Disclaimer: Yep, I still claim nothing, AJ

Letty had not stuck around long that morning. I pretty much stayed in bed trying to catch up on the sleep that I lost the night before. But, her words kept running through my head. Eventually I just decided to get up. I didn't want to think about it anymore. I went downstairs and saw Mia, zealously cleaning from the night before. I had to smile.

"You look terrible," Mia stated as I made my way to the kitchen.

"Thanks," I said, shooting her a sarcastic smile.

"Did you sleep?" she asked.

I shook my head, "not really."

"Alright kids," my Dad said walking into the room extremely cheerfully, "you guys ready to get started?"

He slapped my back. It woke me up enough to make me jump slightly. Get ready? I was ready to go back to sleep.

"Ready for what?" Mia asked, equally as excited.

"We closed early yesterday. We've got a full shop waiting for us," he said, grabbing a waffle that Mia had fixed.

"Oh, okay," she remarked.

Dad sat down at the table and looked me square in the eyes. He said, as serious as a heart attack, "did you drink last night?"

I wish that were my problem.

"No, I'm just tired," I said, laying my head down on my arms.

"Suck it up, we got work to do," he said, eating his waffle.

The entire day was blurry. I never fully woke up. According to one of my Dad's coworkers I helped install a clutch. I hoped it turned out okay for the owner of the vehicle because I didn't remember doing it at all.

I finally caught up on my sleep. But, it did not really matter. The rest of the month of July was fairly uneventful. We all got into a pretty good routine. I continued to leave my window open for Letty. Sometimes she would still be around when I woke up. Other times, she would just leave traces of the fact she had been there. I enjoyed waking up in the middle of the night and hearing her breathing. I would look down and watch her sleep. She actually looked sweet when she slept…that was the only time Letty could be described as sweet. But for that night, anyway, I knew she was safe. I was doing my job.

August rolled around quickly and school started back. I was in the ninth grade and Letty was in the seventh. This would be the first year we would be at the same school. I was pretty excited. I felt that it would add an extra ingredient of entertainment to see how Letty acted at school. Since she was growing closer and closer to my Dad, I knew that he was trying to keep tabs on her academic progress, if you could really even call it that.

The bus came the first day. I begrudgingly got on it, mainly because my Dad was watching from the kitchen window. Letty had not been at the bus stop. She was not on the bus. In fact, I did not see her the entire day. When the bus dropped me back off after school, I saw a car at her house that did not look familiar. I stepped off the bus as the door closed behind me. I stared over at her house. About two minutes later, Mia's bus dropped her off. She ran up, excited to tell me about the wonderful world of sixth grade. She was talking but I wasn't listening to a word she was saying. I was focused.

"Isn't that cool?" she asked.

"Um, yeah, sure," I had no clue what I was condoning but it was Mia, it couldn't have been anything bad.

"You weren't listening to me!" she said angrily.

"Yeah I was, sixth grade, blah blah, class stuff," I lied.

She punched me in the shoulder. I deserved it.

"Sorry, Mia, I'll listen to everything you just told me all over again in just a few minutes, okay? I have to go see about something," I said, trailing off towards Letty's house.

I walked up to the house. I didn't hear yelling. There weren't any bottles breaking. I wondered if anyone was home. I had never been over to Letty's house before, well not on the inside anyway. I looked up in the trees for her. No sign. I continued to walk towards the front door. I was kind of intimidated at this point. I did not completely know about the activity that went down over here, but I had a pretty good notion that it was not very wholesome. I figured, though, if Letty could handle it, so could I.

I made my way to the front door before my heart started to race. I was not really sure if this was something that I should be doing. I didn't want to invade her privacy but something about the whole situation seemed off. I wasn't sure what I was more intimidated by, the adults that were potentially standing on the other side of the door or Letty. I knew that Letty would not want me to come over here. But, she was an easier fighting partner than some cracked out man.

