Authors: Jesilyn Holdridge
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank my eighth grade English teacher, who helped show me the wonders in writing.
CHAPTER 1
She was tall, smart, funny, and kind. Then again, maybe he stole that from her. She had dirty blond hair with pure blonde highlights. She had the look of the prettiest girl in the school because of the shape of her body. Her name was Meganlynn VanDeritie. She was the nicest girl in her grade and never really hated anybody, well, that was until Blue came around. He had tortured her, beaten her, and broken her, and not just on the outside but on the inside as well.
August 21, 2001, was when all of this started. The football field at Heart Middle School was big, and the band was warming up for their pre-band camp for the summer. Many people went through this every summer. Nobody ever thought that he would ever be in band. They never thought that Mr. Nolls, the band director, would ever let him in. He was a terrible trombone player. But he wanted to stay by Meganlynn.
Meganlynn VanDeritie had been in band for the three years. She was everybody’s best friend, but he still got away with stealing that from her when he decided to harass her.
On the first day of pre-band camp, Meganlynn was walking into the doors of the middle school that she had just graduated from. She had a boyfriend that loved her, or at least seemed to love her, and tried his best to protect her at all times. She also had friends that would have her back and support her along whatever road she decided to take. Whether it was the long road or the short road, they would always fight for her. She, herself, was a very strong person, not only somewhat physically, but also in her mind and her emotions. It would take a lot to break her, and he knew this for a fact.
She walked in the doors and all of her friends came charging to her, hugging her and screaming in her ears. The only one that was not there was her boyfriend Justin Morgan.
Justin Morgan was a very protective boyfriend. He rarely let her in the same room as the boy who used to harass her, Blue Robenson. Justin barely knew what Blue really did to her in detail; he only knew that Blue used to sexually harass Meganlynn. He really did seem to love her for all of her flaws and all of her strengths. Justin had blonde hair with deep, blue eyes. He never looked at anyone as if he were better than him—other than Blue, that is, because he felt that he deserved that kind of attitude toward him for what he did to his girlfriend.
Blue Robenson was exactly the opposite of Justin, period. He was disrespectful and hateful. He was also tall but not good-looking, and he was one of those people that could make you feel smaller than a period on a page just by looking at him. He seemed to love Meganlynn with a passion, but he didn’t love her to the point of the “for better and for worse” wedding vows sort of love. It was only a physical attraction. He didn’t care what happened to Meganlynn as long as he got a girlfriend to get a reputation going. If he could get Meganlynn, it was a big reputation booster, but she had been with Justin for over a year. Blue was also black haired and brown eyed. He always looked down at the ground when facing anyone superior, but never ever looked down whenever facing a simple classmate.
There has to be some way
to get around her a
nd Justin. There jus
t has to be another
way,
Blue thought to himself silently as he talked to his friend at the band camp.
Everybody has
a weakness, and she
can’t do anything th
is time around. Well
, she can tell her f
ather, but I doubt t
hat she will. They c
an’t be that close.
“Oh! I missed you guys so much!” Meganlynn exclaimed, running up to one of her best friends, Lizzie Margin. Lizzie was golden haired and green eyed. She was also light skinned and she always had something to talk about. She absolutely loved to talk. She also played the clarinet, and she had been playing it for about the same time as Meganlynn. She was also part of the four girls that had joined the sisterhood of their school.
The sisterhood just happened to be a small little group that one of the girls had started back when they were still in elementary school. They had all been in the same classes for years and had all just become best friends almost seemingly overnight. They all stuck together for everything and had each other’s back through thick and thin.
“Oh! I missed you too!” exclaimed Lizzie.
“Meganlynn! I didn’t see you there!” screamed one of her other best friends, Morgan Lovely. She was one of the most tomboyish people that the sisterhood would ever have. She never ever looked down at anybody, and never looked down when anybody was speaking to her. She was brown haired and light blue eyed. For marching band she enjoyed being in color guard, but in reality, she played the flute.
“Morgan! Oh, I’ve missed you!” Meganlynn cried back. These were the people that she wanted to see, but yet they were not. More than anything she wished to see, speak, and once again, be held by her boyfriend. Suddenly, Meganlynn jumped from her current position to do a one hundred-eighty degree twist to the point to where she was staring the last member of the sisterhood in the face.
There, right behind her, stood Taylor VanFork. She was a black-haired girl with grey eyes. She thought that Meganlynn was being treated like crap by Justin, and could definitely see it now that he hadn’t even come over to see her yet.
“Hey sis,” Taylor said holding her arms out to show Meganlynn that she wanted a hug.
“Hi,” Meganlynn answered.
“Has Justin even come over and talked to you to say ‘hi’ or anything yet?” asked Taylor.
“No, he’s just been over with all the pack of boys talking to them not even noticing me one little bit. I went over to see him, but he just ignored me, so I really don’t know what his deal is,” Meganlynn answered.
“Wow! What a jerk. How much longer are you going to put up with this?” Morgan asked.
