Chapter 4

    Lily grew into the promise her late father had shown. By the time she was sixteen years old Lily had reached six foot two inches tall, closer to six foot four if she bothered not slouching, and weighed almost two hundred pounds. 

    She was lean and yet had curves in the right places, her brown hair had filled out and now she kept wore in a up half do bun. 

     Sadly for Lily, it was the soft good looks, inherited from her father Mark Preston, that led him to the last bit of hell the foster system could throw at him. 

    Her foster mother Kendra, a single, rather plain woman in her forties had gotten drunk one night, and knowing how Lily reacted to harsh words, began berating her for being such a failure that her parents didn’t even want her.

     Lily had been near tears wondering why she was being treated this way, until with a sultry smile she had told her how he could make up for his failings.

    Taking Lily by the hand she had led her to her bedroom. Pushing her against the wall, the drunken woman dragged Lily's face down to hers,and she tried to kiss her and this would have been Lily's first kiss , she couldn't imagine this happening, and as quickly as she could she pushed her away using all of her strength and this made miss Kendra very angry.

    Up until that moment in her life, Lily had never been kissed by anyone not to think of having her first kiss from a older woman. SHe didn’t even have a memory of her mother ever touching her in a loving manner. But, even though she knew Kendra had felt nothing for her but just lost for a beautiful body, being a teenager, she couldn’t stop herself from having a visceral, physical reaction to her.

    And so, over the next few months, the cycle continued. Kendra would treat her as if she were either invisible, or like she somehow disgusted her, most of the time.

    Deep down Kendra still wanted to get sexual with Lily and usually made advances to her ,sadly Lily could not tell how much she could keep running. 

    The one, and only time she tried, she had used her traumatized psyche, and physical abuse to force her to perform, screaming and ranting, throwing silverware, and pot lids at her until she was flinching so violently that she couldn’t even defend herself when she finally began to whale on the poor girl with a thick leather belt. Lily had finally been forced to beg, with tears in her eyes. 

    Due to numerous taunts from Miss Kendra months later, Lily had finally decided to be Miss Kendra’s plaything until she either got tired of her, or she aged out of the system when she turned eighteen, just so he could avoid her abuses. 

     Lily had become, by habit, and through the ministrations of her various foster families, an extreme introvert. Barely speaking to people, sometimes for weeks at a time, unless forcefully confronted on the issue. 

    Refusing to participate in any group activity, knowing that people could never know her secrets and still want her around so instead she went her way , not drawing attention to herself. 

    Sadly though, her height, her soft good looks, and the lean sculpted and curved body she had got her more attention than she ever wanted.

    People stared at her, the shy ratty kid, wearing the second hand clothes that barely fit her. The scars on her face, and that of her arms and hands, drew their eyes to her no matter how hard he tried to blend into the background. It made her angry whenever those eyes stayed on her for too long. ‘What’s wrong with her?’ they seemed to say, or ‘What a freak!’ they seemed to sneer. 

    All except for Sara Terrence. To Lily it seemed her eyes were mirrors of her own world, those glorious blue orbs showed compassion, fear, pain, and most importantly of all to Lily's understanding. She could look at Sara, and see in her eyes that she knew exactly what kind of pain and torment she lived in. To her, they were the most beautiful things in the world.

    Which is how Lily discovered the final change her life had wrought in her. Lily wasn’t the only person in school who had noticed Sara, she was, after all, a very beautiful young lady. Barely five foot two, and one hundred twenty pounds, she had pale luminous skin with a heart stopping, hourglass figure. 

    Her hair soft, wavy, blonde and reached past her shoulders, her curious, inquisitive, radiant blue eyes. Even her light olive complexion and , framed a gorgeous face, her lips were soft, and full, offsetting her high cheekbones, and her nose had a slightly upturned point that Lily thought absolutely beautiful , Lily finding herself being attracted to another girl was scary for her but she liked it in a kind of way.

    One day, as Lily was at her locker, gathering her books to take home with her, he noticed Sara down the hall with her back against the lockers, clutching her books to her chest, as the star running back for the high school football team, James Harden, leaned over her preventing her from going anywhere.

    Lily paused, as he watched James talking softly to Sara, who, he thought looked almost too scared to move. All she would do is shake her head violently whenever James said something to her, and Lily could tell, that James was not happy with her reactions. If he was asked later how she knew it, Lily would never be able to explain, but on an impulse, borne from intuition.

   Dave snow was the band leader of the rock band of Beverly high. Just like Lily, Dave has also taken a keen interest in Sara as get beauty was captivating.

