Title: Cuts Like A Knife
Author: Stress
First written: May 12, 2002
Edited and replaced: January 21, 2005
Summary: Part I of the Soul Mates Series; She thought that life couldn't get any better. She had friends and a family that loved her – she was taken care of and had no complaints. But that was before he came into her life. And, no matter how hard she tries to escape his grasp, he'll never let her go.
The O'Connor's Apartment
After spending what seemed like an eternity in silence, Mrs. O'Connor kissed both Jess and Grace on their foreheads and headed to bed, with Mr. O'Connor following shortly behind her. Grace sat next to Jess, trying to understand what she had just heard. Her best friend was leaving her all alone and starting out fresh somewhere else. "Well, she ain't going nowhere until she tells me what really is going on here," Grace announced to herself as she stood up to face Jess. She knew something was going on and she wasn't going to drop it this time. This time it was too important.
Grace waited patiently until Jess got up from the couch and made her way to her bedroom. Flipping her long blonde hair out of her way, Grace followed her into the room and, shutting the door swiftly behind her, cornered her pal. "Jess, if you're going to be leaving here tomorrow, I want you to tell me the truth. I understand if you got something that you want to hide from the O'Connor's, but I need you to tell me what really happened."
Jess looked trapped. On the one hand she was dying to share all the horrid details with someone but on the other hand, she knew she was only putting Grace in danger if she knew. Grace, who watched the battle within Jess's mind, observed that there was definitely something important that was left out and continued to press the topic. "I swear that if you don't tell me, I'm going to go with you where ever you go until you tell me," she said as she crossed her arms across her chest.
"You want to know? Really? Well, then, I'll tell you," she stated, showing no emotion in her face, trying her damndest to hide all the hurt and pain she had endured and was preparing to tell Grace all about, "Ya know, Rip?"
Grace, alarmed at the way Jess was now reacting, nodded. "I knew this had to do something with Rip..." she mumbled as she waited for Jess to continue.
"Well, Rip, mister lovely, wonderful, handsome, and kind Rip," she announced, long-hidden spite showing up in each word, "he raped me and beat me and had taken over me entire life," Jess hissed the remainder of her sentence through her teeth before turning her head away in shame. But she was still relieved. It was the first time she admitted to anyone out loud what had happened to her, including herself.
Grace recoiled as the news hit her. "What? Why? Rip? No-- I mean, why didn't you tell anyone? What is Spindle going to say? Oh my God, what is Spindle going to do?" she gasped , covering her mouth with both of her hands.
Jess slowly walked over to her bed and sat down. As she did so, she unbuttoned the first three buttons of her blouse so that her bandaged, slightly blood-stained from where the cut had bled through, shoulder was visible. "To answer your questions, Grace. I don't know why Rip picked me to do this to, but he did. And he definitely did all kind of unmentionable things to me, but I really don't have the strength to go into that. As for Spindle, she kept her word and tried to kill me. I was prepared to let her, I mean, anything is better than the life that Rip had made for me, right? But Rip didn't let her, instead pushing me outta the way of Spindle's knife. I got a nice little nick on me shoulder from Spindle's knife and the pain was enough for me to wake up and see some sense. I need to get away from Spindle and Rip. Those two deserve each other and I don't want to be apart of their relationship no more," she spit out bitterly as she openly began to weep.
Grace sat there in shock. Though she knew that Jess was hiding something from them all, she, like Iris and Dice, had just thought she was in love with Rip and was keeping that from Spindle. She never would have guessed that Rip was hurting her the way he was, out of his idea of "love". "O.K., Jess. I understand why you got to leave, though I really don't want you too."
Jess wiped her tears as she leaned forward to give Grace a hug. "You don't think any less of me cause of what I've been doing with Rip?" she whispered, afraid that Grace was going to think of her as a whore.
Grace looked at her in surprise. "Not at all, me friend. Not at all..." she murmured as she looked down at Jess. There she was, a thirteen year old girl looking though she's doubled her age in mere minutes, covered with blood and bruises, her swollen cheek and black eye especially visible, even in the moonlight. "You never did anything to deserve none of this."
"Thank you, Grace. You don't know how much that means to me."
Grace returned Jess's hug and then looked down at her seriously. "When you leave tomorrow, I don't think that Spindle and Rip is going to forget about you over night."
Jess gasped audibly as she remembered the multitude of threats Rip had made against her family and friends. Surely if she was gone, he would take his anger out on them. "What am I going to do? I can not stay here, but I can't leave, otherwise things might get worse."
Grace smiled as she got a sudden flash of brilliance. "Don't worry, Jess. I got an idea. But you got to promise me that you'll come back to Queens."
Jess smiled gratefully at Grace as she listened to Grace's idea for the next morning. "Don't worry, Grace. Queens is my home; I could never leave it for good."