"Brian, no, nothing happened with those guys, we were just chatting. You know that you're the one that I love and you're the one that I want to be with. Only you.”
I was really hoping that my words would be enough to soothe him but I could not have been more wrong. He knocked my hand away from his face and he slapped me across the face, cutting my lip. When I tasted the blood in my mouth, something snapped in me and I was done. I was tired of being afraid of him and I was not going to be that girl that lived in fear of her boyfriend anymore. I had a vision of what my life would really be like with Brian and I finally came to my senses.
“Don’t you ever put your hands on me again! I don’t need this! We are over! Don’t call me, don’t text me and don’t even look at me! I don’t want to have anything to do with you ever again!”
I flung open the car door and Brian reached across to grab me, and I hit him with my backpack as I ran out of the car. I ran as fast as I could into the mall and ducked into the ladies’ bathroom. I hid in a stall and was shaking and crying as I called Chloe.
“Hello?”
“Chloe?” I could barely get her name out.
“Laney? What’s wrong?!” She sounded panicked.
“Can you come pick me up at the mall?”
“Of course! Where are you?”
“I’ll meet you in the parking lot in front of Chili’s.”
“Okay, I’ll be there in 10 minutes!”
“Thanks Chloe.”
After a few minutes I washed my face, pulled my hair in my face and got myself together and gingerly stepped out into the mall, carefully looking around making sure that Brian was nowhere in sight. By the time I made it outside to the parking lot, Chloe was waiting for me. I quickly got into her car and started crying all over again. When she saw my face, she couldn’t believe what she saw.
“Oh my gosh Laney! What happened to you?”
I was so ashamed that my friend had to see me like this but I had to tell her what happened.
“Brian.”
“What?!” Her shriek caught me off guard.
“It’s not the first time this has happened, I just covered it up before. But today was the last straw. I broke things off with him and I never want to speak to him again.” I was balling like a baby and she put her arms around me.
“I, I just can't believe it. You guys? Brian? I'm in shock right now. Are you okay? Do I need to take you to the hospital?”
“No, I will be okay. I’m just really embarrassed that I even allowed this to happen to me. Chloe, please don’t tell my parents, I just want to go crawl into my bed.”
She started driving toward my house and I dried my tears.
“Why not?” Her eyes were concerned as she glanced at me while trying to pay attention to the road.
“I’m afraid my dad will kill him and I just don’t want them to know that I was so weak.”
“Laney, your parents love you and I think you should tell them what happened. Trust me, they will want to be there for you. I don’t think you should have to deal with this with just me as someone to talk to. I’ll go with you to tell them if you want.”
I was silent for a minute as I thought about what she said, but I decided against it. The school year was almost over and I would never have to see Brian again so I didn’t think I had to involve my parents. I couldn’t bear to see the look on my parents’ face when they learned that he had hit me before and I had stayed with him.
“Chloe, I’ll be fine, really, I don’t want them to know. It will be better for everyone if I can just put this behind me. I’ll just tell my parents that we broke up and I don’t want to talk about it. This whole thing will blow over, you’ll see.”
We pulled up to my house and I gave her a big hug.
“Thank you for coming to pick me up.”
“You’re sure you don’t want me to go inside with you?”
“No, I’ll be fine, thanks. And Chloe? Please don’t tell anyone about this.”
“I won’t, I promise, even though I think you should tell your parents.”
“I’ll be okay, really. I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”
I got out of the car and luckily my parents weren’t home from work yet so I ate a sandwich really fast, grabbed some ice for my lip, and decided to turn in early. When my parents came home I would just mumble from the bed that I broke up with Brian and I wanted to be alone. My mom would probably want to come in to make sure that I was okay, but my dad would convince her to give me space. My dad and I were really tight; I could talk to him about anything. But this, what had happened to me with Brian, I just felt so ashamed and I knew my dad would want to have him arrested. If that happened it would be all over school and Brian was so popular I was sure that everyone would hate me. I didn’t want to make things worse than they already were; I just wanted it all to go away.
That evening, when my parents came home, exactly what I thought would happen, happened. They knocked on my door and they left me alone when I told them I didn’t feel like talking. It was less than a month before prom, I was one of the most popular girls in school and I was probably going to miss it. I drifted off crying myself to sleep wishing that I had never met Brian.
The next morning I woke up to 38 texts and missed calls from Brian. I didn’t feel like dealing with seeing him that day at school so I stayed in bed, and when my mom opened my door to check on me I kept my face hidden under the covers and told her that I really needed to stay home. I was the type of student that never missed a day of school unless I was violently ill, so I knew that my mom would understand and realize that I really needed this time to myself. It also helped that it was Friday, and I wouldn’t be missing anything big at school anyway since we had less than a month of classes to go before graduation.
My parents left for work and I had the house to myself so I went to check my lip in the mirror and, thankfully, the ice helped to keep down the swelling. I grabbed a bowl of cereal and plopped down on the couch to watch t.v. and eventually drifted off to sleep. The blaring sound of my cell phone woke me from my slumber and without thinking I answered the phone.
“Laney, please don’t hang up.” Brian’s voice sounded desperate.