"Riley." I heard Ezra's voice echo through the bathroom. He shut the main door and I could hear the lock click in place. I bent my head back down between my knees, gasping for air. He was the last person I expected to chase me into the bathroom. I saw his feet cross the bathroom under the stall walls and he gently knocked on the door.

"Open the door."

I was still wheezing and shaking. I couldn't stand these anxiety attacks and the way they wreaked havoc on my body. I was powerless and lost control of myself when one decided to take me over.

"I will pull this door off the hinges." He said in a warning tone. I turned the lock, knowing he meant it.

He pushed the door open and looked down at me as I moved my head back down between my knees.

"My Uncle Charlie is out there sweet-talking the manager out of calling the cops." He said, leaning against the door. "He already got her number. He's good at this kind of thing. Don't stress. Everything is under control. We are handling it."

"Please just go." I said between my ragged, uneven breaths.

"I'm not leaving you like this." He said in a soothing voice. He placed his hand on my back and rubbed it gently. I tried to listen to his voice, but I began tensing again and shaking.

"Come on you. Up you go." He pulled me out of the stall by my arms and picked me up. He lifted me high enough to sit me on the counter next to the sink. He ran his fingertips through my hair and pulled my head into his chest.

"Shh, slow breaths." He cooed softly at me. I breathed into him, taking his scent into my lungs. He smelled like fresh laundry drying underneath the summer sun.

"Where's Jessa?" I gasped out in shock when I realized she wasn't with him. I was not going to have her out there with that psycho woman. I tried to push him away and bolt out of the bathroom to get to her. If Jenna went near her, I would end her.

"Sit down." Ezra pushed me back down on the counter. "Calm down. She went outside with Aiden, remember? I talked to him in the parking lot before I came in here. He's going to take her home, we both decided it would be better if she didn't see you like this. I offered to take her so he could stay with you, but he thought it would be better if he went with her."

"He left me?" I whimpered.

"He did what was best for Jessa. I told him I would make sure you were alright. I already told my Mom and Charlie to take Jenna home with them. We rode in separate cars. I'll deal with her later when I get back to our apartment. It's just you and me now, Ry. I've got you." He was rubbing my neck and back. His large hands were on me. I started to relax before I realized he was standing between my legs, pressed against me.

I pulled my hips back as far as I could and pushed him away. I swung my arms at him and pounded my fists into his chest. I had lost all control of myself again. I was mad and hurt. He grabbed my wrists gently and pulled them back down to my sides.

"Riley," he said calmly. "You have to breathe. You have to get control of yourself."

"Why did you let her say that to me? You didn't even stop her." I screamed at him, letting my anger out.

"Riley, I had Jessa in my arms. She just told me you were sleeping in Aiden's bed and I was trying to keep my cool. You know me well enough to know how the thought of you and Aiden together affects me. I didn't want her to see me get angry. You know what it's like when I get mad. I didn't know Jenna would be like that with everyone around." Ezra said, holding my wrists so I couldn't hit him again.

"She's horrible. Why does she hate me?" I asked.

"Jenna is jealous of you, Riley. She knows what you meant to me. She fought with me that night at the bar because she saw me watching you. She didn't know who you were at the time, but she knew there was something I wasn't telling her. She knows I have this whole past history with you. I told her when we first got together that you were my biggest regret. Jenna knows I am broken and she still let me try to love her even if it was flawed. She was lost and broken too. Her addiction was as bad as mine. We got better together and instead of being honest with her, I hurt her by lying to her about you. She thinks you will try to take me from her."

"I am not trying to come between you two, Ezra. We don't work together. I can't have Jessa around this." I said, leaning back to look into his eyes.

"I know, I don't want her around this either. I also know you don't want to come between us, Ry and you would never intentionally hurt someone else. I'm the problem here. I'm still an addict and you were always my favorite drug. My body always wanted you even when my mind told me it was time to move on, even when you told me to move on. It's not healthy. You have always been my obsession. I knew it the first time I laid eyes on you."

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

"I never told you this because I was ashamed and afraid of what you would say if you found out. That first night, I did everything I could to get you drunk. That is why I kept picking at you. When you took that first drink, I had you right where I wanted you. I kept throwing back round after round knowing you wouldn't be able to keep up with me. When you went upstairs to change out of that white dress, I started to follow you up the stairs because I was going to fuck you. You were really wasted, so it would have been easy to get you to agree to anything."

"What?" I was shaking. This was not what I remembered that night. He had always told me I stole his breath away in the white dress and that he couldn't take his eyes off me, but he never went into any more detail about the first night we met.

"I was standing over you about to pick you up off the steps to take you to my room when you looked up at me with those innocent green eyes. I looked down at you and knew if I did that to you that I would never see those eyes look at me the same way again. I didn't want you to stop looking at me like that. I tried to distract myself with other girls after that to keep you safe from me, but it never worked. I kept finding new ways to be near you. I would follow JD around the house, trying to find out when I would see you again.

"I bought the Camo tickets because I heard Anna say you liked them. I told JD I got them from a guy who worked at Bannon's and I made sure to have just enough to have an extra one for him to invite you too. I had made up my mind; I wasn't going to try anything with you. I just wanted you to be around so I could watch you. When you got pulled in the mosh pit that night, I was so scared you would get hurt, I had to get to you. When my arms were around you to keep you safe, I knew that was it for me. I wasn't going to be able to stop."

My mouth dropped open. I didn't know that I made him feel that way. I always felt the pull to him and I felt it now even when I should be running from him. I knew he watched me, but I didn't know it was because it fed something dark in him that he thought he needed. I wondered if he ever really loved me or if it was just the high he got from toying with me. Did what we have back then even really matter now?

"I'm sorry, Riley. I was never the person you thought I was. I was even fooling myself. I wasn't capable of really loving anyone back then. Fuck, I don't know if I am able to now either. I'm really messed up in the head. I don't trust my thoughts or emotions, but I am trying to learn to manage them. I'm trying to be the kind of person I should have been all along. That's what makes this so hard. I'm really sorry for everything I put you through. Do you want me to call Aiden to come back to get you? You probably don't want to be anywhere near me right now."

"No, can you just take me home?" I asked. "I need to get back to Jessa."

"Yeah, let's get out of here." He lifted me off the counter by placing his large hands on my waist. They slid up my sides as he placed me down on the ground. I could feel my body tighten when his thumbs brushed over me at the bottom of my breasts. He closed his eyes as his fingers gently slid, tracing the curves. His chest rose and fell slowly while his fingertips lingered on me.

"Ezra." I whimpered as I looked down. He was starting to move towards me. He opened his eyes and looked down to where I was staring. He licked his lips as he stared down at the gap between my thighs.

"Riley, I still..." He began to say something before I stopped him.

"We should go." I said softly.

He looked a little hurt when I stepped back from him. He was trying to hide it from me.

"Yeah, you're right. We have way too many of these types of conversations near toilets." He tried to smile and pulled himself away from me. "Come on. Let's get back to our girl."