Darling, hold on...

Drella.

<B>----- I decided I wanted Tesla to be Kalel Cullen. :) I linked a picture of her to the side if you're curious. Tesla will be Kalel when she had blue hair.---</B>

When we got to school, everybody was laughing and yelling. Last week of school was always insane. I saw the cheerleaders and remembered that there was a end of the year pep assembly today.

"Yay, go reindeer." I tell Tess. I know reindeer, real creative in the middle of Arizona. Tess laughs at my school spirit.

"Thank you for fixing me up this morning Tess, I appreciate it." I tell her. "You know I love to do it, maybe you'll let me do it more often now." she jokes.

As soon as I thought today might not be horrible, we're stopped in the hallway by Kyle. My ex-boyfriend. "Is that Char? Wow look at you, hot damn. Why'd you ever let me go?" he asks as he touches my arm and I flinch.

"Don't touch me Kyle. I was having a decent day, don't ruin it." I spit back at him.

"What you don't miss me Char? I sure miss you." he whispers in my ear.

"Come on Char, let's go." Tess tells me as she tugs my arm.

Kyle is my ex-boyfriend. I was with him for 2 years.I thought I was in love with him at first. He made me feel good. I gave him everything, and after that everything changed. He started to slap me around and threaten me if I ever left him. And, I was scared of him. He hit me around, cheated on me. The only reason I'm not with him now is because I caught him cheating enough that when I asked him if he wanted to start seeing other people, he hit me a few times, and finished with a yeah, I wanna see other people.

-Day of Graduation-

Tess came over the day of graduation to get ready and help me get ready. She walks in my room, "Get up sleepy head. Time to work my magic." she laughs.

I get up and sit in front of the mirror. "I think I wanna curl your hair." she tells me and I get a little nervous. Apparently she can tell because she gives me a reassuring look. "I promise. You're gonna love it."

After she's done, I slip on my black dress with a bow on the back and my red wedges. I hate dresses with a passion, but oh well. I had to admit, this dress was gorgeous, and it has long sleeves and it's long enough to cover the scars on my legs as well.

Tess walks out in a bright blue dress and black heels. "You look gorgeous Tess!"

"It doesn't cover my arms Char. I don't have anything to cover them." she says almost crying.

"Tess look at me. You look fine, your scars don't matter. I promise you look wonderful." I tell her.

"You think?" she asks. "Yes, I know." I tell her honestly. I go to look in the mirror and almost cry. I almost feel good about myself.

Tess did an amazing job on everything. "I've been looking forward to this day forever."

"Me too. College is literally just around the corner and we get to leave this hellhole." she says and I nod.

"Have you seen your mom and Joe?" she asks.

"No, I have no idea where they went. No note, phone call. Nothing. Not that I expected them to care anyway." I have the credit card so I was good on food, and I had my Target paycheck to cover my personal expenses.

"Where do you think they went?" Tess asks curiously.

"Probably some damn good vacation in the Bahamas not giving a damn about me, their screw up of a kid."

"You're not a screw-up Char."

After graduation, we spent the night at my house. Tess rarely goes home anymore, since I have the house to myself and we have an extra room.

We stayed up all night, actually laughing and having a good time. We could finally be happy because we were out of high school and college was just months away.

I got accepted into the University of Alabama and she was going to a beauty school close to Tuscaloosa so we wouldn't be separated. We chose Alabama to be far from Arizona.

We stayed up all night listening to music, talking, and watching our favorite movies. My personal favorites are Peter Pan, Breakfast Club, Perks of Being a Wallflower, Star Wars, and Harry Potter movies.

Tess loves Pitch Perfect, Pineapple Express, Superbad, and Easy A. We decide to watch a little of both.

"Char, Warped Tour is next month." I hear Tess say, with excitement.

"I know." and I give her an honest smile. "I think some shopping is due before then." and she nods.

"Next week sound good?"

"Sounds perfect."