Chapter 358 - Pathetic

Chapter 358: Chapter 358 - Pathetic

His hair was shorter now, and he had gained some weight. The bruises Zac had left across his face were gone, although his nose still looked slightly crooked.

But his eyes were clear. That should have made him look different. Instead, Roxie saw the same eyes staring through her bedroom window.

Saw the same guy who nearly raped her.

Her breath caught painfully.

The courtyard disappeared beneath the memory of her curtain moving. Her body didn’t care and her knees began shaking.

Roxie tried to inhale and only managed a short breath. Another followed too quickly, then another, and suddenly she could hear herself breathing.

Zac turned toward her. "Rox?"

She opened her mouth but nothing came out.

The helplessness frightened her almost as much as seeing Steve. Months had passed, yet her body had gone straight back to that corner.

Zac squeezed her hand. "Roxie."

Steve stood.

Roxie flinched hard enough that her shoulder hit Zac’s arm. He moved in front of her immediately, protecting her.

The sight of Steve disappeared behind Zac’s body, but Roxie was already shaking badly enough that she grabbed the back of Zac’s shirt with her free hand.

"Roxie?" Karen asked from behind them. "What’s wrong?"

Roxie tried to answer.

Her tongue felt wrong in her mouth. She swallowed and tried again, but nothing came.

Zac turned his head slightly. "Baby, look at me."

She couldn’t.

Her eyes stayed fixed near his shoulder because she knew Steve was standing somewhere behind him.

Zac tightened his hand around hers. "You’re with me."

Roxie nodded quickly.

She was with Zac.

She wasn’t in her bedroom.

There was no knife.

There was no window.

Claire wasn’t outside unconscious while Roxie screamed for her.

Steve couldn’t trap her here.

Then his voice reached her.

"Well, shit."

Roxie’s teeth clicked together and she pressed her jaw shut.

Steve laughed quietly. "Roxxane."

Hearing her name from him made her stomach drop. For a moment she heard herself from that night, begging him through tears to stop.

Please.

The word had been weak and broken, and Steve had smiled when she said it. Her fingers twisted harder into Zac’s shirt.

Zac stepped farther in front of her. "Keep her fucking name out of your mouth."

Steve stayed quiet for a moment before speaking again. "You two are still together? I figured Prescott would’ve found somebody else by now."

Roxie forced herself to breathe through her nose.

Zac was here.

She focused on the feeling of his shirt caught between her fingers and the warmth of his hand around hers.

"Especially after finding out what kind of slut she is," Steve added.

Zac moved so suddenly that Roxie lost her grip on his shirt.

Mason caught him by the shoulder before he got more than a step.

"Hey."

"Let go."

"Give me a reason first."

Roxie looked around Zac.

Steve was smiling.

He had seen her freeze.

He had seen her shaking.

He knew he still scared her, and he liked knowing it.

Something hot started pushing through the fear.

Roxie’s hands were still trembling and her legs still felt weak, but anger finally gave her enough strength to step out from behind Zac.

He immediately looked back at her. "Roxie."

She kept one hand wrapped around his arm.

She still needed him there. But she made herself look directly at Steve. "Did you give Bianca those pictures?"

Steve’s smile changed.

Zac stopped fighting Mason long enough to look at him.

"What pictures?" Steve asked.

"My mom."

Steve stared at Roxie for half a second.

Then he laughed.

He actually fucking laughed.

Roxie felt the fear and anger crash together inside her.

Zac took a step forward. "Answer her."

Steve looked at him before returning his attention to Roxie. "Did you like my surprise?"

Her hands started shaking harder.

"You gave them to her."

"I gave somebody what they paid for."

Zac moved again, forcing Mason to catch him with both hands this time.

Roxie barely noticed.

Her eyes stayed on Steve. Roxie felt sick.

Steve leaned his hip against the maintenance cart as though he were enjoying himself. "It was funny watching everybody finally figure out where you came from. You spent years walking around school pretending you were better than everyone while your junkie mom was running around doing whatever the fuck she wanted."

Roxie’s jaw tightened.

"You know what was even funnier?" Steve continued. "You acted embarrassed by her your whole life, then she died and suddenly everybody was fooled by you."

Roxie’s stomach twisted.

He saw it. "Thought you can keep her buried, huh? Pretty shitty daughter."

Karen stepped closer. "Shut the fuck up."

Steve barely looked at her. "Maybe if Roxxane spent less time pretending her life was perfect, Claire wouldn’t have ended up dead."

"She made her own choices," Roxie said.

Steve laughed. "Sure. You got the house, the boyfriend... You basically got everything you wanted and let your mother die on the street."

Roxie forced herself to keep looking at him.

Claire had chosen to leave the bungalow and Roxie knew that. But still, the guilt had never completely listened.

"She left because she wanted to punish me," Roxie said. "She wanted me to go after her."

"And you didn’t."

Roxie’s throat tightened.

Karen stepped beside her. "Rox, ignore him."

Steve kept his eyes on Roxie. "Claire never loved you anyway."

Roxie went still.

"She blamed you for everything wrong with her life. You know that, right?"

"Shut up."

"She talked about you all the time."

"Shut the fuck up."

Steve laughed again. "Bianca barely had to work for those pictures. Your mom made humiliating you easy."

Zac pushed past Mason.

Steve immediately stepped backward.

Roxie noticed.

Zac took another step.

Steve stepped back again.

Roxie stared at him.

Something about the image felt wrong compared with the man inside her memories.

Steve kept talking, but every time Zac moved, he retreated.

His eyes kept checking the distance between them.

His shoulders tightened whenever Zac came closer.

