Free The Prologue by Kassandra Kush

still have feelings for him.
    It’s isn’t until I’m rooting around in the fridge, looking for something more substantial for us to eat, that the time slowly comes to an end, just as it always does.
    Tony lifts his arms high above his head, stretching and rolling out his neck. “Have you picked your top five colleges yet?” he asks, and I pause for a short moment, then resume pulling out sandwich fixings. “I’m going to Harvard for law, obviously, but I’m still on the fence about going there for my bachelor’s. I’m wondering if I need to experience some other place, get a different perspective. I’ll apply, obviously, but it’s pretty much a given with Dad and everything.”
    “I’ve been thinking about it,” I say slowly, my back still facing him as I stand at the counter and make us something to eat. “Dad went to OSU, so obviously I’m going to apply there, and probably Yale too. I was also thinking… maybe USC and Stanford too.”
    I’m not sure where the words come from, why I even say anything. It’s a secret I’ve been sitting on for a long time, that I want to escape and go to California for school. Assuming that if I can manage it, Tony won’t just follow me and I’ll still be trapped. Maybe that’s why I say it now. To see what he says, gauge what my chances might be.
    Or maybe it’s because Zeke’s voice is still echoing in my head, telling me that I need to tell someone, that I need to get out. Maybe this is my first step to getting out, to escaping, to actually letting the truth come out. I tell myself I’m doing it because I’m brave and trying to get away from Tony’s oppressive hold over me, but deep down I know how it will end, and that I’ll feel even more trapped than ever.
    There’s silence from behind me, and I’m too scared to turn around. Then I hear the stool scrape against the floor and suddenly Tony is standing next to me. It takes me a minute to gather the courage to look up into his eyes. It isn’t dark rage I see there, but a stark panic, one I’m familiar with, one I hate even more than the anger that comes over him.
    “Stanford?” he echoes, and his voice is small. “That’s in California, Evie.”
    “I know,” I say, and it takes supreme effort to keep my voice from trembling. “My mom was from California. She left to go to OSU, obviously, but still, I thought I might apply.”
    There’s another pause, and then Tony grabs my arm, pulling me so I’m looking up at him. There’s a hardness in his eyes, and the panic has turned into a crazy, frantic look. “Are you trying to break up with me, Evie?” he asks in a low voice.
    “Oh, baby, no!” I say, injecting as much truthfulness as I can into my words. “You know it doesn’t matter where we go to college, we’ll always be together. I could never break up with you.” I nearly choke as I speak, as I’m forced to envision spending the rest of my life under Tony’s thumb. The thought always makes me spiral into a panic.
    “You are!” Tony cries, and his grip on my wrist becomes painful, so tight and unrelenting that it makes my eyes sting and water. “You’re trying to break up with me, Evie. To get rid of me! And I’ve already told you I can’t do it!”
    “I’m not!” I say, and for some reason, instead of giving in to him, saying whatever I need to in order to placate him like normal, I feel compelled to actually argue my point, as though Tony is sane enough to listen to reason. “Just because we go to different schools doesn’t mean that we can’t be together, Tony.”
    “I need you close to me!” Tony explodes, and he finally lets go of me, shoving me away from him. “And if you don’t want to be close to me too, then you don’t love me the way I love you. You’re lying to me. You do want to break up.”
    “I don’t!” I protest, because he’s making me nervous, and because coward that I am, I don’t know if I can face life without Tony, he’s been at my side for so