Calfornia Beaches: Chapters 18-26

He grabbed my hand and pulled me off the porch. We walked slowly down the street holding hands and it was warm at night. The stars where shining brilliantly as I said “So you go for a walk at twelve every night?” “Yeah, I walk all over the place and sometimes to the beach. I go past your house and down the street,” he explained. “Oh, that’s cool.” I replied. “yeah sometimes when I walk past your house I can see you in your room dancing.” he laughed. “Wow, yeah, I need to stop doing that.” I said being embarrassed.

“No, keep doing it. It amuses me.” he said and then there was silence as we strolled down as alley. We ended up on the street where Justin and Cody fought. I felt uneasy and clutched onto Justin’s arm. “Its ok Lace. He’s not going to be here.” he assured me. I trusted him fully. “You don’t have to be afraid of me…Not while I’m around.” he said. We sat on the nearest bench. He held me close to him and I felt safe. “Are you getting tired?” he asked as I rested my head on his shoulder. “Kind of, but I’m fine. Its been a long eventful day.” I replied. “Yeah, well, lets head back to your house before you mom and Keith find out that we’re gone.” he said and kissed me quickly. I got up un-willingly and started walking along side of him. We walked quietly and slowly.

We arrived to my house and thought of a way to get in with out being noticed. “My window, we can get in from there.” I said. “How? Its on the second story.” he said. “I do it all the time.” I said as I walked over to the large tree and started to climb it. I felt his hands on my waist to supports me. I got onto my roof quietly and Justin mimicked my movements. I opened my window and slid through into my room and Justin did the same. Once we were in I shut the window and put on another movie. There was a knock at the door and it gave me a weird feeling in my stomach, which was hoping that my mom didn’t know about my absence.

I walked over to the door and opened it to find my mom standing there. “Hey, mom. What‘s up?” I said casually. “Oh nothing I was just wondering when Justin was going home.” she said calmly. She didn’t sound mad so I guess that she didn’t know. “Well I don’t know. We’ve been watching movies.” I lied. “Hey Justin my mom wants to know what time your going home.” I called to him. “Oh I don’t know. What time is it?” he asked. “Its one-o-five.” my mom said. Wow, tame passes quickly when your with your boyfriend. “Oh wow, I think I should be heading home. I’ll see you tomorrow Lacie.” he said.

“What! I have something that I need to tell you. I’ll walk him out mom, don’t worry but, I really ,really need to tell him something.” I said desperately. “Ok, I get the hint. Five minutes.” she said and shut the door. I turned around to face Justin and he said, “What do you need to tell me?” I walked over to him and kissed him. He kissed me back with even more force and passion. I was held up against him as I got even more into the kiss and felt his lips move along mine. We ended our kiss with him pushing me away and saying, “Goodbye.” He kissed my cheek and left. Once he left I sat on my bed and thought about the party again. Oh my gosh! I forgot about what Kelsey told me yesterday, which was that she was going to ask Justin out. Oh no, no, no. This isn’t good, what should I tell her? I cant tell her right now, but she’s going to find out one way or another. No I wont tell her right now…I can’t.

I laid on my bed and tried to think of ways to break the new to my best friend. While I thought, I started to fall asleep. I woke up the next morning aroind ten. My dream was really weird. I dreamt that Kelsey found out that I am dating Justin. She slapped me in the face with an excessive amount of force. I fell to the ground and held my face. “What was that for?” I asked and she replied with, “You knew that I liked him. You knew that I was going to ask him out. Why would you do this to me?” “He was going to say no to you. He likes me back and if I had the option to go back in time I wouldn’t.” I said back. “I hate you Lacie.” she replied coldly and walked away.

From that dream I learned that I’m not going to tell Kelsey, but I did need to tell Justin so that he wouldn’t tell her either. I picked up my phone off of my dresser and dialed his number. The phone rang three times when he finally picked up. “Hey Lace.” he said. “Hey I forgot to tell you something yesterday.” I said urgently. “Ok, what is it.” he said. “I forgot to tell you that Kelsey likes you. She told me yesterday and she is going to ask you out, What should I tell her?” I asked. “Well, uh, wow, uh, then lets not tell her.” he studdered. “Well we have to tell her something, She’ll find out sooner or later.” I replied. “Or we can pretend that we aren’t dating around her.” he suggested. “Or when she asks you, you can let her down easy.” I replied back. “Ok, then after that, we can go back to publicly dating again.” he said. “Ok, that’s a great idea.” I agreed. “So when can I come see you?” he asked. “When I look descent…I’m in my jammies right now.” I said innocently. “So. I’ll me there in ten minutes. Should I come in through your dorr or the window?” he asked. Ph yeah my mom and Keith where both out of the house at work. “I’ll make sure to lock the door.” I said and laughed. “Oh, so your gonna play like that huh? I’ll be there in about ten minutes. Bye.” he said and hung up.

I have ten minutes. I can get a quick shower. I hoped into the steaming hot water and let it sooth my muscles. I had to be careful not to get my forehead wet. I finished and wrapped a towel around me after I turned the water off. I walked into my room and saw Justin sitting on my bed. I jumped back and said, “Oh my God, Justin. You said ten minutes.” “I’m sorry.” he laughed and put his hands over his eyes. I grabbed my clothes off of my dresser quickly and ran into the bathroom to get dressed. After I was finished, I walked back into my room where Justin sat on my bed. “Now that I’m dressed, what do you want to do today?” I asked. “Well, first things first.” he said and walked over to me. He grabbed both of my hands and put them against his chest while he kissed me tenderly. It was nothing like the strong kiss that we had last night, but I was satisfied. “Thank you.” I said to him. “For what?” he asked. “For being here with me.” I replied. “Anytime.” he said back. “Well, lets go downstairs so that I can get something to eat.” I said and walked out of my room to go downstairs. “So you never answered my question.” I said to him as I grabbed a bowl from the dishwasher to get cereal. “Which was?” he asked. “What are we going to do today?” I repeated. “Well, we can go to the beach and then out to eat for lunch. Or we can just chill out here and watch movies on the bug screen. Or we can go to my house.” he said. “Oh? And what would we do there?” I asked curiously while I poured milk into my fruity pebbles. “Watch movies, eat popcorn, talk, or anything that you want to do.” he suggested. “Anything?” I asked. “Anything.” he repeated. “I’ll think about it.” I said as I started to eat my breakfast.

