You stupid girl, Lindsay scolded herself, why couldn't you just have told him the truth? He probably thinks you hate him now!
"I don't get it!" Danny mused aloud. "I really thought she liked me! And why did she run off crying like that? She rejected me, not the other way around!"
Neither of them slept a wink that night. Lindsay lay awake convincing herself to tell Danny the truth. Danny lay awake trying to figure out what he did wrong…
There was a knock on Danny's door pretty early the next morning. He crawled out of bed and grabbed his glasses. "Who is it?" he called through the closed door.
"Montana," a woman's voice answered hesitantly. Danny swung the door open. She was the last person he'd expected to see at his apartment at 8:00 on a Saturday morning.
"What do you want?" he asked rather crossly.
Tears immediately pricked her eyes upon hearing his harsh tone and she turned to leave. "Wait," he said grabbing her arm to stop her. "I'm sorry."
"I wanted to explain," she said quietly, "about what happened last night." He said nothing. "Can I come in?" she asked timidly.
"Yeah," he said, moving aside so she could enter. "Make yourself comfortable," he invited leading her to a chair, which she hesitantly sat in. He sat in a chair facing her.
After a few moments of silence and a deep breath she began. "I met Jesse when I was a junior in high school. Almost immediately we started dating. We dated through the rest of high school and into college. I was completely in love with him, and I thought we would spend the rest of our lives together. Eventually, I moved into his place, but I never slept with him...that's important," she added as a side note. Taking a deep breath she continued. "At first he was ok with that, but then things started to change. He asked me to…you know…one night and like always I said no. That was the first time he hit me." Lindsay stopped to brush away a tear slipping down her cheek. "Things just went downhill from there. He began to hit me all the time; he was always convinced that I was doing something wrong. He said that if I ever told anybody he'd kill my parents, so I didn't say a word to anybody. But then…then he started hurting me in…. in other ways. Every time I would refuse him, he'd tie me up and-and he'd rape me." Tears were freely falling down her face.
Danny reached out and grabbed her hand, "Lindsay," he said gently, "I'm so sorry! I had no-"
Lindsay interrupted him. "No, let me finish!" she insisted. "Soon he was raping me almost daily. It's a miracle I didn't get pregnant. Anyway, one day I finally got up the courage to go to the police. They found and arrested him. That's when I decided to become a cop and move here. I wanted to help girls like me. I didn't want them to have to deal with the physical and emotional scars that I have to deal with everyday." She lifted up her shirt just a little and Danny saw a long scar that started just above her navel and disappeared into the waistband of her jeans. "He cut me once when I said no," she explained, although in was unnecessary.
"Lindsay," Danny said, "why didn't you just tell me?"
She burst into tears. "Because-because I thought you wouldn't like me anymore if I said anything. I thought you'd think I'm gross or unclean. I turned you down because I was scared Danny, not because I don't like you. Because I do like you. A lot."
"Lindsay, I would never hurt you, " he murmured, "I care about you, a whole lot!" he stood up, so did she. "Come here," he said reaching out to her. She practically jumped into his arms and he held her like tight, like he never wanted to let go. "I love you," he whispered into her ear.
She pulled back slightly and kissed him gently. "I love you, too."