"Hey guys, come play beach volleyball with us," yelled out Howie. This interrupted the silent moment between Theresa and Nick. Nick quickly got out of the water.
'What just happened here?' Theresa thought to herself. 'I had the weirdest feeling in the world.' Theresa slowly got out of the water and followed Nick.
'God that was so weird, it was like we were going to kiss or something.' Nick thought to himself as he was running towards the volleyball nets. 'Nah, we were just having too much fun...' Relationships weren't even on Nick's mind because he knew that if he got closer to any girl, he'd have to leave them again and he'd be hurt and so would the girl.
Meanwhile, Brian and Karen were getting to know each other. Brian noticed that Karen was more to herself. She wasn't very open with things. 'Something is definitely bothering her, I can tell it from the tone of her voice and her body movement. I want to ask her what's wrong but I don't want to hurt her either.' He was getting worried. "So what are doing in Orlando, if your from Tampa?"
"Um....I...um...I'm here on vacation." Karen mumbled. 'I can't tell him the truth.'
"Oh so where's your family?" Brian wondered.
'Oh no, why did you bring it up?? My family is....I don't have a family, I HATE THEM!!!' Karen just started crying.
Brian looked at the sobbing girl, 'Oh no, I said something wrong.' He reached over to give her a hug and she shrugged him off. 'Hmm..she seems to like to shrug people off. She not only did it to me, but also to Nick. Something is definitely up.' Brian just sat there helpless, he didn't know what to do. "What's wrong?" Brian asked concerned. "I didn't mean to make you cry. I just..I just..I don't know, I want to be your friend and I feel I can't do that unless you want me to and for some reason you keep shutting me out. Did I say something wrong? Did I do something wrong?"
Karen looked at him with sad eyes. "No you didn't say anything and you didn't do anything..." she drifted off. 'Does he really want to be my friend?' She looked at Brian again, he looked up and their eyes locked. 'He really does care, doesn't he?'
'Man, why won't she let me help, I want to help.' Brian thought as he starred into her deep, brown eyes.
"Brian?" she asked.
"Yeah.."
She felt she had to trust him, she had to trust someone sooner or later and Brian seemed like the right person she could open to. "Can you keep a secret?"
"Yeah, for sure," he said realizing that he had earned her trust. 'But how?'
"My family..." she began to cry.
"Don't worry, I'm here." He reached out to comfort her again and this time she didn't shrug him off.
She calmed herself down, "I don't have a family anymore."
"What do you mean?"
"My family is torn up. My parents were divorced when I was 14. On my 15th birthday my dad died of cancer. My mom remarried this guy a couple months after. I don't know what she saw in him. We weren't living very well because we didn't have much money to spend. My mom could have lost me to social services if she didn't find a job soon. But then she met this guy, who seemed really nice and caring at first and wanted to help. Then when they got married, he treated me and my mom so badly. He abused me whenever he was drunk and my mom couldn't stop him. If she tried to stop him he would push her against the wall and yell and yell. I hated him."
"You don't have to continue if you don't want to." Brian said, 'Damn, she's been having trouble at home, I should've guessed. How could I be so stupid?'
She didn't seem to hear him because she kept talking, "What my mom didn't know was that he was also raping me. He would come into my room when my mom fell asleep and have sex with me. I wasn't allowed to scream or try to make him stop because he said that he would kill me if I told anybody...." she started to cry harder. "Then just last month, my mom....mom...died in a car accident. She was suppose to pick me up from school and she was two hours late, so I thought she had forgotten about me so I decided to walk home. As I was walking home I...I saw a blue car...two blocks away from my house.....that looked like my mom's and it was....destroyed...totalled. I walked over to it hoping it wasn't my mom's car and as soon as I saw the licence plate, I ran all the way home with tears rolling down my cheeks, hoping it was my stepdad who was driving my mom's car instead. I know that is wrong of me but....I didn't care at the time...When I got home there was a police car there...and I ran inside..seeing my stepdad and the police talking..I ran to my room crying harder..and harder...I was crying for days..and my stepdad was being all nice to me, being there for me to cry on, so I thought maybe now he was a changed man, but he kept raping me and I couldn't take it anymore...so I ran away."
'Wow, she went through so much, how can I help?' Brian looked at this fragile girl. "I'm sorry I.....I didn't know."
"Don't worry, I guess it feels good now to tell someone."
"So where are you staying now?" Brian asked.
"I'm staying....."