I knocked…nothing. There was not a doorbell. Should I knock again? I didn't know the rules on knocking. I knocked again. There was still not an answer. Maybe they went somewhere? This seemed pretty unlikely. I reached for the doorknob and contemplated the possibilities that could come from me walking in. I turned it extremely slowly. The door opened.

I just pushed it and stood outside looking in. There really wasn't any furniture. It was pretty dark for mid-afternoon. Other than that I could not really draw a lot of conclusions. I felt weird about just going in.

"Hello?" I said, quietly. Then, I said it louder, "Hello." There was still nothing. Should I walk in? I didn't want to. But, this was a little disconcerting. I was worried about her so I made a baby step towards the doorway.

Alright, I thought, I'm acting ridiculous. Just do it!

I walked inside. I looked around. I got a better view of the house. There was furniture. It was turned over. The house was a wreck. It was dirty. There were beer bottles everywhere. I didn't want to turn on a light, though. If I was intimidated walking into this house I could only imagine how Letty felt every single day.

"Letty," I called out. I thought about it for a minute and figured that since I still had not heard or seen another person it was probably safe to look around for her. I walked around the downstairs without seeing any trace of life. I saw a staircase and made my way up. There were a couple of doors, mostly closed.

"Letty," I called out again.

"Dominic?" I heard her yell.

Finally, I had almost found her. "Where are you?" I asked.

"Second door," she called back out.

Did that mean to the right or left? I was closer to the right door so I took a chance. I opened the door. I saw a room, very white. It had a bureau and a bed. Letty was laying up on the bed. She looked so small, curled up in a fetal position.

"What happened?" I asked, approaching her slowly.

"Nothing. I'm just tired," she clearly lied.

"Cut the shit," I said, sitting down on the bed next to her. "Talk to me."

She shook her head no and bit her bottom lip.

I just sat there beside her. I wasn't going to push her. But it was obvious that things were not kosher. She laid there, looking off into space. It took about twenty minutes before she spoke a word.

"How was school?" she asked casually.

"What? Oh, um, school? It was school, you know. I didn't learn anything," I said. How was school? What an odd question. I never wanted to talk about school. But, then Letty never wanted to talk about her life so I guess it was fair.

"How was your day?" I asked, attempting to be casual but failing miserably.

"Probably worse than yours," she admitted.
"I would have guessed," I said, still trying to give her the space she needed.

She turned over on her back and I saw her right eye, it was black. I fought back all temptation not to say anything about it.

"My aunt got a new boyfriend," she said.

"I see that," I commented.

"It sucked, actually," she said, pulling her legs up to her stomach.
"Is there something wrong with your stomach?" I asked.

"I'll be okay," she said. She always tried to be so strong. She was a rock. The thing about Letty was that it wasn't an act. Letty was strong. She endured. She took it and would have kept it all to herself if it weren't for me. I knew that. But it made me even happier that I could be there for her. Of course, clearly I had not been there for her today. I felt it in the pit of my stomach. I had failed her. I told her I would help her and look what happened.

"Letty, I swear, things are going to get easier," I said, reaching down and touching her arm that also had a giant bruise.

"Really? How do you figure?" she said looking at me, her eyebrows showing immense curiosity mixed with sarcasm.

"I don't know. I'm not going to lie to you. I don't really have an answer to that. But I feel like there has to be a way. We can figure something out," I said. She was starting to fold up. I was really afraid that soon I would not see any of that spark that made Letty so awesome before.

"So you think that just by saying 'it's going to get easier', these words, things are going to change?" she asked indignantly.

"No, I know how you feel about words. You don't think they mean shit. That isn't necessarily true. Sometimes someone's words do mean shit. And, Letty I've done all you would let me do up to this point. But, I can do more to help you," I said.

"What are you going to do Dominic? You're a kid, regardless of the fact you don't want to admit it, you are. I am too. And, there is nothing I can do. You play the cards you were dealt. I got a shitty hand," she said, looking away.

"Well let's redeal," I said.

She just smiled.

