Strong Enough

A Chapter by bellaleigh

“Smile,” she hissed, “what’s wrong Jamie, cat got your tongue?” I did as she said, forcing a smile onto my lips. The back of my head felt warm and sticky as blood ran down my scalp. She grabbed my neck again shoving me back against the doorframe. A slight whimper slipped between my clenched teeth. “What was that? Don’t mumble Jamie… speak up,” she dared me. I clenched my teeth harder. Cathy smirked slamming my head against the door again. “I thought so,” she spat words at me faster and faster, “you disgust me, me and everyone else. That’s why your parents didn’t want you, why would they? Your only a small, selfish, waste of time and money, completely worthless.” She shoved me one last time “go get your ugly face cleaned up before Dave gets here for dinner, I don’t want anyone else seeing you like this, you’re already a disgrace as it is.” She spat on my face before finally walking away. I slid to the floor, my eyelids already closing.

*******

Showering is always the worst part. Well, besides brushing my hair. The water seeps into my gashes mixing with blood, I always found it so odd that you could loose so much of it, blood, and then just stand up and everything was okay. I gently prod the back of my skull, the tips of my fingers feeling were the skin bulged and dipped. Good, this time the bump was smaller, easier to hide, to cover with my hair and forget about, at least for a minute. And that’s what I do; just let my hair hang limp, falling over the small spot on my head that no one would ever know about, accept maybe Sophie. Sophie is always my biggest problem in the mornings, as soon as I slipped past Cathy I have to avoid Sophie seeing whatever new bump or scratch I had gotten the night before. She is a good friend, and she knows more than anyone else, but she doesn’t know how bad it is. And I don’t want her to. After doing the best I could with my hair and edging my t-shirt over the lump on my head, I crept out the door and ran the rest of the way to Sophie’s waiting car. Every time I get in her car I take a huge breath, every time I get in her car it means I’ve made it through another day. Every time I get in her car it lurches away as soon as the door is shut. She always parks a few blocks away and stares at me for a minute assessing the damage another night has given me.

“How are you?” she says sweeping my body with her eyes.

“I’m fi-”

“Don’t lie to me Jamie. Just don’t answer if you’re going to lie to me.” She cuts me off before I can finish. When she realizes I’m not saying anything else, she clenches her jaw, “It was bad, wasn’t it?” She closes her eyes when I try to deny it. Then she just shakes her head and turns around to re-start the car. We drive in silence the rest of the way to school, until she parks and turns to me.

“I’m going to teach you how to drive.” She declares. I don’t see the point, I will never be able to afford a car, but after our argument I can’t say no. When I agree she draws her eyebrows together. “Really?” she sounds genuinely surprised. She looks at me for a moment before deciding my body hasn’t been invaded by an alien. Then she nods “When can you get away from… when can I pick you up?” I shrugged both of us seeing how impossible it was. “I will teach you. You can’t go through your senior year not knowing how to drive.” She let out a sigh as I closed my eyes. I lurch smashing my knee into the glove box, when someone raps on Sophie’s window. She raises her eyebrows at me and gracefully gets out of the car, glancing back as I stumble after her. I wasn’t jealous of Sophie, not by a long shot. If I looked like her or had as many friends as she does, life would be allot harder. Sophie has this beautiful wavy caramel colored hair. The kind of hair you would find in an ad for shampoo and she has these green eyes, like the trees people put up in the winter. Add all that with always clear and tan skin and you couldn’t help but look at her. I was just lucky for her to be my friend. When my dad left me with Cathy, his ex-girlfriend, I was fourteen. I was a freshman and we just so happened to share a locker space. Her last name was Zlasten and I was a new addition so I got the unused locker under hers. My first day was a few weeks before the second semester. Everyone already knew everyone else. No one noticed me, not that I minded, not at all. I was un-experienced in covering up my bruises then, I didn’t have a job, which meant no money to buy makeup to do it for me. Sophie was not so gorgeous then, she was the classic teenager, braces, bulky glasses and very poofy hair. She watched me slink in and out of classes for a week before finally addressing her new bruised locker partner. I was crouched down getting a textbook from my locker when she gently tapped my shoulder. I jumped reflexively only to meet her locker door in a not so pleasant way. She laughed thinking it was a one time thing, that she just surprised me, but what she didn’t realize was that, That morning Cathy had shoved me backwards causing me to trip and smash my head into a doorknob. I sat on the floor by my locker for a few seconds until my vision began to blur in and out. Black spots danced across her face while she tried to apologize for scaring me. When my head started pounding I tried to get back up only to fall flat on my face. That’s when Sophie realized something was wrong. By now, the bell had rung and we were the only two people still in the hallway. My vision was fading fast when I realized that I was on the ground with the only person to help me being a small girl of one hundred pounds.

When I opened my eyes I was propped against someone’s thin shoulder, my feet were dragging on the ground. It took me a few seconds to realize where I was and what had happened. I jolted and tried to stand up by myself pushing off whomever I was leaning on. I took a deep breath shaking off the pounding sensation in my head. Pain is just weakness leaving your body. I repeated my mantra a few times before edging slowly to the nearest bathroom and collapsing on the cool tiles. When I opened my eyes again I saw shoes, the same shoes I had seen everyday for a week standing behind me waiting for me to get my books. I squinted up at her and tried to smile. She wouldn’t know you generally don’t pass out after just one good smack.

“Hello,” I cleared my throat “thank you for… helping me, I’m ok now, you can leave. You are probably missing class and all…” she shook her head slowly.

“You’re Jamie right?” I nodded “Well Jamie maybe you don’t know but my mother and father are both doctors, and I’ve learned a few things over the years, one being that it isn’t natural to just pass out like that.” She raised her eyebrows waiting for a response and when I didn’t offer one she just sighed and pulled me off the ground, over to the sink, and helped me patch up to my tender head. After that, she pretty much adopted me, she ate lunch with me everyday and eventually coaxed the truth out of me. Then when we were old enough she drove me to school every morning. And although I don’t tell her as much as she’d like, I know deep in my mind, that if I did, she wouldn’t let me brave it any more. She would tell the police, or the counselor or who ever you told about something like this. And I couldn’t let her do that. Trust me, I’m not one of those freaks who just enjoys what she puts me through, and although I am a little afraid of what she can do to me I’m not all that worried about that either, but I have a reason. No one else knows accept Sophie. Alethea. Alethea is the only way to keep her from sending the police after Cathy every time I acquire a new bump or scratch. Alethea, she’s my reason.