“So school starts in three weeks.” Justin said. “Yeah I was planning on going to the mall to do some school shopping.” I replied. “Oh well, we could do that today if you want.” he suggested. “I don’t think you would want to sit around while I’m in dressing rooms all day.” I replied. “I have no problem with that.” he said as I washed my dishes. “Ok, then but I guarantee that you’ll be bored.” I warned. The phone rang and I walked over to the table it was on to pick it up. “Hello.” I answered. “Hey, it’s Kelsey. Do you want to hang out today?” she asked. “Um, I accualy had plans to be somewhere.” I lied. “Ok, I’ll call Justin and see if he wants to hang out. Maybe I’ll ask him to be my boyfriend.,” she giggled. Crap! What should I tell her? I panicked and decided to go along with her. “Yeah, sounds good. I’ll talk to you later, bye.” I said and hung up.

“What’s wrong?” Justin asked. “She’s going to call you and ask if you want to hang out with her and then she is going to ask you to be her boyfriend.” I replied. “Ok, it’s ok Lace. Just calm down.” he laughed. “What will you say?” I asked. He put his hands on my shoulder and his face one inch away from mine. “I’ll tell her the truth.” “What?! You can’t!” I was saying when he pressed his soft lips to mine. “Meaning that I only like her as a friend. Ok?” he explained softly. I shook my head in agreement when his phone rang in his pocket. “Hey” he said. I listened carefully to his conversation, then he said “Well, I’m really busty right now. I have to get something’s done for my parents…My mom’s birthday is tomorrow…Yeah, sorry…Um, ok? I knew this was coming…Cody told me…Calm down its ok…No, just friends…Ok, bye.”

He hung up the phone and smiled. “Was that good?” he asked while hugged me. “Amazing I replied, but I feel bad about lieing to her.” I continued. “Me too. She is one of our really good friends. Why don’t you think we should tell her?” he asked. Should I tell him about my dream? He will think I’m weird. I’m not going to chance it so I said, “I just have a bad feeling about her knowing.” “Oh, ok. Lets get to the mall.” I shook my keys and he grabbed my hand. We walked out of my front door and I locked it behind me. He walked me over to his jeep and opened the door for me. I jumped into the front seat and shut the door. I gazed at Justin as he walked around to the drivers side of the car. His soft curly brown hair was perfect and his ocean blue eyes where breath-taking. He wore jean shorts and a light blue polo.

He opened the door and sat in his seat. I sat there just staring at him and getting lost in his eyes. He stared back at me and smiled. He started the car and drove out of my drive way. I turned on his XM radio and played with the channels until I found a song that I wanted to listen to. I decided to listen to “I’m Yours.” by Jason Mraz. Apparently Justin knew this song too because he sang along with every word. He held my hand while steering the other. He is way to perfect to have me. We finally arrived at the mall a few minutes later. I was very excited to be shopping because I haven’t been to the mall in ages. I love that I can be myself around Justin. He is such an amazing guy. We walked into the large building together holding hands, as usual. We walked into DEB.

“So what kind of clothes are you looking for?” Justin asked. “Well jeans, nice shirts, and shoes,” I said. I dint really want to tell him that I was going to get bra’s and underwear. I would just get those when he wasn’t looking. “Oooo, I like this shirt.” I said as I held up a short sleeved light green shirt with white polka dots. “Yeah, that looks cute on you even though you look cute in everything.” he complemented as I held the shirt against me. I blushed and said, “Thank you.” I draped that shirt over my arm and walked over to a rack of pants. I went through the rack and came across a pair of nice blue jeans. They buttoned instead of zippered to put them on and there was a tear in the knee with an old styled fabric to cover up the hole. I put them on top of the shirt that I picked out.

“I’m going to try this on.” I said to Justin. “Ok,” he replied and follow me to the dressing room. I walked into the tiny room and took off my clothes to put on the new clothes that I chose off of the racks. “How’s it coming in there?” Justin asked. “I’m coming out now.” I said as I straightened the shirt that fit me perfectly. I walked out of the small room and over to Justin. “So what do you think?” I asked while turning around in circles for Justin to see my whole outfit. “It looks really nice. I love it.” Justin said. “Good because I do too. I’m getting this.” I said and walked back into the dressing room. I put on my original clothes and walked back into the store to pay for my things. I don’t want to spend all of my money in one place. I paid for everything and joined my hand in Justin’s when we walked out.

After a while of shopping we decided to go to the food court and get some lunch. We both decided to go to Subway. We got our food and sat down at the nearest table. “Today has been fun so far.” I said. “Yeah it has been. I’ve got something for you. I know it’s early in our relationship, but uh, here.” he said and got out a small dark blue velvet case form one of my bags. He handed it to me and I opened it. “Oh my…Oh, wow. This is beautiful.” I said as I saw the amazing gold ring with a white diamond in the middle. “It’s a promise ring.” he said sweetly. “I got it when I told that I was going to the bathroom.” he explained. I placed the ring on my right hand ring finger and looked at it. “I love it, thank you.”

