Chapter 2

I waited twenty minutes before I tossed my three duffel bags out the window and climbed out the window after them.  When I dropped down to the ground, my bags were gone.  Shit.  Did Pa come back and I didn’t realize it?  In the twilight sky, I glanced around quickly, hearing giggling coming from the bushes that separate our yard from Shelbie’s, to find her hiding in the bushes with my bags at her feet.   

“Come on Mar, get a move on it before you get caught,” she whispered urgently.  I ran over to her grabbing two of my duffels as she grabbed the third one.  

Shelbie and I hurried into the garage and went through the door and up the steps into the kitchen.  Dominic, Shel’s very handsome dad, has blond hair, blue eyes and a perfect smile.  That and he treats me like one of the family and not someone who is a nuisance.  Dom glanced up from his paper and his face turned crimson.  

His chair scrapped loudly across the floor as he stalked over to us.  I’ve never been terrified of Dominic before, until this very moment, he looked huge and angry.  I flinched uncontrollably as he looked over my neck and face and at the back of my head, grumbling under his breath.  

“Dominic, knock it off, you're scaring Marrallyn even more than she already is,” Connie scolded him as she came over and wrapped her arm around my shoulder and led me into the living room.  Dom and Shelbie followed us into the living room and he had the digital camera in his hand.  

As he knelt in front of Connie and me on the couch, he smiled timidly and apologized.  He took several pictures of my face and neck and I sat embarrassed while we did this again and Connie called her brother, Officer Joe Fagan, to come over and he said that he and his partner Jim Walters would be there in an hour.  After the pictures were done, I hugged them all and thanked them soundly for letting me stay tonight.  

“I’ll only stay tonight and in the morning I’m heading downstate to my Abuela’s.”

Dominic and Connie looked at each other and Connie sternly told me, “No, you’re gonna stay as long as you need and finish high school.”  When I started to argue, she shook her head, “No arguing and I mean it!”  

“I can’t, Pa’ll see me and he’ll give you guys shit for letting me stay here.  I can’t do that to you guys, and….” I was cut off by a harsh pounding at the front door followed by Pa’s hollering. 

Shel and I glanced at each other and we started toward Shelbie’s room in the back of the house.  “Psst, don’t forget your duffel bags!” Connie whispered.  We snagged the bags and hurried down the hallway as Dom headed toward the door.  

As we reached her room, Pa’s voice was no longer obstructed by the door.  “If that little bitch thinks that she’s gonna come back home, she can forget it.”  

“She’s not a bitch, Waylland, and I would like it if you would kindly leave,” Dominic stated like he always does, not taking any of Pa’s shit; which is another thing I love about Dom.  

“Save the bullshit, ass-wipe, ya can keep her, I dunna want her.  She’s useless.”  The door slammed shut then.  

Shelbie glanced over at me and my eyes were trained on the floor, careful not to meet her eyes.  “At least he’s gone and will leave me alone.  I hope,” I muttered under my breath at her.  I jumped when there was another loud pounding on the front door, thinking it was Pa again.  

“Girls, will you please come out here?” Dom hollered from the living room.  As we came out, Joe and Jim were in the living room.

“Holy shit,” Joe swore as he reached over to move my face around to get a better look at the bruising.  Joe then wrote down what he saw, what his sister and brother-in-law told him and his niece told him and what he saw while Jim looked at the pictures that Dom had taken earlier.  They stayed for another half an hour, and then when they left they said they would file the report when they got back and push to get charges brought up on Pa for all the beatings and broken bones.  

“I want to give you the money I earn from the shipping store, for rent; as a thank you for letting me stay here.”

“Keep your money, I know you didn’t get to keep it before, save it for a rainy day or a place of your own after graduation,” they told me.  I hugged them both tightly before Shelbie and I headed back to her room for the night, they hugged me back giving me a kiss on the check as they did with Shelbie too.  

The next morning after I showered, I left a note for them that I was headed to work.  Grabbing my purse and the keys to Shelbie’s car, that she said I could use for work, and headed for the garage, when I noticed out of the corner of my eye I saw a hand shoot out from behind me and spun me around and brought me face to face with Frankie.  

“Frankie!  You scared the shit out of me!” 

He smiled wanly at me.  “Sorry,” he mumbled.  “Are you going to work looking like that?”

I nodded, “Yes, I’m pulling truck this morning and just working in the back sorting the stock with Sasha.”  I glanced down at my watch, “And I’m gonna be late if you keep bugging me.”  I headed to her blue Pontiac Sun Fire and looked back at him.  “Get in the car if you want to talk.”  Frankie hurried to the passenger side and eagerly climbed in.  He helped Sasha and I unload the truck and sort out the clothes and accessories in the back storage room.  

