Chapter 3 her pain
When Shelby splashed water on her face she calmed down a bit. "Where is everyone?"
Shelby asked Daisy.
"One of Peter's hikes." Daisy replied. "He told me to stay with you." Shelby slowly nodded
and Daisy handed her a towel. They both walked back into the bed room. Shelby now had a pair
of black sweat pants on and her black tank top. She sat Indian style on her old bed. I'm so glad
I'm back. Shelby thought to herself. Daisy sat the same way on her bed and smiled to Shelby.
"Shelby, what happened?" Daisy asked. Shelby looked at her for a while and then took a deep
breath.
"May as well tell you. You were always there for me." Shelby sighed. "Okay. Well, you
knew from my first letter that Jess went with my real father. Which is good because I prefer her
to be far away. But with Walt's condition.. He had to stay out of work for six months. They were
afraid working would give him another heart attack. My mom was going to send me back to
school but there was only three months left of school. So she decided to wait until September.
Mom had to work three jobs and had about five hours to come home and sleep." Shelby started
to tear up again. "I was alone. With him. For six months. Six months!" She chocked out. Daisy
came over to Shelby's bed and sat next to her.
"I'm here Shel." Was all Daisy said.
Shelby continued. "So when he finally got better, he'd come into my room. Not just at
night. No. Now he could come in whenever he wanted. And I tried to stop him. I threw things
at him. I hit him with anything I could find. But nothing ever helped. So he'd tie me down."
Shelby showed Daisy the markings on her wrists. "I struggled, but he'd just hit me. One time,"
her voice broke. " He tied me face down and scraped my back with rusted nails." She shivered.
"All because I tried to scream. After a while I gave up fighting. But I got out of the house during
the day. I met this 'goth' girl and she reminded me of you. She was really nice. Her name was
Harmony. Her whole group liked me. So I dyed my hair and altered my wardrobe. They were my
friends." Shelby paused thinking. "I..I never tried to run. Because every time I thought about it,
Scott's face would flash in my mind. And I thought, 'If I ever go back to Horizon, I couldn't go
back as trash. I still remember the look on Scott's face when he found out. I never wanted him to
think that way about me again.' So I stayed. Not just because of Scott. Because I didn't want to
be the runaway slut girl anymore." Shelby brushed away some fallen tears. "So last week he came
after me again. The only thing I could find was an old baseball bat. First, he gave me this bruise.
And it knocked me out. When I came to he was raping me. So, I hit him. And I kept hitting him
until he was bleeding internally. I didn't stop till my mother came in. She took me to the cops
and they asked why I did it. I told them the story and from my wounds they believed me. So they
locked up Walt." Shelby saw a confused look on Daisy's face. "Yeah he's alive. I only beat him an
inch from death. But he's alive. The bastard is alive." Daisy wrapped her arms around Shelby and
both girls cried.