I leaned over the table and kissed him softly. “Lacie?” I heard a voice say and I sat down. I looked over to where the voice was coming from. “Kelsey? What are you doing here?” I asked. Oh no, I was caught. “Where you just kissing Justin?” she asked putting most emphasis on the word kissing. “Now Kelsey, calm down.” Justin said trying to keep her from making a scene. “I will not calm down. Lacie you knew that I liked him.” Oh no here we go. This can‘t be happening. “You knew that I was going to ask him out.” she said. I’m not going to make the mistake of saying what I did in my dream. “I was going to say no anyways.” Justin said. No, this is all going wrong. “I’m sorry Kelsey. I wanted to tell you but I was afraid that you’d act like this.” I explained. “So you lied me instead.” she said angrily. “I didn’t lie to you. I wouldn’t lie to you.” I said. “Oh, so you just didn’t tell me the truth?” she replied coldly and walked away.

I felt tears building up in my eyes and then blinked, accidentally letting one fall to my cheek. Justin put his arms around me to comfort me. I cried into his shoulder and he rubbed my back to calm me down. “It’s ok, Lace. It’s going to be ok.” he said trying to make me feel better. I had already gotten a lot of clothes for school so I asked Justin if we could go to his house. He agreed and walked me to his jeep. I was still really upset when we arrived there.

His house was white like mine and a little bit bigger. There was a large front yard that led to the dark wooden front door. He un-locked the door and led me into the living room. It had tan walls and wooden floor, which were beautiful. There was a dark tan couch that stretched along the farthest wall. A large flat screen TV sat on and even larger burgundy colored entertainment center across from the couch. A light wooden coffee table sat in front of the couch. I followed him up the wooden stairs into his room. His room was nice and it was clean. The dark blue carpet was soft under my feet when I took my shoes off. Justin shut his door and said, “So do you want to watch a movie?” I shook my head yes and he walked over to his DVD player under his medium sized flat screen TV.

He put in another one of my favorite movies which was Phantom of the Opera. I sat on his bed and he turned the light off and closed the blinds so that it was dark. The movie started and he sat next to me placing one arm around my shoulders while the other hand was placed in mine. I barely paid any attention to the movie while I thought about what happened today and another tear fell from my eyes. It dripped from my cheek to Justin’s forearm. He lifted my chin up for me to see his face and he saw that I was crying again. He pulled me close to his chest and hugged me tightly.

“Kelsey will calm down. Don’t worry. I promise that everything will be ok.” he said. “Don’t make promises that you cant keep.” I whispered. I turned towards him and lifted myself up to kiss his lips. “Thanks for trying to make me feel better, but I just lost my best friend. I don’t want her to hate me.” I said. “She’s going to find someone and forget about the while thing. Just let her cool down for a bit.” he said. I shook my head and rested it on his chest. Crying made me so tired and Justin was so comfortable to lay on. I glanced up at his TV to see the movie but my eyes didn’t want to stay open anymore. I relaxed and listed to Justin’s heart beat and fell asleep.

I looked down at Lacie to find her asleep upon my chest. I didn’t want to move her because she looked to angelic. I pulled my covers up over her and continued to watch the movie. After it was over I decided to call Kelsey to straighten things out. I first lifted Lacie’s head off of me and slid my legs out. Then I got the rest of my body out from under her. I rested her head on my pillow and covered her up.

I walked out of my room and shut the door to go downstairs. I grabbed the phone that was on the coffee table in the living room. I sat on the couch and dialed Kelsey’s number. The phone rang and she finally picked up. “What do you want?” she asked. “I want to talk to you. Please listen.” I pleaded. She sighed and said, “You have three minutes.” “I was the one to make the first move on Lacie. She ended up liking me back. She was so confused when Cody kissed her, so she was going to meet him at the California Café. I stopped her before she left and kissed her, then thing took off from there. Cody was furious at her rejection to him. He followed her into an alley and was beating her up. I jumped to save her and he put his hands where her head was cut open. He said he sint finished with us. Please forgive Lacie. She is so scared right now. She need you.” I said. There was silence for a while. “Please Kelsey, you don’t need to forgive me, but please forgive her.” I repeated.

“I don’t know if I can. You guys hurt me bad.” she said. “I’m sorry, we didn’t want you to find out like that. We were going to tell you but we didn’t want you to find out like that. Someday you will find someone that likes you for you.” I said. “I’ll think about it but no guarantees.” she said and hung up on me. I shut my phone and went into the kitchen to grab two vaults from the refrigerator. I went up to my room where Lacie was still sleeping

Lacie finally woke up a while later. “Hey Lace. Did you have a nice nap?” I .asked. “I guess.” she said as she sat up. “How long have I been sleeping?” she asked. “Um, about three hours.” I said looking at the clock. “Oh, wow. I’m sorry.” she said apologetically. “It’s alright. I fell asleep for a few minutes when I saw you dozing off.” I said to her. “Here.” I said and gave her the bottle of vault. “Thank you. What time is it?” she asked. “Six-thirty.” I answered. “I need to get home. Its really late.” she said. I walked over to her and puller her to my chest. “What?” she asked. “You’re too beautiful.” I said to hopefully get her to stay a little while longer.

I took her face in my hands and kissed her. She put her hands around my neck and pulled me closer. I put my hands around her waist and her lips were so soft. She pecked my lips twice and put her arms down. “I’ll call my mom to see if I can stay a bit later.” she said and sat down on my bed. She then took her phone out of her back pocket to call her house. Success!