"You don't have anywhere to go, do you?" Brian asked concerned.
"No, don't worry I'm fine...."
"No, your not...why didn't you call the cops?"
"He threatened to kill me if I called the cops, and who would believe me anyways? I'm a worthless kid."
Karen started crying again. 'Man, she likes to do that a lot, doesn't she? I guess it's understandable, she's really fragile right now.'
'That also explains why she shrugs people off when they try to comfort her or touch her.' Brian realized. "I'll be there for you. You don't deserve to be treated that way. He could go to jail for life and he wouldn't be able to touch you ever again."
"I can't...he'll kill me," she said sadly.
"No he won't. I'll come with you. I'll be there 100%, just let me help you. He deserves to be put in jail. But right now, where are you going to stay? You can't live out in the streets forever." Brian said. 'Hey, maybe she can move in with me? She doesn't deserve being treated like that after all she's been through.' He had totally forgotten about Leigh Ann. "Why don't you come stay with me?"
"No, I couldn't possibly do that."
"Why not? And may I ask where are you staying right now?"
t..at.."
"Exactly, at NOWHERE. Please let me help. I want to help."
"Are you sure?" Karen asked. 'I couldn't possibly.' She thought.
"It'll be too much of a hassle. I don't want to intrude with any family or anything."
"No, I live with my cousin Kevin and my friend Howie and we have plenty of room."
"Shouldn't you talk this over with them first?"
"I'm pretty sure they won't mind."
"I..I..can't!"
"You can't what? Come on, you'll have your freedom and if you want you can stay there until your well off again. You can stay as long as you want."
Karen sat there, 'Why is he doing this? Well, I guess this way I can stay clean and warm every day and I really do need a shower. But I don't have any money to help pay for the place. I can't..'
Back at the volleyball nets, it was Nick, Theresa and Howie versus Aaron, Dawn and Kevin. It wasn't a "friendly" game of volleyball, but it was more like a "sibling rivalry." Aaron and Nick were competing with each other, but of course Nick won because Aaron was much smaller than him.
"Hey that's no fair, you guys are all bigger than us and taller," whined Aaron.
"No way, we're just better." Nick bragged.
Between the two arguing, they didn't notice that everyone else had slipped away and sat on the sidelines watching them argue. Howie and Kevin sat there laughing away. While Theresa and Dawn were heated up in their own conversation.
"So what's up with you and Aaron?" Theresa asked.
"Nothing, we are just having a lot of fun." Dawn replied coolly.
"Yeah a fun time flirting."
"I wouldn't talk, you and Nick were getting awfully close too, what's going on there?"
"Actually, we were having a really good time and then the weirdest thing happened..." Theresa drifted off.
"What? Did you guys kiss?" Dawn asked interested.
"No, but we just stood there and starred into each others' eyes like we were about to kiss or something. I also had the weirdest feeling in my stomach."
"That's so cool, Theresa, so are you guys going to hook up?"
"I don't think he's interested like me. When Howie and Kevin asked us to play beach volleyball, Nick quickly got out of the water without saying anything."
"Maybe he is."
"I don't know..."
All of a sudden, "Hey what are you two talking about?" asked Nick startling the two girls.
"OH...umm..nothing," Theresa replied. 'I wonder how long he was standing there? Did he hear me?'
"Sure it was nothing, you two seemed to be in some deep conversation." Aaron said.
"No, we were just talking about how much fun we were having that's all." Dawn quickly said to cover up the truth a bit.
"Sure you were.." Nick said slyly. He then looked at Aaron in a devilish way. Dawn and Theresa looked at each other and knew something was up. Before they could run away, Nick got up and yelled, "READY AARON, NOW!!!"
Aaron picked up Dawn and Nick picked up Theresa. "Put me down!" yelled Dawn giggling continuously.
They ran the girls over to the water and Theresa said, "You wouldn't, I'm all dry now!"
"Should we Aaron?" Aaron nodded eagerly. "Ready, 1, 2, 3!" And they both threw the girls into the water and ran away giving each other high fives all around. Theresa and Dawn got out of the water and saw Nick and Aaron rolling in the sand laughing their heads off. Howie and Kevin sitting there enjoying the show as well.
"We're gonna get you back," threatened Dawn.
"Ha, ha, TRY!" Nick challenged. Nick, Dawn, Theresa and Aaron started running after each other like 5 year olds again, laughing and yelling happily.
© 1999fanfic4all@yahoo.com