Ch. 14 Coming Clean

Rating: PG13 (Still on that same touchy subject…)

"So, when was it?" Paige and Terri were walking along the side of the street. They decided to get out and walk around.

"A couple months after dad yanked me out of Degrassi." Terri had her hands in her pockets and was kicking a little stone around.

"You know who it was?"

"One of my dad's friends. He drove me home from school when my dad had to work late. He decided to stick around, have a little fun." Terri brought her foot back and kicked the stone as hard as she could. It flew over three yards into the street. Paige looked at Terri. It wasn't hard to see that she was pissed.

"Did you go to the hospital?"

"Yeah. I could barely move right after it happened. I went the next morning. I gave them a fake name and everything."

"Did you tell anyone?"

"No. I almost told my dad, but then I realized I wanted a little freedom."

"What do you mean?" Paige couldn't believe that she hadn't said anything. She didn't know how she could have dealt with it without Miss Soave and her family.

"Do you have any idea how he would react if I told him I was raped? I wouldn't get five seconds alone!"

"But Terri, how can you deal with this if you don't tell anyone?"

"I've dealt just fine." Suddenly, Paige understood.

"Drinking and smoking is dealing with it?" She looked at Terri.

"You don't get it." Paige practically felt Terri shut down.

"Don't get what? Ter, I was too! I couldn't think of anyone who understood better than me!"

Terri gave a stressed chuckle as she tried not to scream. "You understand do you? Did Dean rape you over and over and over until it hurt so much that you could barely move? Did you have to face him almost every day afterwards, terrified that he might do it again? Do you live in terror everyday knowing that your father trusts him to be around you?" Terri looked over at Paige.

"Hon…" Paige put her hand on Terri's arm.

"Don't!" Terri yelled, yanking her arm from Paige's touch. "Don't "hon" me!"

"Tell someone." Paige ran after Terri.

"Like who?" Terri was power-walking away from Paige.

"Your dad, a counselor, a teacher, anyone!" Terri turned around, and froze. The color drained from her face as she caught sight of something behind Paige. "What?" Paige turned around. All she saw was a red headed guy looking towards them.

"Hey! Terri!" He smiled and jogged over to them. Then, Paige noticed that Mr. McGregor was standing behind him, unnoticed. He was watching Terri and the guy.

The girl just slowly backed up. Her lips moved, but nothing came out. Paige understood. That must be the guy who raped her.

"Hey Terri." He smirked. When Paige saw this, her expression hardened in anger. That's how Dean looked at her every time afterwards. "What? You're not gonna say hi?" He pouted his bottom lip and pretended to be sad.

"I gotta go." Terri managed to find her voice. She turned around and started walking.

"Wait." He grabbed her shoulder. Terri ripped out from his grip. She clutched her shoulder as if he had hurt her. "Now is that anyway for a young lady to behave?" His voice was low and he seemed annoyed. He put his face a few inches away from Terri's.

Paige stood where she was. She didn't want to go anywhere near that guy, but she couldn't leave Terri alone. Paige saw something out of the corner of her eye. Mr. McGregor was slowly advancing toward his daughter.

"Leave me alone." Terri's voice came out as a whisper.

"Is that anyway to talk to me?" He sneered and grabbed her wrist, yanking her arm down. "Especially after all the fun we had the other night."

Terri's expression turned to anger. "You call what you did to me fun?" She tried twisting her arm away from him.

"Hey!" Mr. McGregor jogged up to them. Seeing him, the man quickly dropped Terri's arm. "What's going on here?" He looked at Terri, then at the man.

"Hey Mike, how's it going?" He tried to act casual.

Terri rubbed her arm. She could still she his handprint on it.

"Answer my question." Mr. McGregor got in the man's face.

"Go ahead." Terri looked at the man in fury. Paige could see that she was no longer scared of him. "Tell him what happened. I've got nothing to hide."

"I have to go." The man literally ran away.

"Terri?" Mr. McGregor put his hand on her shoulder. "You want to tell me something?"

Terri looked up. "Not really." Tears brimmed at the corner of her eyes.

"Honey," his voice was cracking, "I heard everything. What happened? "All the fun you had the other night? What he did to you?" What's going on?" He looked into his daughter's eyes.

"I'm sorry Dad." Terri burst out crying. "I should have told you. I was just scared."

"Did he do something to you baby? Did he hurt you?"

Terri nodded. "H-He… he… he raped me." Mr. McGregor wrapped his arms around Terri, who was sobbing.

"It's okay baby." He squeezed her tighter and tighter. "It's gonna be okay." Terri nodded, still crying.

Paige watched everything unfold. She was almost in tears herself. And that's my signal, she thought, watching them hug. Crying, she started walking back to Burger World to get her car to drive home.

Author's Note: I'm going to leave this for a chapter or two and get back to the Michaelchuks.

How will Paige ever face her mother after finding out what she did? Will she tell her? Will she keep quiet? (Sorry, but I have to write the next chapter before I post it…)