I pressed the numbers to call my house. Wow, I cant believe I fell asleep on him. My mom answered my call and interrupted my thought. “Hey, I’m at Justin’s. I wanted to call you so that you weren’t worried.” “When will you be home?” she asked. Justin knelt on the bed behind me and started to massage my shoulders. It felt so relaxing. “Hello?” my mom asked when I didn’t answer her question. “Oh, um, Justin wants my to have dinner at his house. Is that ok?” I studdered when Justin moved to massaging my back. “Yeah, that’s fine. Be home before eleven-thirty ok?” she said and hung up.

“That feel really good.” I complimented Justin. “I know.” he said and moved back to my shoulders and left light kisses on my neck. I moved my hair off of my neck to let him continue. He kept kissing my neck and then moved to my face and along my jaw line. He made his way up and my lips and we kissed each other slowly and passionately. He laid me on his bed with him hovering over me, but I wouldn’t let him go too far. I pulled his face closer to mine and it felt like we were two magnets that couldn’t be pulled apart.

We broke our embrace to catch our breath. “God, your amazing.” he said. I blushed and he pushed my hair out of my face. The door downstairs then opened so Justin got up off of the bed. He opened his door and said, “Who’s home?” he yelled. “Your mother!” I heard a female voice call back. “Ok, Lacie’s here. I told her that she can eat dinner here tonight. Is that ok?” he replied. “Yeah. We are having hamburgers.” she said and he shut the door.

“Ok, where were we.” he asked and walked over to me smiling. “Calm down, Justin. Your mom is home.” I said. He frowned and sat next to me. “I, uh, I talked to Kelsey.” he said randomly. I sat up and looked him in the eyes, hoping for good news. “What did she say?” I asked. “Well, I explained to her what Cody did to you and that you were upset. She said that she’ll think about forgiving you.” he explained. “Did she call you?” I asked curiously. “No, I called her while you were sleeping.” he said. “Oh, ok.” I said and looked down at my hands. I felt my face being lifted up slowly.

“Everything will be alright. Don’t worry she will forgive you.” Justin said while studying my face. “I am lucky to have you.” I said to him. He kissed my cheek and grabbed my hand with the ring on it. “So do you like your ring?” he asked looking at the beautiful piece of jewelry on my finger. “I love it. It’s the best gift that I have ever gotten other than Gabes.” I said remembering the day that Gabes was born and Sasha died. “I’ll wear it forever.” I added. He smiled and grabbed my hand to take me downstairs for dinner. We walked into the kitchen with raspberry red walls. The white tiled floors where cold when I stepped onto it. I looked up and saw Justin’s mom sitting at the table reading a book.

“Well, hello you two. I was beginning to wonder what you were doing up there.” his mother said. She was beautiful with her light brown long spiraled hair that wrapped around her rounded face perfectly. She had baby blue eyes and a tan complexion. She wore a black pencil skirt and a dressy white shirt. She worked as a lawyer. “We were just watching movies.” Justin said leaving out the part about falling asleep or anything else that happened which I was happy about.

“Dinner will be done soon. Your father will be a little bit late.” she said to Justin. “Ok. Here Lace, have a seat.” he said while rolling out a chair for me to sit in. I sat down and he sat next to me and then my phone started to vibrate. I took it out of my pocket and screen said that I had a new text. I opened it and saw who it was from. “This isn’t over. Just letting you know. I don’t like rejection and you led me on during school. But while I wait for you and Justin to break up, I’m going to date Kelsey. I thought you should know. She already said yes and she wanted me to tell you that she hates you for what you did. Love, Cody. Ha!” I put my hand to my mouth and I tugged on Justin’s shirt to get his attention while I fought back my tears.

“Can I talk to you in the living room?” I said quickly. He shook his head and followed me through the hall way into the large room. “Read this.” I said and handed him that phone. He came over to me and hugged me after he was finished. “I’m going to call Kelsey.” Justin said. “No, don’t. I’ll meet with Cody and work things out.” I said trying to be brave, but the truth was that I was terrified. “Are you crazy?!” Justin said loudly. “Shhh!” I said putting my fingers to my lips. “You cant do that. He could hurt you again!” Justin said protectively. “I’ll be fine. You can go too, but you cant let him see you.” “Are you sure?” he said. “Yeah.” I replied and walked back into the kitchen when I calmed down. My nightmare is coming true…

I walked into my house and Gabes started jumping up at me. “Ok, ok Gabes. Lets go upstairs.” I said and carried Gabes up the stairs to my bedroom. I’m guessing that my mom and Keith were asleep because of all the lights being turned off. I grabbed my guitar off of my floor and sat on my bed. I tuned it and started to play a song that I learned when I took lessons. The song is called ‘Thunder’ by Boys Like Girls. I finished playing and looked at the clock which read twelve-ten. “Justin’s probably out on his walk.” I mumbled to myself. I got up and looked out of my window hoping to see Justin, but no such luck. I walked to my dresser and changed into my pajamas. Gabes followed me to my bed and attempted to jump on it. I caught her before she fell and put her onto my soft pillow.

I laid in bed and thought about what could happen tomorrow. What would Cody do if he found out that Justin was there? What would happen if he hurts me again? I tried to think positively and eventually fell asleep. The next morning I awoke in a sweat because of another nightmare. This time Cody brought me into a basement and beat me to a bloody pulp. He pressed on my cut and punched me in the face. He kept repeating, “This is what you get for rejecting me.” Kelsey then walked into the dark room where I was laying on the floor. She kicked me in the stomach and I heard one of my ribs crack. I screamed in pain and she had a look of amusement on her face. “And that’s what you get for betraying me.” she said and laughed with Cody.

I was lying in fetal position in my bed when I woke up. The dream made me even more terrified to see Cody than I already was. My dreams mean a lot to me and I rely on them a lot, but this one I just wanted to forget about. But I cant just forget about it…What if something like that happens? Will Kelsey be there too and treat me the way she did in my dream?

