1969 | a.u. a.i

21

Grace's P.O.V

I haven't seen Brock, Shelby, or Felicia since that incident that happened last month. It's now March and the weather is becoming more warmer and I'm excited. My door busts open revealing my best friend, "You scared the shit out of me!" She laughs and I laugh along with her. "I'm sorry but I came with good news!" She exclaims. I raise an eyebrow, "Which is?" She smiles at me, "We're going to a party!" She exclaims once again.

I roll my eyes, "Is Luke going to be there?" She shakes her head no, "I'm not talking to Luke anymore. I found someone else." She smiles. My eyes widen, "Who?" A blush rises to her porcelain cheeks. I awe, "Mary Lou don't make this difficult." She walks over to me and sits next to me. She takes my hands into hers and she looks up at me, "His name is Marco. He's tall and dark. He has the prettiest brown ey-" I stop her, "Wait? Dark? You're talking to a black boy?" My eyes wide at her words.

"Well he's more of a man. He's twenty-four. He's so sweet. He's literally the perfect gentleman." She coos. "How long y'all been seeing each other?" I ask. She smiles at the memory, "For about two weeks. I'm sorry I haven't told you sooner I just wanted to see where we were going. But I know for sure I've fallen for those big brown eyes of his." She smiles. I bring her into a hug. I pull away from her, "When will I meet this perfect gentleman of yours." She smiles, "Tonight."

~~~~

We arrive at the party. It's at the Unity Center at the back of this small town. We're only outside and we can hear the music blasting. I look around and I see the familiar car I've once seen a few weeks ago. I grab Mary Lou's hand and pulled her with me as I run to the entrance of the building. I push open the door and was greeted with bodies grinding against each other.

The song catches my ear and it's 'Do You Love Me' by The Contours. I hear Mary Lou laugh at my reaction. "You thought this was going to be a high school party?" She tells me in my ear so I can hear her. I look over at her with wide eyes. She laughs and pulls me into the dancing bodies. We push through to make it to the kitchen that's built into the building.

I look over and see the all too familiar girl with my skin tone dancing with a guy. I look closely and it is Felicia. But who is she dancing with? The guy finally removes his face from her neck and my eyes widen. Luke. Good thing Mary Lou is over him. I feel a tap on my shoulder and I turned around and was met with Shelby. "Hi!" I exclaimed and pulled her into a hug.

I hear her laugh. She pulls away from me, "It's nice seeing you again! Felicia is over there with Luke and Brock is somewhere!" She spoke loudly for me to hear over the music. I nod with a smile, "Come on! I want to introduce you to my best friend!" I also spoke loudly and grabbed her hand. We walk into the kitchen where Mary Lou is all over a black man. I clear my throat and they look at me.

"Who's this?" Mary Lou asks pointing at Shelby. "Mary Lou this is Shelby. She's one of the people who helped me and Ashton that night I told you about." I tell her. Mary Lou sticks out her hand, "Nice to meet you. And thank you for helping out my girl." She smiles. They shook hands, "Anytime." Shelby smiles.

(Marco ^^^)

"Grace, this is Marco." She introduced me to the African American man. We shook hands, "Nice to finally meet you. She's told me so much about you." He smiles at me. I smile up at him. The song that was once playing was replaced by an Ottis Redding song called 'Love Man'. "This is my song. Marco let's go." Mary Lou says grabbing Marco's hand dragging him to the now excited dancing bodies.

Shelby and I laughed. "So how you been?" Shelby asks. "I've been okay. Just ready for junior year to be over with so I can start my senior year to get out of here." I say. She smiles. We talked until we were interrupted with a loud, "Hey!" We look over and it's Brock with a blonde headed girl beside him. She's beautiful. Long blonde hair, a fit body with long legs, and pretty blue eyes

"Hey Brock." I laugh when he stumbles to give me a hug. He pulls away and goes back to the blonde beauty, "Guys this is Carrie. Isn't she just beautiful." He gushes about her. Pink rises to her cheeks, "Oh stop it." She gently pushes him. Shelby and I laugh at the drunken people in front of us. "Alright ladies I'm going get my groove on. Watch out now." Brock says, jigging away from us. Carrie laughs and follows him into the crowd.

"Well aren't they cute." I say, looking at Shelby. She smiles and nods looking at me. "Grace?" A person asks. I look over and it's Tom. I give him a soft smile. "Hey Tom." I tell him. He walks further into the semi quiet room giving me a quick hug. He pulls away and looks over at Shelby, "Who's this pretty lady?" He smiles down at her. Her cheeks turn red. I smile at her reaction, "This is Shelby."

He moves towards her and grabs her hand. She gasp and looks up into his brown eyes, "Nice to meet you." He places a soft kiss on her hand. I'm in awe. "You too." She tells him her voice really low. I smile, "Well I'm going to go so you guys can get to know each other." I left the room. I walk into the dancing bodies and found Mary Lou and Marco dancing. I tap on her shoulder. She stops dancing and turns around. A smile forms on her face when she find out it was me, "Hey, I'm leaving."

She pulls me to the corner so we can be somewhat alone, "You sure you don't want me to bring you home?" I nod, "I don't want to be a bother. Plus you're having so much fun with Marco. I'll be fine." I reassure her. She nods and brings me into a hug, "Okay. Be safe." She pulls away from the hug.

I nod and walked towards the door. I then feel my arm being grabbed. I turn and it's Tom with Shelby beside him, "You leaving?" I nod. "Want a ride? We were leaving ourselves." He says, looking back at Shelby. She smiles up at him.

I look at their hands and they're fingers are intertwined. Awe sha. "Yeah. That would be great." I tell him. He motions with his head, "Lets go." We walk out the building and to his car. I walk to the back door, "What are you doing? You can sit up here with us. There's room." I smile up at him. We get in and Shelby is in the middle leaning against Tom. We have small talk until we pulled up to my house.

"Thank you again. It was nice seeing you." I tell Shelby. She smiles and pulls me into a hug. I look at Tom and he has a fist out for me. I smile and pound my knuckles against his gently. He smiles and Shelby pulls away. "Bye." I say, opening the door.

They wave. I closed the door and walked to my house. Tom drives off. I walk up the few steps to my porch, "What are you doing being around him?" I jump and turned around to be met with Ashton.

I sigh. Is it scare Grace day, today? I look at him and his head is low. Something is wrong. I walk over to him, "Look at me." He shakes his head. Then I see something drip onto my porch. Blood. I push him back and his head rises. I gasp. He has a bruise covering his left eye and his nose is dripping blood. Tears form in my eyes, "Who did this?" I choke. He looks away with tears also forming into his eyes.

I get on my knees in front him, "Baby, who did this?" I ask him again. He wipes his bloody nose and finally looking at me, "Walker and his friends. They cornered me at the bar. A bar tender came and helped me." I rub his knees gently with my hands.

I look down so he didn't see the tears fall from my eyes. Then I feel his fingers at my chin. He lifts my head meeting my blurry vision, "I'm okay." I choke and wrapped my arms around him. He lifts me up, where I'm sitting on his lap. I pull away from him and placed kisses all over his busied face. He relaxes to my kisses. I pull away and looked at him. Even with bruises and cuts he's still beautiful. How did I get so lucky?