Four hours later we had everything off the truck and sort out onto racks for later to be put out on the floor and we were headed back to Shelbie’s to find Will sitting at the kitchen table with Dom, Shelbie and Connie.  

“I don’t believe that you went to work looking like you do, Mar.  I'm more surprised that they didn’t send you home.” Will shook his head in disbelief.  

I shot him a look of disbelief.  “I pulled stock with Sasha and Frankie.  No contact with customers whatsoever.”  He nodded and put his arm around my shoulder.  

Will turned his head toward me and smiled.  “I found a two bedroom apartment for us to share.”  He looked over at Frankie, who nodded in agreement.  “Frankie and I will share a room together and you can have the other one.”  

“Are you nuts?” I asked.  “Save your money ‘till Graduation then we can move to an apartment.”

The discussion went on for a while longer, finally ending with them agreeing to give it till grad. Then we’ll move to an apartment.  When they left later that afternoon, they promised to get as much of my stuff to me over the next week.  I hugged them both tightly before they left.

I'm out in Shelbie's car digging for my lighter for my cigarette when there was a pounding on the trunk and I jump hitting my head off the roof of the car.  I stand up rubbing my head, expecting to see Pa but instead it's the guy who was moving in across the street.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," he stammers out, shocked by my face and neck.  "What the hell happened to you?" he asks stepping forward to get a better look at my face,

I back up and with finding my lighter in the driver's seat, I light up a smoke and exhale to the right of me away from him.  "It's alright.  Nothing," I backed up another step from him as he stepped forward to touch me. 

Taking the hint he drops his hand and stays where he is.  "I'm Jason, Jason Austin."  He holds his hand out for me to shake.

I take it carefully and shake his hand.  "I'm Marrallyn Wheaton, nice to meet you."  Boy, this guy yummy.  "How old are you?"

He gives me a crooked grin.  "I'm seventeen, almost eighteen; how about you?"  

I exhale smoke before answering and racking a hot glare up and down his body.  "I’m almost eighteen."  

"Hey, Marra, where is your lighter, I need a smo-" Shelbie stopped mid sentence when she saw who I'm talking to.  "Hi, I'm Shelbie," she tells him, giving her hand which he shakes.  

She glances at me and says, "Hey, let me use your lighter, woman." She grins at me as she takes it from me and when we turn back to Jason, he's staring intently at both of us.

"You two aren't sisters are you?"  He pauses before asking, "Lovers?"

I laugh at him even though it makes my face hurt like hell.  "Not sisters or lovers.  We've been best friends since kindergarten."

He nods in understanding.  "You live next door don't you?"

"I live here with her, her dad and step-mom."

"You live here with them, but I thought I saw you go up to that house yesterday when you, her and two guys got off the bus.  The two guys went into that house with you," he points next door to my old home.

"I just moved in here late last night."

"Her dad is an abusive drinker and likes to beat her for the hell of it," Dom says from behind us in the garage doorway.  "Toss me your lighter, Mar."  I turn around and toss it to him so he can light his smoke.  He doesn't care if we smoke as long as we buy our own packs and we smoke outside.  Where we live, seventeen is the legal age. 

Dom comes over and introduces himself to Jason and we talk for a few minutes until Pa comes walking out of the house toward us.  "Shit," I mutter as I take another hit.  

"Hey, bitch!" Pa screams at me.

"Go away, Waylland.  This is private property and I want you off my property," Dom tells him as his temper flares.

"Stay out of this, Dominic.  I want to talk to my fucking little bitch of a daughter."  He glares at Dom as he comes toward me.  Fuck me; this isn't going to go well.

"Yes Pa?" I ask, scared shitless.  I have no fucking clue what he's going to do or say.

"Don't take that done with me, bitch," he sneers.  He stops in front of me and I drop my done cigarette on the ground and step it out.  He moves as quickly as he grabs me by the hair and wrenches it back.  "I hope you know that I've started taking pleasure in beating the hell out of you Mother because of you."  He glances up as Dom and Jason move in and he yanks my hair harder, making me cry out in pain, stopping both of them in their tracks.

"Your Mother is so much fun to beat.  She cries a lot, not like you."  With another yank of my hair, this time taking a chunk with it as he back hands me across the face.  

I drop to my knees, fighting back tears, refusing to give him that satisfaction.  Frankie and Will have come out of the house with backpacks over their shoulders and two duffle bags each.  I think they're leaving but my vision is so blurry and my head is pounding so badly that I'm not sure.

Pa turns and looks at them in surprise.  "What the hell are you two doing?" he demands angrily.

"We're leaving.  We can't take this no more, Pa," Frankie tells him defiantly.  "We're done watching you beat our sister and Mother."