I got up out of my bed and walked into the bathroom to brush my teeth and hair. After I was finished I put my hair up messily not caring what I look like. I then walked into my room and threw on a pair of black sweat pants and a plain white tee-shirt. I put my black hoodie that I got from Florida and slipped on my tan clogs. I glanced at the clock and it was ten-thirty seven. I hurried downstairs and grabbed a pack of chocolate chip pop-tarts even though I wasn’t that hungry.

I took my phone out of my pocket and texted Justin telling him to leave. I took a deep breath before I opened my door and slowly strolled toward the café. There were knots in my stomach and I was unbelievably nervous. I arrived at the California Café and saw Cody through the window. Chilled crawled up my spine and I took another deep breath before I opened the door that seemed to be heavier than it was previously.

He looked at me in a very peculiar way and motioned for me to move faster. Fortunately he was sitting next to the wall where Justin wanted me to sit. He smiled lightly at me as I sat down and wondered if Justin was here yet. “So what do you want to talk about?” he asked. “I want you to leave me and Justin alone. I’m sorry that I rejected you, but that doesn’t mean that you can treat us like this.” He leaned over the table to get his face closer to mine.

“Your cute when you try to be serious.” he said and kissed my cheek. I pushed him away and he fell back into his seat. “What do you think your doing?” I asked hating the way that he thought that he could do anything to me. His face suddenly hardened and said, “Look, I want you to date me and you cant do that with Justin in the way. Just get rid of him.” he said with a fake smile. “No! Justin is my boyfriend and I don’t want to date you anyways.” I said coldly. “Uh huh, so you’re going to play hard to get? I’ll wait until your ready for a real man. Plus I have Kelsey right now. Oh that reminds me, she wants you to come to my house to meet her. She’s going to be there waiting.” he said convincingly. “Kelsey wants to talk to me?” I asked hopefully. “Yeah, come on let’s go.” he said in a monotone voice.

I followed him to his car obviously not thinking. He opened the car door for me and I hesitated. I didn’t know if I could trust him, but I have to talk to Kelsey. ‘I hope Justin will follow him.’ I thought as sat in the front seat and he shut my door. Cody sat in the drivers seat and said, “Off we go!” and he drove off. I squeezed into the seat belt not wanting to let go. “Would you relax?” Cody said when he saw my stressed appearance. “It’s not like I’m going to kill you.” he added and laughed. I felt very, very uneasy when he said that so I then had my right hand next to the door handle just incase I had to jump out of the car. “So what is it about Justin that you like so much, huh?” he asked. I didn’t respond and gripped onto the seatbelt even tighter which made my hand feel a bit numb.

He snapped his finger in front of my face and said, “Hey, I’m talking to you.” I stayed silent even though I wanted to scream in his face to shut up. All I wanted to do was talk to Kelsey ad convince her to take me back as a friend. “Lacie, I asked you a question!” Cody said violently. “What.” I mumbled almost inaudibly. “You’re scared of me, aren’t you?” he asked then chuckled. “Of course I am. You’re the one who put me back into the hospital.” I practically yelled at him. “For what? Oh that…I didn’t mean it. I just needed to teach Justin a lesson.” he said casually as if it wasn’t a big deal. “By hurting me? That’s not the best way to let someone know that you like them.” I snapped back. “Well I’m sorry.” he said. “I don’t accept your apology.” I replied silently. He stopped at the nearest open curb and looked at me. “Look, you need to keep you comments to yourself. If you don’t stop your going to make me very mad and you don’t want that, believe me.” he said.

I kept looking straight ahead when I felt like he was speaking right next to my ear. I was quiet for the rest of the ride to his house. He parked into a driveway with a nasty brown garage. I un-buckled my seatbelt and got out of the car. “Right this way.” he said as he directed me to the front door which looked old and chipped and worn out along with the rest of the house. He opened the already unlocked door and allowed me to walk in before him. “Lacie?” I heard a voice say when I got into the dark room. Cody turned on the lights and I saw Kelsey sitting on the couch. She looked infuriated when she saw me. “Cody said that you wanted to talk to me.” I almost whispered. We both looked over at Cody and he said, “I, uh, I have to go to the bathroom.” and he walked out of the room.

Kelsey then got up and headed towards the door. I grabbed her arm and said. “Kelsey, please talk to me.” She jerked her arm out of my grasp roughly. “Don’t touch me, I don’t want to talk to you.” she said coldly. I was hurt by her words, but I guess I deserved it. Why would Cody bring me here if she didn’t want to talk to me. “Please, Kels, don’t let this ruin our friendship.” I pleaded. “I trusted you Lacie. I guess that everyone was right when they said you were a backstabber. I should’ve listened to them.” she said. I felt my eyes welling up with tears. I blinked and let one fall to my cheek. She walked out of the door and I sat on the couch. My cell phone started to vibrate so I took it out of my pocket. I opened it up to see that I had a new text.

“Put that phone away!” I heard Cody yell from across the room. I jumped about two feet off of the couch and my phone fell to the floor. “You’re not leaving here yet.” he said. I went to pick my phone up off of the floor but Cody was faster. “Hmm, interesting.” Cody whispered to himself as he read the open text. I just stared at him hatefully. I stood up from the couch while he was pre-occupied with the my phone. I turned around to face the door and started walking towards it. I was about three steps from freedom when I felt two large arms settle on my shoulders.

“Oh, you’re not going any where.” he whispered in my ear. “Get off of me.” I demanded. I could feel him breathing next to my neck. He leaned closer and laid soft kisses on me. I tried to get out of his grasp, but he was too strong. “You still owe me. Remember?” he mumbled against my neck. “Not like this.” I said and elbowed him in the gut. He then released me to hold his stomach. I ran to the door again and got to the door knob when my ankles were pulled out from under me and I whacked my head off of the hard wooden floor.