"No, that's not something you just accept," I argued.

"Why? I feel like my entire life I've been avoiding accepting this. Isn't it about time that I see my life for what it really is? I can't escape it," she said, still refusing to make any eye contact.

"Four years you'll be sixteen and you can," I explained. It was all I could think of.

"Four years?" she laughed.

"Letty I don't really know what to say. But, I don't want to see you walk away from everything and surrender to all this," I said. I noticed this as a really crucial moment in her life. She was going to decide to make something of her life or turn into something unrecognizable, something really sad.

"Dominic, this is why I didn't want to involve you," she said, turning over, her back now facing me.

"Don't hold it all inside! Let someone help you damnit!" I yelled. I felt bad yelling at her but I couldn't think of another way to get through to her and I needed her to hear me.

I saw her shoulders start to tense. She started crying. This really freaked me out, honestly. I had never seen Letty cry, ever. Was she crying because I'd yelled at her? I hoped not. That would make me feel pretty bad. But I assumed that it was a mixture of all the day's events or all her life events. I just sat there for a moment. The only girl I had ever dealt with while crying was Mia. Letty was nothing like Mia. This was foreign territory and it scared the shit out of me. I just sat there for a second, contemplating my next move. Should I touch her? Should I leave her alone? Should I go get Mia? I laid down beside her and wrapped my arm around her. I pulled her close. She was crying really hard at this point. But, then she just stopped. It was very strange, like she cried all the tears that she had. She turned back over on her back. I still had my arms around her.

I had not even noticed the radio at this point. But, just then, Letty started singing Janis Joplin. Under normal circumstances, I would have made fun of her. This did not seem like the time, though.

"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose, nothing…" she sang, quietly.

"What the hell are you listening to? I never realized you were such a big Joplin fan," I joked.

She didn't respond. Typical. "My Mom used to love Janis Joplin. How about John Denver? She liked him too. Do you have any of that?" I asked trying to lighten the mood a little.

She chuckled, shook her head and said, "My Mom liked him too."

"Why did your Mom go to prison?" I asked.

"Technically, she robbed some store. But, she owed her drug dealer money. That was the guy that was over here the day I was up in the tree," she said. She had never been willing to answer this question before.

"So why were you in the tree?" I asked.

She shrugged, "seemed like as good a place as any to hide from a drug dealer."

"That's a good point," I agreed.

"But, he ended up finding me, and her. He beat us both up pretty badly. I wasn't sure how I got pulled into the mix but I always do," she said looking down at her bruised arm. Letty was a product of circumstance. I wanted to do everything I could to change those circumstances.

I moved my arm to get situated a little bit and accidentally hit her stomach. She let out an amazing gasp of pain.

"I'm sorry!" I said. Damn, what did I just do?

She tried to hide the reaction but it had already come out. I realized what had just happened. I took the sheet and lifted it. She was wearing a tank top. I lifted the bottom of her tank top to reveal some horrible bruises on her stomach and abdomen.

"Maybe you should go to a doctor," I said as she pulled her shirt down extremely quickly.

"No! I'm okay," she said.

"How do you know?" I asked.

"Because, it's fine," she said, not really answering the question.

"Do you want to come stay at my house?" I asked. It was really all I could offer at this point that I thought she would accept.

"Yeah," she said quietly. "But, don't say anything to your dad!"

"Alright, but how are you going to explain that shiner?" I asked pointing to her black eye. I knew that my dad would want to know what had happened. He wasn't a fool. He knew something was going on at Letty's house.

She shrugged. "I don't know. I got in a fight? That's true," she said. She had a knack of stretching the truth. I think it was her way of creating her own reality.

"I think you should just tell him," I admitted.

"No!" she shouted. I don't think she meant to get quite so loud. "I won't. And you can't either. Please, Dominic. You are the only person I trust. Promise me that you won't tell anyone."

Wow, what a moral dilemma. Despite my better judgment I said, "I promise."

TBC

---

AJ