THE NIGHT WE DIDN'T TALK ABOUT

Georgia State University in September is too hot and too loud. In Biology 101, last row, corner seat, three girls who didn't know each other a week ago now always sit together. Zara is nineteen. Nigerian. A first-year nursing student who arrived in Atlanta three weeks ago with two suitcases, a heavy Igbo accent she tries to hide, and a backpack full of anatomy textbooks that weigh more than she does. She wakes up at 5am every day to pray, studies like her life depends on it because it does, and cooks a big pot of jollof rice every Sunday to survive the week. Chloe is twenty. American. Blonde, rich, and loud in a way that fills a room. Her parents pay for a two-bedroom luxury apartment near campus with a glass kitchen and a bathtub she calls her "swimming pool." She is a Business major but she has never worried about money in her life. She needed a roommate because she hates being alone. She chose Zara because Zara didn't ask her for money and Zara knows how to cook. And then there is Aiko. Aiko is nineteen too. Japanese. Small, quiet, beautiful in a sad way. She has long black hair that she uses to hide half her face. She sits alone. She always wears long sleeves, even when Atlanta is 32 degrees and everyone else is in shorts and tank tops. She never talks in class. She looks like she hasn't slept in months. Chloe noticed her first. "Who's the sad anime girl?" Chloe whispered to Zara during the lecture on cell division. "She looks sick," Zara whispered back. Nursing student eyes notice everything. Chloe, being Chloe, doesn't whisper for long. As soon as class ended, she walked straight up to Aiko with two boba teas in her hand. "Hey! I'm Chloe! This is Zara! We sit behind you! Want boba?" Aiko looked up, shocked that someone was talking to her. Her eyes were big, red, and tired. She stared at the boba like she didn't know what it was. "Oh... I can't. Someone is waiting for me," she said. Her voice was soft and shaking. Her English was perfect. "Tomorrow then?" Chloe didn't take no for an answer. "We have Bio again tomorrow. Same time. We'll save you a seat." Aiko gave a tiny, small smile that disappeared quickly. "Maybe. Thank you." The next day, she actually came. She sat with them. She didn't talk much, she just listened while Zara complained about nursing school and Chloe complained about her boyfriend who cheated on her last semester. By the end of the week, they were a group. Zara, Chloe, and Aiko. The back-row girls. But Aiko was strange. She never ate. At lunch, she would only drink water. She would check her phone every two minutes. The screen would light up, she would look at it, her face would go pale, and she would put it face down without replying. She never talked about where she lives. "Do you stay in the dorms?" Zara asked her on Thursday. Aiko hesitated. "No. Off-campus. With... family." "Which family? Japanese family here?" Chloe asked. "Just... my cousin. He takes care of me," Aiko said quickly and changed the subject. On Saturday, Chloe decided they needed a "girls day." She woke Zara up at 9am by jumping on her bed. "Shopping! Mall! My treat! Aiko is coming too!" Zara wanted to study for her anatomy test on the skeletal system, but Chloe already ordered an Uber Black. Aiko was already waiting downstairs in front of their apartment building. She was wearing a thick gray hoodie in the heat. The Uber ride to Lenox Square Mall was awkward. Aiko sat in the middle, between Zara and Chloe. Her phone buzzed non-stop in her pocket. Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. "Is that your cousin again?" Chloe teased, trying to make her laugh. Aiko flinched. "Yes. He worries too much. He doesn't like me going out." "My dad is like that too," Chloe said, not noticing the fear in Aiko's voice. Inside the mall, it was bright and cold from the AC. Chloe was in her element. She dragged Zara and Aiko into every store. Zara found a white dress she liked but thought was too expensive. Chloe forced her to try it. Aiko didn't pick anything. She just followed them, her hands inside her hoodie pockets. "Come on, Aiko, try something! You're so pretty, you should wear color!" Chloe pulled a light blue summer dress off the rack and pushed it into Aiko's hands. Aiko stared at it. "I... I don't think it will look good on me." "Try it! All of us will try together!" Zara said, smiling at her. They went to the H&M dressing room. Three cubicles side by side. Zara in the left, Chloe in the middle, Aiko in the right. Zara tried the white dress. Chloe tried a red crop top. "Zara, come see this top, does it make my boobs look weird?" Chloe shouted, opening her curtain. Zara laughed and came out. Then they both looked at Aiko's cubicle. The curtain was still closed. "Aiko? You okay in there?" Chloe called. There was no answer, then a quiet, "Yes, one minute." Then the curtain opened. Aiko was standing there in a black tank top and shorts she wore under her clothes. And all three of them went silent. Her body was covered in bruises. Not one or two. Many. Dark purple bruises on her upper arms in the shape of fingers. Yellow and green bruises on her thighs. Long, thin scratch marks on her shoulders and back. Some were old and fading. Some were fresh and dark. Zara's nursing student brain immediately knew. This was not a fall. This was not clumsy. This was abuse. She had seen pictures like this in her textbooks under "Signs of Domestic Violence." Chloe's hand flew to her mouth. "Oh my God, Aiko..." Aiko froze. She realized her sleeves were up. She frantically tried to pull the blue dress up to cover herself, but her hands were shaking so hard she couldn't hold it. "What happened to you?" Zara asked, her voice low and serious now. "It's nothing! Nothing! I am just very clumsy! I work part-time in a warehouse, boxes fall on me all the time!" Aiko said, too fast, too loud. She wasn't looking at them. She was staring at the floor, tears running down her face. "It's just a scratch. Please don't worry." "Aiko, those are not from boxes," Chloe said quietly. For the first time, the rich, bubbly American girl had no joke. "Who did this to you?" "No one! No one did this! I fell! Please, please don't ask me again!" Aiko was crying now, pulling her hoodie back on over her bruised arms even though it was hot. "Can we please go? I don't like this dress. I want to go." Zara and Chloe looked at each other. Zara wanted to push more, to ask, to help like they teach in nursing school. But Chloe shook her head slightly. Not here. Not in the mall. "Okay," Zara said softly. "Okay, we go." They paid quickly and left H&M. The air between them was heavy. Aiko walked behind them, head down, hoodie zipped all the way up to her neck, wiping her eyes. Outside the main entrance of the mall, they were waiting for their Uber. The sun was harsh. Then a black Toyota with tinted windows stopped right in front of them. A man got out. He was tall, American, maybe early thirties, clean-shaven, wearing a normal blue shirt and jeans. He looked like any office worker. He looked normal. "Aiko. I've been calling you for an hour. Let's go," he said. His voice was calm, but it was not a request. Aiko's whole body stopped. Her face went white. "Sorry... my phone died... these are my friends from university, Zara and Chloe..." she whispered, her voice barely there. The man finally glanced at Zara and Chloe. Just a quick, cold glance. No smile. "Get in the car. Now," he said to Aiko. Aiko looked at Zara. Then at Chloe. Her eyes were wide, wet, begging. It was the same look she had in the dressing room, but ten times worse. It was a silent scream for help. Then she looked down and walked to the car. She got into the passenger seat. The man closed the door for her, locked it, got into the driver's seat, and drove off fast, disappearing into Atlanta traffic. The three friends were now two, standing on the sidewalk. Chloe grabbed Zara's arm hard. "Zara. That was not her cousin." "I know." "And that girl is not clumsy. Someone is beating her. Did you see her face? Did you see how she looked at us?" Zara nodded. Her heart was beating fast. As a nursing student, she knew what she saw. As a nineteen-year-old girl, she was scared. "Chloe, that girl is in danger," Zara whispered. Chloe was already pulling out her phone, looking at the black car that was now gone. "We need to find out where she lives."