Page 218 of Where We Stay

Run. Fucking run, Blair.

But I’m frozen.

My back hits the doorframe.

Fuck.

Ben smiles.

He knows I’m scared. He can probably fucking smell it on me.

“There she is,” he says quietly. “There’s my Blair.”

Something in me snaps.

“I’m not yours.”

I reach behind me for the handle, but his hand shoots out and grabs my wrist.

Every memory I’ve spent five years burying comes roaring back at once. His grip. His voice. The way I used to go still because fighting made everything worse.

Not this time.

I wrench my arm backward. “Get the fuck off me!”

His expression changes completely.

“You really think he changed you that much?” Ben asks.

“No.”

I look him dead in the eye.

“I changed me.”

I drive my fingers into his eyes, and his grip loosens just enough for me to tear myself away.

I run.

Straight for the front door.

Maybe Georgie is home. Maybe she’ll hear me if I scream loudly enough.

I reach for the handle—

Pain explodes across my scalp.

My hair jerks backward, and I hit the floor hard enough to knock the air from my lungs.

“Don’t fucking touch me!” I scream, twisting beneath him and trying to break his hold.

“Stop fucking moving, you bitch,” Ben snarls.

He spits in my face.

I gag, rage surging straight through the fear. He kneels into my stomach to stop me from moving, holding my hands above my head so he can straddle me completely.

I’m stuck.