Free One Hot Fall Term (Yardley College Chronicles Book1) by Sharon Page Page B

money. I liked him, and now I find out that I was totally wrong about him. I guess everything I thought I saw in him was totally fake, since he’s really a perverted, self-centered creep.”
    I can’t really argue with that.
    Lara drops her face into her hands. “I was really falling for him.”
    “It happens, Lara. It was just a mistake.”
    She looks up at me, agony in her expression. “I can’t do that kind of stuff, Mia. You don’t hurt someone if you love them. I don’t believe that crap at all. I don’t believe it’s just some fantasy. When my parents broke up, my mom remarried. My stepdad used to hit her. She was in denial for years, but no matter what bullshit she told herself, I tried to make her understand that hitting does not equate to love. Finally, I confronted him, because she wouldn’t do anything to stop it. She told me, seriously, that if she could just be more perfect, he wouldn’t get angry. She stopped working because he asked her to. She turned herself into a brainless Stepford wife for him. How could she believe that crap?”
    Lara gets up off the john, impassioned. “What is this whole ‘take away your choices, your strength, your decisions’ crap? Oh yeah, I’ve seen how great it is. Every dime my mom got she had to ask my stepfather for. Yeah, he was so generous at first. Then he refused to spend any money on her at all. Women who aren’t independent are idiots .”
    Her mother’s story is much like mine, except without the physical abuse.
    “You are very wise.” I mean it sincerely, honestly, and with a huge degree of awe for her positive strength. I wish I’d had so much strength. Lara looks like such a…golden girl. I never pictured her as having a tough past involving abuse or pain.
    I always saw my flaws and screw-ups as an obvious manifestation of my past. I wore my fucked-up psyche every day. I fought it, determine to act like I’m normal. Do I look as convincing as Lara?
    But she looks at me warily, as if she’s not sure what I mean by what I said. “I am so impressed by you,” I explain. “I know how hard it can be to recognize that you don’t have to be a victim and then stand up for yourself. You did both.” Then I ask, “What happened when you confronted your stepfather?” I’m curious, since I never had the courage to do it.
    “He hit me across the face, so I threw him to the floor and pinned his arms. The advantages of judo training. After that, I walked out the door and went to live with my sister. Until my mom kicks the asshole to the curb, I am not going back.”
    Tears spring into Lara’s eyes. “It’s been so hard, but she won’t do it. She chose him over me. Now I find out that Jonathon wants to control women sexually. Abuse is all about control.”
    This startles me. I’d never thought of it that way before. I had thought people did bad things to you when you lived in the house because they were making use of you. If they had to support you, why shouldn’t they get to use you to work out their anger or sexual frustration? It was supposed to be your price for the roof over your head, the clothes on your back, the food you ate.
    I remember Jonathon’s lost, agonized look. Had he wanted me to come up to talk to me about Lara? Did he want to apologize, tell me that her refusal had made him see the light, and that for a good, beautiful woman like Lara he was willing to change?
    Maybe I should go up there and find out.
     
     
    ***
     
     
    It takes me a while to figure out how to locate the room with the terrace. Seriously, since I plan to design buildings, I know I should have a better sense of direction and layout. I have to stop at the stairs, armed with directions I gathered from party goers, and really think out where the terrace must be in relation to where I’m standing.
    Finally I reach the double doors I am certain must be Jonathon’s room, and knock.
    He opens one, lets me come in and closes it behind me. I turn around and open it