“You siked for our last weeks of school? This is it, girl.” Kayla was so excited.
“I know it, I just wanna be on my own, away form my parents,” Grace told her
. “Hey Gracie girl,” She heard her friend Chris say from behind as he came up giving her a noogie. “Get off me,” She told him, trying to squirm out of his hold.
“Whatever, how was your weekend?” He questioned, throwing an arm around her shoulder.
“Just fine, thanks so much, how was yours?” Grace asked him, wincing feeling his arms lap down on her shoulder.
“Great, I might be out of this place sooner than you think.” He let her know.
“What would that be?”
“Well, I might get to start that ever aspiring singing career of mine.”
“Are you serious?”
“Heck yeah I am, and you know I won’t be in this hell hole any more.”
“And then you’ll be accepting your Grammy thanking all the little people you had to step on to get their,” She joked as he tried to put her headlock but not before she could squirm out.
“I will get you next time, whatever, I have to get to class, I’ll see you at the end of the day, good bye.”
“Bye, Grace, see you later.” He told watching her walk in to her first period class shaking her head.
As Grace walked down her street she saw the sold sign on her neighbors house. She used to best friends with the girl who lived there. She knew everything about her, everything. Then she left. Oh well, life would go on, Grace had learned that a long time ago. No need to dwell on anything. Let it roll off your back and life becomes a lot simpler.
Grace walked into her house and stale smell of alcohol hit her nose, something she had become accustomed to in the past ten years since her mom had married her step-dad. He always came home drunk, it wasn’t something she wasn’t used to. She and her mother had the bruises to prove it. It had always made her angry how her mother let him disrespect her and her daughter, she was supposed to love her and protect her.
Grace’s father had died when she was 6, he had colon cancer. Since Grace was young she didn’t fully understand what was going but she had known she would never see her father again and she saw how sad it made her mother. It was enough to make he realize things would never be the same.
Ten years ago she had met her now stepfather. At first he seemed like an angel sent form Heaven. Her mom was finally happy, she had a father just like everyone else she knew, but soon things didn’t seem so good. Tom would go out and get drunk all the time and come home smelling like he had just downed the entire bar and acting like an idiot. Sometimes he would be angry and take it out on her and her mother, she had the marks to prove it. If Grace would come in late from school, or even take too long getting the mail he would become irate at her, hitting her and throwing her around. Eventually Grace became accustomed to the beatings and learned to tune them out, envisioning herself somewhere else, alone where no one could touch her, or see her. Grace let out a sigh of relief noticing she was alone in the house. She had to go to work and couldn’t afford to be late one more time or she was sure to be fired. As grace changed her clothes she looked at herself in the mirror seeing all the bruises on he torso and some on her upper arms and back. Some of them were yellow, a sign that she was starting to heal, some of them were a deep purple signaling that they were fairly recent. She sighed at the ugly site before her and continued preparing for work. As Grace walked out the door she hurried to her car seeing Tom’s truck speeding down the street, she got in and locked the doors in a rush.
“Where are you going, bitch?” He demanded in his slurred drunken tone.
“I have to get to work get off my car,” She yelled through the window she the engine started.
“You better not be late or you’re pay will be waiting right here at home.” He warned her as her stomach flipped.
Without another word she drove out of the driveway and towards work. She couldn’t do this anymore. Every day her fear grew and grew. She had begun to fear she might not make it to college
“Hey, Jean, how are you?” She asked her, smiling.
“Just fine thank you very much, how about you?” She asked her back.
“Alright, it’s been a long day, I’m excited about this being the end if my high school career.”
“Yeah, and then you leave us here to be bored again as you go off to some far off university where you will be one of the worlds best doctor’s.”
“Don’t count on it,” Grace laughed. “But hopefully I can make it through school.”
“You’ll be awesome, now I have work to do, see you in a little while.” Jean walked off smiling at Grace.
As the day continued on Grace was swamped with papers and phone calls forcing her to stay past her shift. She rushed out of the office trying her bets to get home before Tom would be back from another trip to the bar.
As Grace walked up to the door she heard thrashing inside the house.
“Where’s that little slut daughter of yours, ha? Busy fucking another guy? Ha, getting pregnant!” She could hear Tom’s voice billowing through the door.
She couldn’t go in, he’d leave marks where people could see this time. She couldn’t just leave her mom though, what if he seriously hurt her. What was she supposed to do?
“Excuse me, are you ok?” She heard a neighbor ask, seeing her sitting in front of the door with her head in her lap.
