1969 | a.u. a.i

14

Grace's P.O.V

It's been a week since we buried Billy. It's been hard for my mother and the Brown family. My mother has been at their house while Ashton and I stayed at my house. It's Saturday and Mary Lou is dragging me to another party. But I'm not really complaining because I need to do something to distract me for a little bit.

I'm in my room getting ready when I hear a knock on my door. I'm at my vanity putting on a little bit of make up, "Come in." I look through my mirror and it's Ashton. I smile at him though the mirror. He walks in and takes a seat on my bed. He looks at me through his bangs. I turn around, "What's wrong?" He sits back and runs his fingers through his curly hair.

"Are you sure you want to go to that party? I just want you to be safe." He says, resting his elbows on top of his knees. I get up and walked over to him. I get in between his legs and rest my hands on his shoulders. He looks up at me with his hands resting on my hips. "If you don't want me to go just tell me." I cup his face, rubbing my thumbs over his smooth skin.

He slightly shakes his head, "I don't want to be the reason your not having fun with your friends. I just want you to be safe." He rubs my back. I place a kiss on his forehead, "If anything goes wrong I'll leave and come straight home." I promised him. He smiles up at me with so much admiration. I boop his nose and he laughs. I cackle and moved away from him. I grab his hand and helped him up.

He places a soft kiss on my cheek and walks towards my door, "The moment something bad hap-" I interrupt him, "I should get my black ass home." I smile at him. He smiles and rolls his eyes at my answer, "I wouldn't say it like that." I laugh, I shoo him out of my room. I went back to finishing my make up and went to my wardrobe.

~~~~

We make it to Melissa Doucet's house party. Mary Lou stops and turns to me, "Do I look okay? Because Luke is here and I want him to drool over me." She smiles fixing her long strawberry blonde hair that has loose curls at the end. I look over her outfit. It's a two piece. It's a pink color. The top shows too much cleavage but that's Mary Lou's go to. It exposes her white bellybutton as her nude heels expose her manicured toes. All in all she's beautiful.

"You look great." I tell her honestly. She smiles and gives me a quick hug, "Thank you. Now we need to fix this." She motions my outfit. I look down at my outfit. I'm wearing a jean jacket with a short sleeve red shirt, that's tucked in my dark high waisted jean shorts,  since it's not too cold tonight, with red Keds to match my shirt. "What's wrong with it?" I look back up at her.

"First get rid of the jacket." She says, looking at me. "Bu-" She gives me a look. I sigh and took off the jacket exposing my light arms. She smiles. She walks closer and goes to my hair, "You look really good with your hair down." She pulls my ponytail that was holding my bun out. My loose curls falls against my shoulders. "Now shake." She says. I raise an eyebrow, "Shake what?" She smiles, "Your hair you goof."

She takes my jacket and puts it in her older brothers car. I flip my hair and shake it with my hands. I stand back up still playing in my hair. "Better?" I ask, putting some hair in front over my shoulder to frame my face. With a satisfied smile she nods, "You look hot." I roll my eyes playfully and interlock our arms walking to Melissa's front lawn.

Her lawn is already full of red solo cups and teenagers socializing avoiding being cramped up inside. I get a few ugly looks but ignore them. We walk into the booming house. James Brown blasting through the speakers as the teenagers grind against each other. I look around and some are smoking cannabis in the corner of the room as the rest are drinking hard liquor.

"Luke!" Mary Lou yells to be heard over the music. The Australian boy turns around and smiles at us, "Hey! I was starting to worry you wasn't going to show." He slurs. Mary Lou let's go of me and gets beside Luke. He dips his head and starts leaving sloppy kisses on her neck. She pushes him away with a smile. Then his lips went to her ear. She bits her lips. Nasty. She looks at me. I motion to the stairs, "Thank you. It-" I stop her.

"Just go and spare me the details." I laugh. She grabs Luke hand and walks up the stairs. Now I'm alone. Again. I walk to the kitchen to get me something to drink. I look in the ice box and grabbed a bottled coke. I take off the top and took a quick swig of the carbonated drink. I throw away the top and walked out of the kitchen. I bumped into somebody and my eyes widen when I realized it was Tom.

Panic runs through my veins, "I'm so sorry." All I see is pure hatred in his eyes. I quickly look around and his friends aren't with him. "Watch where you going you nigger." He spits. I flinch at his words. I see him sway. He's drunk. I start to back away from him when he grabs my arm with a tight grip. "Ow! Let go!" I drop my drink trying to get him off of me.

He's too strong. "You're coming with me." He growls in my ear. "No!" I cry. He's too strong for me. Tears start to sting my eyes. He drags me to the backyard. He pushes me against the brick home and starts to leave sloppy kisses on my neck. I'm so disgusted. I start to scream but he covers my mouth making it sound muffled, "Don't even bother breed. Nobody is going to hear you." He gives me a ugly smile.

He feels me up with his free hand. He places his front against mine groaning at the impact. I cry. That's all I could do. He starts to unbuckle my shorts. I bite his hand and he winces and let's go of me. I take in a few breaths and looked at him. He comes back and punches me in my face. I fall onto the ground, crying holding my cheek. He looks down at me, "You're next." He threatens spitting on me and walks back into the house.

I lay on the cold ground crying at the pain and at the fact that I was almost raped. Once I calmed down I get up and fixed myself. I avoid going into the house. I walk around and went to Mary Lou's brothers car. I open the door and grabbed my jacket slipping it on. Sticking my hands into my pocket as I made my way home.

~~~~

I arrive to my house. I take in a deep breath and placed my hand on the cold screen door handle. Tears start to ball up in my eyes. I sniff and wiped the tears that rolled down my cheeks. I pulled myself together covering my face so Ashton won't see. I opened the screen door and then opened my wooden door. I walk into my warm home with Ashton sitting on the couch watching tv, "You're home early."

I don't even look at him as I make a break to the stairs. I was stopped by him grabbing my arm that Tom left a bruise on. I winced and looked up at him. He lets go of my arm. I see the emotions in his eyes go from concern to anger, "Who did this?" Referring to the bruised forming on my cheek. I look away from him with a tear making another appearance. He gently place his fingers on my chin making me look at him.

My vision is blurry from the tears balling up. Then his hands make their way to my jacket. He slips it off letting it fall to the floor. He grabs my arm looking at the bruised hand mark forming on my light skin. He brings my arm up to his lips leaving soft kisses on the sore skin. He drops it gently on my side and examines my bruised cheek.

He cups my face wiping away the tears off my cheeks. He places a soft kiss on my forehead. He pulls away and looks at me, "Who was it?" I sniff, "Tom." I mumbled. He brings me into a warm hug. I just sob into his chest. He rubs my back making me relax. I calm down and pulled away from him wiping away the tears. "I'm tired. I'm going to bed." With that I went up to my room.