He clutched onto my ankle and pulled me towards him. “Stop kicking me!” he demanded when I almost hit him were it hurts the most. “You look nervous, so this must be your first time,“ he said while taking out a condom. He grabbed my wrist and pinned me down to the floor. I felt blood running down my face from falling and I was very light headed. He kissed my neck and I struggled to get up. He hovered over me, putting his legs on mine so I couldn’t move or escape. “Just be calm, Lace.” he said to me when I tried harder to get him off of me. “Leave me alone!” I begged. He started to lift my shirt over me, exposing my bra. One f my legs got free and I brought me knee up towards me with a lot of force. I nailed him in the groin and he fell off of me.

He held himself in fettle position and I ran right for the door. I unlocked it and ran out. I started crying because I was afraid that Cody was following me. When I was at the end of his street, far from his house, I stopped to catch my breath. I went to take my phone out of my pocket when I remembered that it was still at Cody’s house.

Why was I so stupid? I shouldn’t have gone with him. Now I’m at a place that’s strange to me and I don’t know where to go. I’m guessing that Justin didn’t follow him to his house. I kept walking down the unknown street, thinking about everything that has happened. I didn’t want to go to school if I had to see Cody everyday. “Lacie!” I heard someone yell behind me.

In a panic I started to run at full speed. “Lacie wait!” the voice yelled again. It was closer soi could recognize it now. It’s Justin. I slowed my running into a walk, then stopped at a side bench to catch my breath again. Justin’s jeep then pulled over to the curb. He jumped out and jogged over to me.

“I’ve never seen you run that fast. What happened?” he asked. All the memories ran through my head and I started crying again. I put my knees to my chest on the bench and Justin put his arms around me. It made me jump ad I pulled away. I didn’t want to be touched right now. “What happened in there?” he asked and was obviously worried about me.

“He wanted to take my clothes off and Kelsey didn’t want to see me. He tricked me. She flipped out when she saw me. I’m so sorry for going with him. He said that Kelsey needed to talk to me.” I said. “Your head is bleeding.” he pointed out. “I reached for the door and he pulled me down. I hit my head off the floor.” I said remembering the moment in detail. “Let’s get you out of here.” he said.

I shook my head in agreement and got up. He opened the car door for me and I slid in. He started to drive away and asked, “How did you get out of there?” “He had pinned me to the floor and kissed me everywhere when he started to take my shirt off and showed me the condom that he had. He was going to rape me.” I paused to dismiss that memory and then went on. “He almost got my whole shirt off when I kneed him. I ran out of the door and just kept going until I couldn’t run anymore.”

“We need to tell your mom.” Justin said. “No, we can’t! She’ll get too worried.” I stated and he gave me the ok to keep this from my mother. We arrived at my house and Justin parked on the curb. My mom’s car wasn’t in the driveway, so she was still at work. I unlocked the door and let Justin in. “What are we going to do about school?” I asked. “What about it?” he replied. “I can’t be near him. I get nervous and scared and he might try to…” I trailed off. “Oh, I don’t know, we really should turn him in.” he said. “We can’t. He will come after me. You know, when I was in the car with him, he realized that I was afraid of him. He said that it wasn’t like he was going to kill me or anything, but he might try. He already tried to r-rape me so who knows what he’ll do next. Especially since I hurt him. If I turn him in, what do you think he would do when he got out of where ever he’d be?” I sat on the floor and wrapped my face in my arms and started to cry. I looked up and saw Justin, who looked like he was in a different world.

He sat down next to me, but not very close. I could tell that he was blaming himself for this and I wanted to make him feel happier. I scooted over to his side and laid my head on his shoulder. He looked at me and I looked up at him. “But, I’m here now and I’m ok. We can deal with him when the time comes.” He looked away from me so pulled his face to mine and I kissed his lips softly, hoping he would kiss me back. He did and pulled me onto his lap very gently trying not to hurt me. He held my very close to him which made me instantly feel safe. I love when we were this close and I didn’t want to let go. He broke away from our kiss and had a sad look in his beautiful eyes. “I’m sorry that I couldn’t get there faster.” he said looking guilty, just like I said before, he blames himself.

I hugged him closely resting my chin on his shoulder. “It’s ok Justin. It’s not your fault. I’m fine, see?” I said as I slowly stood up and turned around in a circle like a runway model. He chuckled a bit and stood up next to me. “Are you going to be fine when he’s around?” he asked seriously. “Well, no, but he’s not here now.” I said and pulled him over to the couch. He sat down and I took my spot on his lap. I kissed his cheek and turned on the TV. We watched re-runs of Grey’s Anatomy and watched The Notebook. I cried during the movie, but I always did. We cuddled on the couch for what seemed to be hours and I took a small nap and he did too.

When I woke up I saw Justin staring at me. “Hey,” I said as I lifted my hand off of his chest to stretch. “Hey,” he said back sweetly and smiled. I looked down at my hands and realized that I haven’t taken off the ring that Justin had gotten me since I put it on. I smiled as I watched it glimmer in the light and realized that I need to get cleaned up. “I’m going to take a shower, ok? You stay here.” He stood up right after I did and started to follow me. I put a hand on his muscular chest to stop him and said, “Stay here.” I laughed a bit and started my way up the steps. He grabbed my hand and I turned around. “Your going to make me wait down here all alone?” he asked with a look in his eyes that made my legs feel like jello. I couldn’t say no to him. “Fine, you can sit on my bed.” I said and we went upstairs. I grabbed my clothes from my dresser and went into the bathroom. I went to shut the door When Justin’s hand got in the way. “What?” I asked.

