than Lucy, if she was a junior. But for all the Big Decisions Lucy had had to make over the last several years, she wasn’t sure she’d ever spoken with the kind of confidence and certainty she could hear in the RA’s voice. This was someone who didn’t seem to spend much time flinching. Lucy might have been envious if she weren’t a little enthralled.
So Lucy tried to allow some of that certainty to rub off on her. “I don’t know that somebody hurt me, exactly,” she said. She was fairly sure they had—the bruise on her neck was proof enough. But she didn’t want to report that to anyone, not yet. Not until she knew more. “I think I took something without knowing it. But I don’t know what it was.”
The RA inclined her head and took that in. “Health center, then. Did your orientation group show you where that was?” Lucy nodded, and the RA nodded back. “Great. The campus shuttle is easiest. Do you feel up to walking? Can you make it there?”
Ah, Lucy realized. Those really were two very different questions. She almost lied. But in the face of the RA’s straightforwardness, she found she wanted to respond in kind. “I can walk,” she said. “But I think I’m having some kind of…migraine, or reaction to whatever I took. It’s like everything feels…too bright, right now.”
For a moment, Lucy thought she saw a ripple across the placid surface of the RA’s face. But she only nodded again, slower this time. Her lower lip slid thoughtfully between her teeth. And then, standing, she took off her bottle-green cardigan.
In her sweater, everything about the RA had looked soft, from the curled ends of her hair to the flush of the warm mid-morning against her cheeks. But Cute RA wasn’t just cute—she wasripped.Sitting there in her tank top and jeans, all the hard edges of her were on display: the curves of her biceps and her broad, lightly freckled shoulders, the strong and confident lines of her forearms. She held herself like an athlete at rest. Not tense, but ready.
“Well,” Lucy mumbled. “You haven’t been skipping arm day.”
The RA arched both eyebrows. “Sorry?”
Lucy’s mouth snapped shut. It was good to know that even now, of all times, she was still capable of being entirely too forward with a beautiful girl. “No, um—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for that to be, like…a line.” Though she couldn’t deny that any other time, it would have been.
“Hey, you’re not wrong. Ihavebeen known to skip leg day, though.” The RA gently draped her cardigan over Lucy’s head. Her fingertip brushed Lucy’s shoulder as she pulled it back. “Okay. This is a bit of a DIY solution, but—does that give you a bit more shade?”
If Lucy swallowed audibly, it was hardly her fault. “I,” she said. “Actually, yes.” Because as hot as her face still felt, the dizziness was receding. When she eased herself to her feet, she wobbled but held firm.
The RA’s hand had slipped under her elbow, and the sudden warmth at her arm startled her. For a touch that was barely there, it was the steadiest thing she’d felt all morning. “I have a quad staff meeting in ten minutes,” she said, apologetically. “But I have time to walk you to the shuttle stop. Would that help?”
Lucy smiled, and allowed herself a moment to imagine her arm was being held for nicer reasons. “That’d help a lot.”
So they started to walk. And while Lucy’s stomach still pulsed unhappily every time she tried to look up, the cardigan’s thin protection was just enough to keep her going.
The shuttle was pulling up to the stop by the time they made their slow way out front, and the RA motioned for it to wait as she eased back from Lucy. “Do me a favor,” she said. “Will you shoot me a text later, just so I know you’re okay?”
It was, once again, a question that Lucy wished she was hearing under better circumstances. But even if Lucy was the older one, this girl was still her RA. She probably wasn’t allowed to date residents. “Oh—sure.”
Lucy started to dig for her phone, but the RA quickly motioned for her to stop. “My cell number’s on your welcome sheet,” she said. “Under the name Mila Rostova. Or just swing by at some point. It’s the room closest to the front doors, you can’t miss it.”
“Got it.” Lucy let her arms fall awkwardly to her sides. “Thank you, Mila.” She turned toward the bus, then paused. “Wait, your sweater.”
Mila shook her head. “Bring it back later,” she said. “It looks better on you anyway.”
Lucy managed one final smile, then ducked into the shuttle, where at least she could bury her face in her hands without an audience. The driver barely looked twice at her cardigan hood. Lucy figured he had seen significantly stranger things.
The bottom of her purse buzzed, and sinking into a seat, Lucy fished out her phone. It was Natalie again.
Lucy,
Her stomach curled. Any news that started with her first name was rarely good.
I just talked to my friend David. Before I explain, just try to stay calm, okay? We’re going to figure this out.
It was long past time for Lucy to stay calm. But whether she was ready for this news or not, she needed to hear it.