  As turns if event would have it,Dave was also watching as the football jock Was instilling fear on his crush.

    Dave started walking down the hall toward them. As he got closer he could hear James’s voice get louder, and angrier as Sara again shook her head no at whatever it was he had said.“Damn bitch! You know who you’re saying no to?” he demanded hotly, as he grabbed Sara by the arm and tried to pull her down the hallway. 

    She turned her head in search of help, first her eyes clocked with Lily's and it felt like time stood still,and then Dave walked in causing a barrier between her and Lily, soon enough he stood still and Sara now looking at him with fear, and hopelessness in her eyes, in a silent, desperate plea for help. 

    Those eyes ,the sunlight in Dave’s world of misery ... There were tears in Sara Terrence’ eyes. 

    And something inside of Dave snapped. Dave didn’t know how he covered the space between himself, and James as fast as he did. All he knew was that before he realized what was happening, he had collided with James with bone jarring force. 

    The running back was suddenly airborne, slamming violently into the wall as Dave hit him as hard as he could manage. Before James could clear his head, Dave doubled up his fist, and drove it into his stomach hard enough to lift the boy’s feet several inches off of the floor. 

    Sara was crying,as Lily ran to her and hugged her and surprisingly she fell into her arms. Meanwhile Dave hit James again, this time, in the mouth that had dared to call her a bitch. There were tears in Sara’s eyes, Dave hit James again, his fist colliding with the cheek of the running back, snapping his head back hard enough to hit the wall behind him. James slid to the floor, trying feebly to cover himself as David fell on him like an avalanche.

     The fists kept falling, smashing this man, who, with one action toward Sara, had suddenly become his mortal enemy. It was over quickly, too quickly for Dave’s liking, as James went limp on the floor, blood running from his nose and mouth. 

    David wanted to keep hitting him, tried to in fact, when a large hand grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and roughly yanked him off of the unconscious James, and slammed him into the lockers behind him.

“Mr Preston!” Mr. Roberts, the assistant principal of the school yelled. “What the hell are you doing?!”

“Let. Me. Go.” Dave growled, his voice low, and guttural, as he stared directly into the eyes of the man who had pulled him off of James. 

    It almost shocked Dave when the older man nearly flinched at the intensity in his voice. “He wanted to hurt her.” Dave grated through clenched teeth, his eyes going straight to the crying Sara who was now wrapped up in the hands of Lily comforting her. 

    Dave sat in the assistant principal’s office for almost two hours, sitting across the desk from Mr. Roberts, his blank stare, and apparent lack of any emotions, after a sudden outburst of violence like he just unleashed, and the idea, quite frankly, scared the shit out of the older man. 

    The boy simply sat there, not saying a word, just staring into the space between them like nothing else existed. “David,” Mr. Roberts began gently, for what must have been the tenth time. “David please, could you explain to me how you knew Mr. Harden was trying to harm Miss Terrence?” Mr. Roberts asked. 

    He had already listened to Sara tearfully explain how James had been trying to get her to go with him to the band room, a room notoriously used by students for clandestine encounters.

     She had gone on to explain that after she had told James no, that he had tried to drag her there by force. And he would have too, if Dave hadn’t been there to stop him.Also Lily had testified to have witness James taunting Sara.

     “David, please I need to understand this, before things get completely out of hand here, I need to understand.”

    Mr. Roberts nearly jumped out of his skin, as David turned his eyes on him, and barely spoke any words. He just sat and stare till he said 

      Mr. Roberts, Dave “Like I told you in the hallway. I knew he was going to hurt her, because I know what it looks like when someone is going to hurt you. I have no other explanation.

 “You wanted to understand. You know, but you will never understand.” Dave’s voice was nearly a whisper as he sat stationary, not even blinking, in his chair.

    It was eventually decided that, mitigating circumstances allowed for Dave to serve a two week suspension, and the school’s threat to press charges for attempted assault on school property against James, kept the boy’s parents from pressing charges against Dave. 

    It was almost a winning situation for Dave. Almost, except for the fact that he would be getting a great amount of scolding from his parents. 

     During those two weeks, Dave rode a roller coaster of emotions that left him confused. He went from being the perfect child who was always calm and reserved, to a terrible child for getting suspended for fighting. 

    But through it all, Dave had one thing that kept him firmly anchored, and helped him cope. He had Sara Terrence’s eyes, as they gazed at him in the principals office, showing him just how much what he had done for her had meant.All through the suspension period, Dave wondered and all he could think of was what would happen after his suspension, Would his relationship with Sara blossom?