Caught In His Web of Manipulation

ed my phone: 'Where

ey at the student center.' My fingers hovered over the send

scanning the crowd. When he spotted me, a faint smile touched his lips, and he waved.

wntown," he suggested, his voice surprisingly soft.

outside his research "frivolous." He' s trying to make it up to yo

the gallery. He'd been too busy, too absorbed in his work, leaving me

ture of resistance. "Oh, I don't know, Co

is grip, his thumb pressing into my pulse point. "It's fine, you can ju

p. I hated this feeling, this sense of being dragged along. The warm

about being so busy lately. It's just... the Ph.D. is demanding, you know? But I promise, I'll make more time for u

er from a deeper part of me recalled all the other times he'd made these promises, each one breaking a little more than the last. He'd al

he fountain, was Kelsey, waving her brightly

my voice steady. "I really promised Kels

and intensified, his knuckles white. "Ila, don't

th Kelsey." I turned and practically ran towards my friend,

my reflection in the cheap mirror. The art had blurred through my tears, a jumble of colors and shapes. It had been one of the loneliest afternoons of my l