He looked up at me and smiled. “I feel lonely out there.” he answered. “Well you can’t get a shower with me. I’ll be quick, I promise.” I said to him and went to shut the door once more when Justin stopped it again. “What?” I starred at him and he grabbed my face and brought his lips to mine passionately. He put his hands on my hips and lifted me onto the sink counter. I swear, he is like a drug that I’m addicted to. He is my heroine. He then came closer to me to put his arms around my waist. I entwined my fingers in his soft curly hair and he moved to kissing my neck. He went back up to kissing my jaw line then to my lips again. He drifted away slowly , leaving me mid-kiss. “Make it quick.” he said teasingly and walked out of the door.

I touched my lips and smiled, thinking of how much control he had over me and how he could make me want him even more, although it was impossible to want him more than I already do. He messes with my head! I hopped off of the counter where Justin left me and I turned on the shower. I adjusted the heat and shut the door. I got un-dressed and felt a bit weird because Justin was here, but I quickly got over that. I placed a towel on the sink and stepped into the warm water. I examined my arms and saw dark purple bruises and I was careful to not get my forehead soak, but I had to get the blood off. I then looked at my wrists and found more bruises that were shaped like Cody’s fingers. I touched them softly and stopped quickly when I felt the pain come back. I washed my hair and my body and got out.

I wrapped my towel around myself and dried off. I quickly threw my clothes on and went into my room. Justin was laying on my bed with his elbow over his face. I walked over to him silently and saw that he had fallen asleep. I lifted myself onto the bed and laid on top of him. He removed his elbow from his face and opened his eyes. “Finally,” he blurted out. “What took so long?” he asked quickly then kissing my lips. “Wow, your impatient.” I replied. He paused and had a scared, yet furious look on his face. “Look at your arms!” he said urgently when I rolled up my sleeves. Bad move. “Yeah, I know. I saw that when I took my shower.” I said. His hand softly went over my dark purple marks on my arms, then to my wrists. “I’m going to kill him!” he yelled and stood up gently laying me on the bed. “Please calm down. I don’t need something happening to you.” I pleaded. “I’m sorry. It’s just that this makes me so mad! How could he do this to you?” he asked. “He’s a pig, Justin. He will get what’s coming to him. We will get through this.” I said. “I guess, but I swear, if he ever touches you again, I’ll kill him.” he said being very, very serious. I’ve never seen him like this.

I wanted, no, needed to calm him down so I decided to try and joke around. “Oh? And how do you plan on doing that?” His face lightened a bit. “I’ll beat him up, then throw him off a cliff into the ocean. Eventually the sharks will get to him.” he said. “Oh ok, so that’s your way of hiding the murder? The sharks will eat him and he will be gone forever! You’ll never be suspected.” I said smiling thinking that wasn’t such a bad idea. I got up and headed over to my dresser. He walked over to me and stood behind me looking at us in the mirror. He rested his chin on my shoulder and smiled. “Your hair smells so good.” he complemented. “Thank you, it’s strawberry-kiwi.” I replied back blushing a bit. “Mmm, I love it.” he put his arms around my stomach and pulled me to him. I turned around to see him and he sweetly kissed my cheek and turned me around again.

“You know, we’ve only been dating for four days and we’re already really close” I pointed out. “Well, I think that, that’s what happens when two people who have liked each other for so long finally get together, I guess.” he replied while smiling and laying another sweet kiss on my cheek. “Yeah, it’s a good thing though. It’s nice to finally be with you even thought it started so much drama.” I said. He lifted his chin from my shoulder and walked to the middle of the room. “We don’t need them Lacie, seriously. I know you want Kelsey back as a friend and I do too, but if she wants to be jealous, then let her. She has Cody now, even thought he’s using her.” he said and he made a point. “Yeah I know, I know, it’s just that I still want to look out for her.” I said back. “I get what your saying, but we can’t do anything about what she is doing.” he said quietly, almost whispering.

We laid on my bed and I turned the TV on. He put his arm under my head and pulled me closer to him. I smiled at him and began to flip through the channels. We watched some random shows when Justin’s cell phone began to ring. He quickly took it out of his pocket and looked at it so I guess it was a text. His facial expression showed me that it wasn’t good. “Oh God, Lace read this.” Justin said suddenly. “What?” I asked as he handed me his phone. It said that there was a text from me which read, “Oh, isn’t this nice? Now that I have Lacie’s phone, I have all of her families numbers. This will be fun. If she doesn’t give me what I want, I can just mess with them. Ha! I could make them hate her, or I could just hurt them for the fun of it! This is a really nice phone though. I never thought that I would take a liking to blackberries. Tell Lacie that if she wants her phone back that she needs to come to my house. Oh, can you give her a nice long kiss for me? Thanks bud, bye.” I gave him his phone back and hit my pillow next to me angrily.

“Ok, I’m tired of this.” I said as I felt my blood boil in my veins. I stood up and walked towards the door. “Where are you going?” Justin asked while followed me. I went half way down the stairs when I felt Justin’s hand gently settle on my bruised wrist. “What?” I asked harshly. I didn’t mean for my question to sound so mean. I looked at Justin with apologetic eyes. “Think before you do anything.” he said slowly. “Justin, I’m scared out of my wits right now, but this needs to be handled.” I said trying not to meet his eyes. I thought about his words as they sunk into my brain. I need to do this. Cody might hurt my family if I don’t face him. I’m doing the right thing. I repeated this over and over in my head, trying to convince myself that it was the honest to God truth. He let go of my wrist and I walked the rest of the way down the stair trying to think of a plan. I grabbed my jacket and put on my DC’s.

