Moment of Truth

Bash was dead silent.

Why did he drive again when I had already been quite accustomed to Levi as the driver? Back when we had come to pick up the girls, only Ali and Becky were the ones to have asked if I was alright.

"I am so sorry Lizzie. I should have noticed you weren't with me when I didn't hear your replies to my blabbers." Ali apologized. "How stupid of me!"

At that time, I was still too dazed and traumatized by the assault that I hadn't even given her a reply. Becky hovered over me like a mother would to her child and was in tears. She was always the crybaby as I remember correctly.

"This is our fault, really. If Zeke and I hadn't gone to blow off some steam then you two wouldn't have tried to search for us. Lizzie wouldn't have been lost." Becky cried, snot dripping down her pretty face.

If I was in my right state of mind, I would have laughed at the sight of her ugly display. But at the time, I wasn't.

All I could think about was the chilly feel of my assailant's skin on mine.

The way his breath made the hair at the back of my neck stood on its ends. How it sent a sickening fright up and down my spine. Everything about him disgusts me and I shuddered as I tried so hard to get rid of the repulsive feeling he gifted me.

Levi and Zeke were at the back and they were silent as the girls flocked over me to assure that I was indeed okay.

The girls tried hard so get me talking about what happened but I just stayed silent and only replied with nods and shakes of my head. I was thankful for their concern, truly, but I wasn't ready to talk about it.

The disgusting feel of my body still lingered and I felt so dirty like I stepped and rolled on deep mud.

I wonder if this was the same feeling other people like me experienced?

It surely wasn't a nice feeling.

The car horn blasted and I broke out of my reverie as Bash had just honked his horn against the slow car in front of us. I gazed at him and I could see there was something that was in his mind.

He was disturbed.

His thick black brows formed a broad and sturdy bridge. Perhaps he was angry too. The way he had kicked and punched at my assailant back then, it was pretty much violent and more than I expected of him.

I have never seen William get so angry back then. Seeing him in the face of Bash was something foreign to me.

I didn't dare to strike a conversation. What is the sense of talking to him anyway? He didn't even try to comfort me throughout the thirty minutes we have droved.

I was curious what went wrong with the truck and why we were still traveling despite the two hour drive more or less towards Coachella. If we make a stop, I'll make sure to ask Levi, or maybe Zeke.

Speaking of Zeke, did they come back on their own accord? Or did Ali or maybe even Levi found and brought them back?

"Are you alright?"

I blinked as rapidly as I could. Did I hear that right or was it just my imagination? My attention was everywhere and I hadn't been myself lately.

I turned to see Bash had his eye on the road but it was evident he waited for me to say something. Why did he talk all of a sudden?

"I asked Lizzie, are you alright?" he asked again.

So, it wasn't my imagination at all. He had actually asked how I was. He might have sensed I would never answer him so he just went on to continue.

"You shouldn't have gone into alleys like that." He chided. "We had a hard time, searching for this idiot who couldn't be contacted because her phone was left behind."

Why was he taking the blame on me? He didn't know the reason I was there in the first place. Shouldn't he be more careful with his words, knowing I was almost sexually demoralized just because I was weak at the time?

Not everything is as easy as speaking words.

"Why were you there, Lizzie? Why had you put yourself in such a dangerous situation? The world is an unforgiving dick and you just…" he clenched his fists into a tight ball and his brows furrowed in anger.

Was he angry at me? He was such an idiot. He immediately thinks it was my choice to be attacked by some drunk guy who had a taste for pleasures of the flesh. Even at the expense of others who were unwilling and didn't have the same taste as he did.

"I don't know Elizabeth Jennings. I thought that by ignoring you, I wouldn't be confused as much as I was the last couple of days. But it turns out I couldn't even escape from that torture." My ears perked at the things he had begun to say.

So, he was intentionally ignoring me. For what reasons, only he knows. I suddenly remembered the question the blind seer had thrown at me.

'Do you think he deserves your hatred, Elizabeth? Do you think he should pay for breaking your heart?'

Indeed, there was no denying William broke my heart. And this reincarnation is on the verge of becoming the punching bag for my revenge on the 1600s William Simeon Bernards.

"I am so angry to have seen you being touched by someone else. It made my blood boil, and the mere thought of it still stirs me up to this point." He confessed.

He gave me a quick side glance I almost didn't notice if I wasn't actually staring agape at him.

"I was contemplating, Lizzie." He spoke. "I wanted to think it over and over again."

I strained my ears to listen to every word Bash would say. The night life and sounds of the road was getting in between our little moment of truth.

What was he going to say?

I searched his face for anything that might give away his thoughts but all I could see was the anger in his purple eyes.

Did he care for me that much to get this angry?

I secretly smiled at the thought. Not because I was happy that he might care, but because I saw it as an opportunity.

An opportunity to exact my revenge on the person that wronged me.