Months ago, Steve had filled Roxie’s house. She remembered him as larger than he actually was because fear had made everything about him feel impossible to escape.

Standing in the courtyard now, Roxie could finally see him.

He had gained weight. His work shirt stretched around his stomach. He kept smiling because he wanted her to believe he still controlled the situation, yet his feet kept moving backward every time Zac approached.

He was scared.

The realization settled through Roxie slowly.

Steve had scared her nearly to death that night.

Now he was terrified of an eighteen-year-old boy simply walking toward him.

A coward.

Steve must have seen something change in Roxie’s expression because his smile disappeared.

"What?"

Roxie kept staring at him.

"You finally remember how much you wanted it?"

Zac snapped.

Mason grabbed for him, but Zac tore his arm free and crossed the distance before anyone could stop him.

Steve stumbled backward so quickly that his heel caught against the maintenance cart. He fell hard onto the pavement and threw both hands behind him to catch himself.

People around the courtyard started turning.

Several chairs scraped.

Roxie heard someone gasp.

Zac kept walking.

Steve pushed himself backward across the pavement. "Stay the fuck away from me."

Zac’s face had gone frighteningly calm.

"You say that again."

Steve looked around.

His eyes found the people watching.

Then the phones.

One appeared near the café.

Another beside the fountain.

More people started moving closer after realizing something was happening.

Steve’s fear changed once he realized he had an audience.

"You touch me and you’re fucked," he said, raising his voice. "You hear me? You’re eighteen now. I’ll put your ass in jail."

Zac kept walking.

Steve pushed himself backward again. "You think your daddy can pay this one away too? There are cameras everywhere."

Roxie looked around.

Steve was right.

Several people were openly recording now. Two teenagers near the café had their phones pointed directly at Zac. A hotel employee near the lobby doors had stopped working completely.

Roxie’s stomach dropped.

Steve wanted him to hit him. If Zac hit him...

He’s eighteen now.

Football, Tennessee, graduation and everything they had spent months planning could disappear because Steve knew exactly which words would make him lose control.

Zac was already close enough.

Roxie ran forward and grabbed his arm.

"Zac."

He tried to pull away. "Let go."

She caught his shirt with both hands and moved directly in front of him. "Look at me."

His eyes stayed on Steve.

"Zac, look at me."

He finally did.

The fury in his face scared her, but Roxie held tighter.

"Everyone is recording."

"I don’t give a fuck."

"I do."

His jaw tightened.

Roxie looked directly into his eyes. "He wants you to hit him. That’s why he keeps talking."

Behind her, Steve laughed. "Listen to your girlfriend. She finally grew a brain."

Zac tried to move around her.

Roxie blocked him.

"He’s saying things about you."

"I heard him."

His voice rose. "Then how the fuck am I supposed to stand here?"

Roxie tightened both fists in his shirt. "Because this isn’t enough to ruin our future."

Zac stopped.

Roxie could feel his chest moving beneath her hands.

"He already took enough from me," she said. Her mom fighting her just because Steve stared a minute longer. Steve buying drugs using her money. "I’m not letting him take Tennessee from you too."

His eyes moved over her face.

Behind them, Steve started pushing himself to his feet.

Zac looked past Roxie.

She caught his face between both hands before he could move again. "He isn’t worth it."

Zac’s jaw flexed.

Mason came beside him and put a hand against his shoulder. This time Zac let him.

Roxie slowly released him.

Karen suddenly made a strange sound behind them.

Roxie turned.

Steve had gotten halfway upright when Karen’s eyes dropped toward his pants.

Mason followed her gaze.

Then Roxie looked down.

A dark stain had spread across the front of Steve’s work pants.

For a moment, she didn’t understand.

Steve saw their expressions.

He looked down.

His face went white.

Someone near the café started laughing, and the sound spread quickly once other people realized what had happened.

Steve stared at the wet stain before looking back at Zac.

Zac hadn’t touched him.

Roxie watched Steve’s face as humiliation replaced whatever courage the phones had given him.

Then she understood something else.

The man standing in front of her wasn’t the man who had filled her bedroom that night.

He wasn’t bigger than her.

He wasn’t impossible to escape.

He was a grown man who had climbed through a teenage girl’s bedroom window because he thought she would be easy to overpower, then spent months hiding behind other people, money and cruelty.

Now Zac had barely walked toward him and Steve had pissed himself.

Roxie looked at him and finally saw exactly what he was.

Pathetic.

Steve cursed and backed toward the service entrance.

Zac shifted beside her.

Roxie caught his hand.

"Let him go."

Steve looked at them once more before turning and running toward the employee corridor while several phones followed him.

Zac watched him disappear.

"He deserves worse."

"Maybe."

Roxie kept holding his hand.

"But he’s not getting anything else from us."

Karen was already looking around the courtyard with a worried expression.

"Rox."

Roxie followed her gaze.

The phones were still raised.

The Reeves Grand sign sat clearly above the lobby entrance behind them.

Karen pulled out her own phone and stared at the screen before swearing.

"What?"

She turned it toward Roxie.

A video had already been uploaded.

The thumbnail showed Zac standing over Steve while Roxie ran toward him, with Mason and Karen visible behind them and the Reeves Grand name filling the background.

Karen refreshed the page.

Another video appeared.

Then another.

It caught Steve threatening to send Zac to jail.

The comments were already multiplying faster than Roxie could read them.

Someone had tagged Briarwick High.

Someone had written Bianca Reeves’s name.

Roxie watched the view count climb while another repost appeared beneath it.

For days, the school had been trying to stop Angela’s humiliation from becoming the only thing anyone talked about.

Now the entire mess had spilled outside Briarwick High.

And it had happened inside a building with the Reeves name across the front.