“Where are you going?” Justin asked again, but more demandingly this time. “I’m going to Cody’s house.” I said and opened the door. “How do you plan on getting there?” Justin asked. I could tell that he was worried about me. He probably thought that I was loosing my mind or something. I simply shrugged my shoulders. I didn’t think of how I was going to get there. “I’ll just walk.” I said and my eyes met his as he shook his head. “Please Lacie, don’t do this. Why don’t we just call the cops?” Justin asked seriously. I didn’t want to answer so I turned around, walked out the door and when I heard him come towards me I started to run. I could hear Justin’s voice behind me, but I just kept on going. I was running on pure adrenaline and anger. Once someone threatens my family, they are done.

I ran the same way that Cody drove to his house from the California Café. I stopped at the same bench that I had stopped at previously when I was running away from Cody. It seemed really ironic to me. And I guess being in track all of middle school and ninth grade helped me in this situation. I started to catch my breath, which pure adrenaline still pumping through me. I slowly jogged down the unfortunately familiar road when I finally reached Cody’s house. I walked through the front yard and got to the door. I raised my fist and knocked on the door. I heard the handle turn and I realized that I had no clue of what I was going to do. I froze and all of my adrenaline was taken over by fear when the door opened.

I was confused when a girl my age opened the door. She had blonde curly hair and heavy make up surrounding her light brown eyes. All she wore was a blanket, which made me feel very uncomfortable. “Oh-um, is uh Cody here?” I asked quickly. She looked at me like I crazy, like she knew me, then said, “Lacie? Lacie Barron?” I shook my head wondering were I knew this girl from. She was very familiar though. “Oh, wow, sorry that you have to see me like this.” she said and then blushed when she looked down at her cover. “Um, do I know you” I asked curiously. “It’s me, Elena Bright.” Oh yeah! The lead cheerleader at my school. I remember now. I would always laugh because her last name was the opposite of what she actually was, if you get my drift. She’s not very smart.

“Oh, ok I remember now. Why are you here?” I asked. “Well, um…” she started when Cody appeared in the door with just a towel on. My fear was bad and it was worse than before and I felt like I couldn’t breath. “So, you actually decided to show, huh?” he stated. He leaned over to Elena and whispered something into her ear. She shook her head and said, “Ok.” She then walked past me and got into a car that I guess was hers. Cody looked at me and smiled which sent shivers down my spine. “I’m here for my phone. That’s all.” I said. I couldn’t think of anything else and I didn’t want to make him mad. “Ok then, come and get it.” he said and motioned for me to walk into the house. Ok, Lace. Think…What is your next move? Should you just give into what he wants or should you fight back and risk your family getting hurt? I can’t let that happen.

“Well? Do you want your phone or not?” Cody asked. I walked in and waited for Cody to get my phone. Hopefully he wont try anything this time. He walked away and I looked around the living room which I never actually did the last time I was here. I noticed a picture of a baby on the wall across the room. I walked over to it and saw a baby boy with light brown hair and those baby blue eyes. He had such a cute smile. The baby only look a few months old and then I saw a date in the corner of the framed picture. 12-16-91 was that date. It was in gold lettering. This must have been Cody when he was young. Below the picture there was a small desk which was made out of dark wood. On it were numerous pictures of a couple. The man was handsome with brown hair and brown eyes. He has a masculant structure and he held the woman in his arms protectively. You can tell that they were in love. The woman also has brown hair which stopped at her shoulders. She had many ringlets of hair in her face from being held by the man.

On the table was also a piece of old, ripped newspaper. The date on it was 03/15/02. I picked it up and read it. “Two People Found Dead On Highway After Accident” was the head line. I read on, “Sarah and Joseph Chanler were found dead on the side of the highway. After a gasoline truck was cut off by a motorcyclist, it began to swerve. The Chanler’s car was next to the large vehicle when it flipped over them. They were thrown from their car due to a lack of seatbelts.”

After I read that I couldn’t go on. I suddenly felt horrible when I realized that the two people were Cody’s parents. “What are you doing?” I heard Cody asked from behind me as I put the piece of newspaper down. “N-Nothing. I saw this and I wondered what it was.” I said and I felt very un-easy being alone with him. I turned around to face him and he was still in a towel. He dangled my phone in front of my face and I asked, “Can I have it?” “It depends.” Oh no, not again. “On what.” I asked nervously. “On whether or not we are going to finish what we started the last time.” I was afraid that he was going to say that. “Please don’t do this.” I begged. He ignored what I said and continued to move closer to me. I backed up into the small table and accidentally knocked over a framed picture.

Cody scowled at me when I heard the glass break and he came closer to me while putting his fists up in the air. I felt like prey being hunted and there was no chance that I could get away. I was defenseless. “I-I’m s-sorry.” I said and I was now up against the wall. I closed my eyes and braced myself for the pain that was about to come. His fist then collided with my face and brought my to the ground. His foot then kicked my sides and then my face again. I felt blood running down my nose. He kicked me repeatedly in the sides and I cried. When he finally stopped I fell over and went into fettle position moaning in pain. He kicked me one more time in the head, like it was a soccer ball and darkness started to take over me. I felt my shirt being pulled of and rough lips on my chest while his hands worked at my bra. I felt cold as he hovered over my topless body.

I felt my pants go down my leg and I started to get my vision back. I put my hands to his trying to stop him, but that only earned me another punch to the face. “OW! OH MY GOD THAT FREAKIN HURT!” I held. He then dug his thumbs into my now open wound on my head. My vision then dimmed and I tried to scream, but all that came out was, “Please stop.” and then he said those famous words. “This is what you get for rejecting me.” I then felt fabric rub against my nake