“I don’t know. I was going to see if he even cared enough to come over and talk to me, but so far he hasn’t exactly shown me that he’s still ‘in love’ with me,” she answered, looking over at him. She couldn’t believe that she was actually saying these words since he had been in love with her for the past two years. There was even a slight chance that he had even been in love with her for three years. She didn’t know why she was saying it nor did she know what was going to happen to them. She took a deep breath and then looked back over at Justin.
Justin was talking to his friends and being his normal self. He had seen Meganlynn looking over at him, but since she hadn’t come over to talk to him quite yet, he figured that he’d wait for her to come over and see him. He hadn’t quite been as in love with her as he might have told her when they were in school, but every day that he was around her, he seemed to love her more and more. The only problem was that the opposite effect was true as well—the less he saw of her, the less he cared.
Why can’t I possibly remember
her face? I was sup
posed to be so in lo
ve with her that it
wasn’t even funny, b
ut I guess I should
probably get up the
nerve to just break
it off with her,
he thought to himself. He couldn’t possibly do that to her though. Somewhere deep inside of him, he just had to love her even though she wasn’t calling him nor talking to him. He looked at his best friends with caring eyes for her but not for them.
“Hey.” He started looking at the ground because he was ashamed of asking the question. “Do you guys think that I should break-up with Meganlynn?”
“No,” answered one of his best friends, Robert. “Dude, you and Meg used to be one of the hottest couples that have ever walked the eighth grade halls. Mr. Jilging walked in on you guys, and you never got into trouble with her. I’m pretty sure that you still love her.”
Justin dropped his shoulders and then looked back at the ground again.
“Yeah, maybe, but I mean I can’t even remember her face whenever she’s not around, and I don’t miss her all that much.”
“Maybe it’s just because you haven’t seen each other for a long time.”
“But we saw each other at the practices that we had on Monday nights.”
“Did you guys talk?”
“No, but still—”
“Then that’s probably the reason that you can’t remember her face and why you don’t miss her. Just go and talk to her again and maybe then you will remember her face when she’s not around, and maybe you’ll start to miss her so much that you’ll have to call her every second of the day.”
“I hardly ever call her.”
“Then maybe you should start.”
“Maybe, I don’t know.”
“Okay band, let’s get into your proper sections,” Mr. Nolls, the band director, told the group as he got up in front of the band. Meganlynn sat down and looked at her music down on the stand. Blue Robenson then sat down next to Meganlynn, making her jump.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, sounding both mad and scared.
“I’m just playing my instrument,” he said, looking straight into her eyes. “Please, Meg, just give me another chance. I’m not the guy that I was last year,” he said, putting his hand on her hip. He left it there just long enough for Robert to see him.
“Justin!” Robert whispered to Justin. “Look over there; I think he’s trying to hit on your girl, and she looks pretty upset about it.”
“What is Blue doing here? And why is he in the trombone section right next to my girlfriend?”
“He joined, apparently, right after school ended last year but couldn’t come to sectionals and practices, or so he says.”
Justin looked back over to Meganlynn and then at Blue who still had his hand on her hip.
“No, Blue, as far as I’m concerned, you’re still the same dirt bag that you always were,” she said, removing his hand and then giving him a small pinch of her lips with her eyes focusing right on him. She clenched her fists and a little in her jaw as well. She took in a deep breath and then let it out slowly.
“Oh and what are you going to do about it? Hit me?”
“I don’t know.” She shook her head and then looked down at the ground. He placed his hand on her leg and then squeezed it a little bit.
“You honestly think that you can defeat me? You’re wrong, my girly girl.”
“Moron,” she stated back, and then they played. Her trombone was shaking since it was right next to his. She needed her personal space and he wasn’t giving it to her at all.
“Okay,” Mr. Nolls said, stopping for the last time before lunch. Blue hadn’t had much time to touch Meganlynn before this, and he had been talking to her less and less. “You all have an hour to eat lunch, relax, and talk to your friends.” Then he released them for lunch.
Meganlynn got up, put her trombone in her case, and headed out to talk to her friends. She was very nervous and shaky from her experience. Finally, Justin caught up to her.
“Why were you letting him touch you like that?” Meganlynn looked at Justin with a surprised look in her eyes. Her eyes were starting to fill with tears and her face was quivering with both fear and disgust.
“Let him? Let him! You honestly think that I was letting him do this to me, again?” Her eyes were welling up and tears were starting to form. “Don’t hate me,” she said, her voice calming down but still sounding teary. “Please, I didn’t ask for this to happen to me again. I just—I was just scared that it all was going to happen again. I wanted to be tough and not cry but now look—here I am about to cry in front of you.” Justin looked at her and then held out his arms for her to take refuge in. She cried for a minute or two on his shoulder.
When she had finally stopped crying, she stepped back and took a deep breath. Her breath was a bit shaky, but she really couldn’t help that part of it. She closed her eyes for a brief second, but all she could possibly see was the picture of Blue trying to feel her up.
“Are you okay?”
Meganlynn nodded and they walked to a lunch table. She took one look at the table that all of Justin’s friends were sitting at, and told him that she couldn’t possibly sit there.