She put her finger over her lips signaling for her to be quiet. Grace slowly got up; ducking under the window so no one in the house could see her. “Please keep your voice down, ma’am, I don’t want my father to know I’m home yet.” Grace told her, trying to make it so she wouldn’t have to o into detail about why.
“Any reason?” her neighbor asked.
“I just don’t feel like dealing with him right now, that’s all.” It was the truth. Grace wasn’t in the mood to have any new bruises or cuts.
“Alright, well, my name is Patty, if you ever need anything or just an place to escape, please come over, my door is always welcome to a nice girl like yourself.” Patty let her know.
“Thank you very much, well, I have to get going now, bye patty, it was nice to meet you, oh, I’m Grace by the way.” How could she have forgotten her manors like that?
“Ok Grace, bye.” Patty walked into her house and Grace got back into her car, quietly shutting her door so as not to make a disturbance, she felt leaving her mother but she had married the asshole, not Grace.
As she turned out of her neighborhood Grace decided she would have to find somewhere to spend the night. She stopped at nearest convenience store calling Kayla form the pay phone located in the far where she was pretty sure no one would hear her.
“Kay, can I spend the night?” She asked, nervous she might question her reasons.
“Of course you can, hon, come over whenever you want alright?” Kayla told Grace, she knew if she wanted to she would tell her why.
“Thanks, I’ll be there in like ten minutes, alright?”
“Great, I’ll see you then, bye.” Kayla heard a click on the other end and hung up the phone.
“Of course, my closet is your closet.” She told her, wondering why she didn’t bring her own clothes but didn’t want to press.
“Thanks night, Kay,” Grace turned over on floor and closed her eyes, falling into a deep sleep. Kayla satin her bed for a few minutes racking her brain for reasons Grace had called asking her for a place to stay the night. What was going on? She got out of the bed and decided to call Chris. “I don’t even know why she’s here, she didn’t even bring fresh clothes for the morning.” Kayla told him exasperatedly.
“Well, maybe she’ll tell you tomorrow, it’s obviously something serious if she wouldn’t even go into her own house to get clean clothes,” He told her.
“I know and that’s why I’m scared, what if it’s Tom?” She suggested.
“Come on, Tom’s a great guy, what would he possibly have to do with anything?” Chris tried to reason.
“I suppose you have a point, well, I’m gonna head back to bed incase she wakes up, see you tomorrow at school.”
“Ok, bye, Kay, see you tomorrow.” What could it be?
“Hey Chris,” grace smiled at him that morning as he met her and Kayla at her locker like usual.
“hey Gracie, how you doing?” He asked her, she didn’t know he found out about last night.
“Super, how about you?” She asked him, putting on her fake smile, which over the years had become as real as any other.
“Great thanks, shall we get to first period?” He asked, lending his arm.
“Of course,” She answered, closing her locker and looping her arm through his.
Grace went through the day, trying her hardest to not think about going home. She knew what would happen and she knew it would be worse than what she would have gotten the night before, but she couldn’t go home. She couldn’t.
“Well, I have to get going, Kay, thanks again for last night, you’re a life saver.” If only she really knew I meant that.
“No problem, you know anytime you need someone, I’m here for you.”
“Ok, I love you, bye.”
”Bye.” Would she ever find out why her friends had called needing a place for the night? Or would she let it remain a mystery? How could Kayla get Grace to trust her enough to let her in, to get her to tell her what was going on and why she needed to run away. For now Kayla would let it rest but if it happened again she would need to know why.
“Is that you bitch?” She heard him scream. The sounds of his voice made her cringe. She didn’t answer him. “I’m talking to you whore!” She yelled again. She still ignored him trying to go upstairs to her bedroom. “Hey, don’t you walk away from me.” He said sternly, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her back in front of him.
“Let go of me, Tom,” She said, trying to keep the fear that was in her out of her voice. “where the hell were you last night, bitch?!?” He yelled, getting in Grace’s facing forcing her to smell the strong odor of liquor on his breath.
“I was at work, I don’t know what you are talking about.” Grace told him evenly, still not letting her fear show.
He struck her hard across the face. “Don’t lie to me, slut.” He started, striking her again. This time you could clearly see the imprint of his hand on her left cheek. “Now, Where were you?”
“I told you I was working.” Grace wiggled out of grip and began to run away as she could hear Tom trying to stumble up the stairs to catch her. She knew he was too drunk to get up the stairs never mind pick the lock on her bedroom door. She would just have to stay there until she could get away from him.
A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review! I wanna know what people think to know whether to continue or not. (Oh, and I know NSYNC wasn’t really in the story much yet but I have it all planned out so it’ll fit in...I’m so excited!) Anyways...thanks again.