A/N: So I tried to make this longer. I hope you enjoy and PLEASE review!
We pulled up to the park entrance and I saw Kendra standing by the gates, looking around nervously. As soon as she saw my car she started to run towards it. When I climbed out I could see that she was smiling. Then I heard the passenger door close behind me and Kendra's expression changed to one of confusion, then anger.
"What the hell Derek?" She asked inclining her head towards Casey. "What is she doing here?"
"She wanted to talk to you." I answered somewhat sheepishly. The last thing I wanted right now was to fight with Kendra. Didn't I already have enough going on?
"You didn't tell her did you?!" Her voice was incredulous.
"Um… well…"
"Great now I get to get a lecture from Casey the perfect amazing wonderful girl that is every parents dream. This should be good."
Casey spoke for the first time. "Kendra I'm not here to judge you. I really want to help you. "
"How could you possibly help me?" Kendra was clearly still pissed, but Casey continued calmly.
"Kendra I… When I was… There's something… Oh God I don't know how to say this." I looked at her reassuringly, but with Kendra's judgmental eyes so near I kept my distance.
"Just spit it out Casey. Tell me what a whore I am and how I'm gonna go to hell if I kill my baby. I've heard it all before." Kendra's stance was defensive as if she were ready to pounce at any time if Casey said the wrong thing, but Casey took a deep breath and tried again.
"There's a lot you don't know about me."
"Oh really? You join the chess team recently?" Kendra laughed at her own joke, though I knew she didn't really think it was funny. She was just afraid of what Casey would say. Despite her tough act I could tell she was scared.
"I have something to tell you but you can't say anything until I am done. Understood?"
"Yeah whatever." Kendra replied as she rolled her eyes.
"I guess…. Well ok. Imagine a young girl. She trusts this man, but he betrays her trust. He hurts her. He's no longer the person she once loved and looked up to. He's this twisted monster. It's like he's taken off his disguise, but the girl is the only one who can see it. Everyone else is still fooled and she can't say anything to them. The monster haunts her dreams at night and she can't sleep. She-"
"Can you get to the point?" Kendra interrupted. Casey threw her a look. "Ok ok. Sorry geez."
"Well this monster… got the girl pregnant." Casey looked at Kendra expectantly, waiting for her inevitable comment but she remained silent. "Anyways the girl was so young and naïve that she didn't know what was going on. She knew she couldn't go to her mother or anyone else, because she couldn't tell them the horrible secret: the things the monster had done to her. She went to the monster, even though she was scared out of her mind, and asked him what to do. He told her to get rid of it and gave her the money. His words would haunt her for years to come, but that wasn't the worst of it. After she had it done she had more nightmares. The monster would plunge a knife into her protruding stomach and cut out a whole. As she gasped in pain he would pull out a slimy, bloody blob that she quickly recognized to be her baby. He would then crush the tiny thing in his hand and laugh insanely. Other times she would dream of having her baby. Of it growing up to be a green-eyed boy who loved to play soccer and eat chocolate cake. Other times it would be a girl with pink ribbons in her hair, who, like her mother, loved to dance and sing. No matter what the child was like at the end of the dream the monster would come and rip them from the mother's arms and stab them with that same knife. The mother would cry and cry over their dead bodies, until finally she woke up screaming and sweating.
Kendra stared blankly at Casey. Then she glanced at me. "What is she talking about Derek?" Before I could think of anything to say Casey interrupted.
"When Derek told me you were having an abortion I totally freaked out. I didn't want you to make the same mistake that girl did. I wanted you to know how you would feel. I know it's your choice Kendra, but that girl wishes everyday of her life that someone had been there to tell her not to do it. To tell her that it would eat away at her everyday until she died." Casey then looked down to hide the tears that were starting to seep out from her eyes.
Then something very strange happened. Kendra walked up to Casey and for an instant I thought she would hit her, but instead she wrapped her arms around her neck and buried her face in her shoulder. "It was you wasn't it?" I could barely make out Kendra's whisper in Casey's hear. Casey nodded her head up and down vigorously and wrapped her arms around Kendra too.
I wasn't sure what to do as I watched the two girls hugging and crying before me. This was definitely not my area of expertise. When the tears started coming I generally ran full speed in the opposite direction. But I felt I owed these girls more than that. I felt responsible for them. Their pain was my pain.
Now in Kendra's case her pain really was my pain. It was the result of a decision we had made together and therefore a burden we had to share. However, I didn't understand why Casey's pain hurt me so much. I didn't want to believe it was because I cared about her. I wanted to forget about that whole make out session thing. I wanted it to be no big deal like it had been so many times before with so many different girls.
She pulled her face out of Kendra's shoulder but did not release her. She looked at me with such agony in her eyes that it nearly made my heart stop. I couldn't pretend she meant nothing to me; not when she was looking at me like that. I traveled the short distance to where they stood and wrapped my arms around the both of them as they shifted to grant me access into their circle.