"Are you sure?" Drew asks, "Are you sure Anson didn't…"""Yes I'm sure." Bianca answers quickly. "Why would you think Anson did anything?"
Drew laughs at her a little "Because you were terrified about him stalking you a few hours ago.""It doesn't have anything to do with Anson." Bianca says again.
"Are you sure?""Yes.""Fine." Drew says, sitting down on the couch again.
Bianca sits beside him, staring ahead, not saying anything.
Drew reaches over, "Well, while I'm already in huge trouble for sneaking out…" he says, tucking her hair behind her ear, "We might as well have a little fun."She stares at him nervously.
"What do you mean?" she asks quietly, although she has a pretty good guess as to what he means.
"You know what I mean…" he says, kissing her neck.
"Stop." she whispers, but Drew doesn't hear her, and doesn't stop until he sees the tears running down her cheeks.
"B," he says, stopping everything he's doing, "What's wrong with you today?"
"I don't want to do this." She whispered, tears still streaming down her cheeks.
"That's fine, Bianca." Drew says, "Just talk to me, something's wrong. I can tell."
"Nothing's wrong." she says, wiping her tears."You're lying.""No I'm not." Bianca says, getting up from the couch and walking to her room, "Goodnight, Drew. You'd better go home before your mom finds out you're gone."
"Bianca, I wasn't trying to be mean when I said that, I just want to help you.""I know." she says quietly, and tonelessly, "I'm just tired.""I'll spend the night here." he says, "I'm worried about you.""Your mom will be angry.""I don't care."She eyes him considerately, "No." she says finally, "Go home so you won't be in trouble.""But Bianca, I'm really, really worried about you.""I'm fine.""No you aren't." Drew says.
Bianca bites her lower lip nervously. After a few seconds she nods, "Yes I am." she assures him.
She walks him to the door, tells him goodnight, and watches him walk down the sidewalk towards his house.
She sits alone in her bedroom. She looks at the patterns of the ceiling above her. She tries to make pictures out of the cracks and craters in the ceiling. She can't make anything out of them though. Nothing. She listens to her clock tick, and tock. The clicks that the clock makes seem to grow farther and farther apart. Every second seems like a minute. She wishes she would have asked Drew to stay. At least she wouldn't be alone, wondering if every single sound she heard was Anson. She's about to drift off to sleep when she hears a sound. It startles her. It's the sound of the front door opening. She sits for a few seconds in her bed, the covers pulled up. She listens more. Yes, she hears footsteps. Inside the house. She sits straight up in her bed, her eyes frantically using the moonlight that's flooded into her window to search her room for some type of weapon. She settles on using her old golf club that she used to use when she was little and her grandpa would take her golfing. She slowly walks out of her door, peering around in the darkness, trying to find the source of the footsteps in the mess of shadows.
Finally, she sees it, and flips on the light.
She's surprised who she sees.
She lets her breath out, letting out a tiny smile, even though she's not happy. Actually, she's just relieved.
"Mom…" she says, "I didn't know you would be home tonight.""Oh, Bianca, sweetheart, I'm sorry, I should have called. I shouldn't have woke you."
She can smell the alcohol on her staggering mother's breath as she walks toward her.
"Where have you been, mom?" Bianca asks nervously, also searching the room for one of her mother's new boyfriends. Sometimes she brings them home, and sometimes she doesn't. Usually, when she brings them home, they end up being more interested in Bianca than her mother.
"I'm not quite sure, BB." Bianca's mother says, using the nickname she had given Bianca when she was a little girl. "You look worn out, are you okay?"
"Uh, yeah, mom." Bianca says slowly, "I'm fine.""What's that cut on your cheek from, sweetie? Don't you tell me you got in a fight with a girl at school. I told you, Bianca, you're better than that… don't grow up being like your mama."
"I fell out of bed, mom." Bianca tells her, swallowing hard, and using the same excuse she had given Drew.
Her mother laughs in a drunken way, and starts mumbling something about finding a towel in the street.
Bianca begins to think that her mother didn't only have alcohol. "Mom," she says, cutting into her mother's miraculous story about the towel, "You look tired, here, go to sleep, I'll take you to your room."
"Oh, you're such a sweetie." her mother says, allowing Bianca to lead her into her room. Bianca's mother falls asleep very quickly once she's in her bed, and Bianca goes upstairs and snuggles down into her own bed. She can't help but cry. She's under too much pressure. There's school, and Anson, and Drew's questioning. She's not sure she wants to tell anyone about what Anson did. She doesn't know what Drew would think about it. What if he thought it was her fault? What if he thought she was dirty? Bianca sits in her bed, crying, and hoping to fall into a deep sleep. Maybe, she thinks, if she falls asleep, she will never wake up.
She wouldn't mind.
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