She gave him a dirty look. “What the hell else would have happened to me?”
“Someone had to have done that to you. You sleep like a rock.”
“How do you know I didn’t have a nightmare?” she reasoned. “That would make me move.”
He sighed. “Fine. Did you have a nightmare?”
“Maybe…” she trailed off. “All I know is I woke up and I had fallen.”
“Over the guard rail?” he muttered skeptically.
She stood up and walked over to the window. “Fine! I didn’t fall off the bed.”
“Then what happened? Who did that to you?” He didn’t even need to ask.
“He was drunk, Nick, and he saw you leaving. You would have done the same thing.”
He grabbed her shoulder firmly and spun her around. “Bullshit, Lila! You know I would never touch you.”
“Well, you’re not my boyfriend, are you?” she said flatly.
“No, but he had no reason to hit you, no matter what. How many times has this happened?”
“Never. It never happened before,” she stated, avoiding his eyes.
“Tell me the truth,” he demanded, lifting her chin.
“It happened once before, all right? We got into an argument. I don’t remember why. That’s it, though. Other than that, he has never hurt me, physically or emotionally.”
“No, he just goes out with Hillary on the night of your anniversary,” he spat sarcastically.
“He didn’t do that, and if he did, it was just a friendly study thing. He loves me.”
“So do I, and I would never hit you.”
“We have a different kind of love.”
“So you’re saying that if I hit you, it would be different, and you would be upset?”
“Dammit, Nick, I am upset!” she cried, bursting into tears. “Can’t you see that? You’re just making it worse.”
His jaw dropped, and he wordlessly pulled her into his arms and stroked her hair. “I’m sorry. Shhhh, calm down, sweetie.”
“He does love me, and I love him,” she whispered.
Just then, the phone rang, and Lila slipped out of Nick’s arms to answer it. “Hello?” she sniffled.
“Hey, it’s Josh.”
“Oh, hi. We were just talking about you.”
“Good things, I’m sure.”
“When are you picking me up?”
“Listen, about that, I don’t think we should see each other anymore.”
She almost dropped the phone. “What?”
“There’s someone else, Lila. There’s Hillary.”
“Josh-”
“Listen, I gotta go. See you later. Thanks for taking it so well.” He hung up the phone.
It took a minute in her mind to register that the conversation was over. “He broke up with me,” she stated aloud. “He…he broke up with me.”
As the tears started to flow, she began to collapse, but Nick caught her.