Taken - Before her very Eyes (30 page)

“I know. Dr. Bruce says it’s all
in my head, but I’m still scared. What if it comes back for me? And what if
something happens to you, like it did to my other friends?”

“Don’t worry. Nothing will happen
to me. Nothing I don’t want to happen. Besides, you don’t think I can kick some
ass?” Lori followed Jessica’s gaze. It was directed at Jessica’s ex-boyfriend,
Marcus and Crystal, the most popular girl in school. “Remember what I did to
her last year?”

“I still can’t believe you broke
her nose, and what for?” Lori said. “Because your stupid boyfriend was talking
to her.”

“Talking?” Jessica laughed. “Half
an inch closer to that bitch and they would’ve been tonguing each other. It
serves that slut right for messing with my man.”

Raising an eyebrow, Lori said,
“Well, you got the last laugh. You dumped him, right?”

“Um… right.” Jessica shook her
head and stormed down the hall as Lori ran to catch up. “He’s a typical boy,
follows his dick like a divining rod.”

“Well, I’m just glad you’re my
friend,” Lori ran right into Jessica as she stopped suddenly, “and not my
enemy.”

“Watch where you’re going.”
Jessica drew a long ragged breath then exhaled deeply before turning to Lori.
“Did you ask your mother about the dance Friday?”

“Let’s just say we had a long
discussion about boys, sex and drugs. I didn’t think she was gonna give in and
let me go, but after thinking it over for a few hours, she finally agreed.”

“That’s great cause Kirk just got
his car running again. You know, the Buick, the one with the big back seat?”

“No, I wouldn’t know about that,
but I’m sure you’ve checked it out many times.” Lori fell behind a step. “But I
don’t even have a date. Who’s gonna want to go with me?”

“Don’t worry your pretty little
head about that. I’m working on it.”

As they approached their lockers,
Jessica suddenly stopped dead in her tracks so Lori almost stumbled into her.
“Why is he always there?” Jessica complained, gesturing toward Douglas, who had
the locker to the left of Jessica’s. “You have to trade me lockers, Lori. I
can’t take it any longer. Every time I get something from my locker, that dork,
Douglas is there. How come I had to get stuck beside him?”

“Look at the bright spot.” Lori
smirked. “At least you’ve got me on the other side to balance things out.”

“If you trade with me, I’ll do
all your homework for the rest of the year.”

Lori rolled her eyes, nudging
Jessica along. “Nice try Jessica, but I do want to pass.”

“Anything,” Jessica begged
dramatically. “Just name it.”

“All right I’ll trade, but only
if you agree to go on a date with Doug.”

“Bitch!” Jessica whispered.
“Fine, let’s get it over with.”

“You know why he spends so much
time at his locker?”

“Because he’s a moron?”

“No, because he likes you. That’s
why he pretends to get stuff from his locker, just so he can wait for you to
show up.”

“That’s just gross! The thought
of that little dweeb thinking he could score with me.” Jessica shook off the
thought. “He’s never even been with a girl before. For all I know, he might be
gay. You know, I read once that all gay guys are obsessed with neatness. Take
one look at his locker and you have to agree he’s a candidate for a Butt-surfer
award.”

Lori shook her head. “Don’t even
start with that. You never read anything.”

“That’s not true. I read it in
one of the smut magazines at Kirk’s house.”

“You reading smutty articles? No
way.”

“Hi Jessica,” Doug said, his face
turning a brilliant shade of red.

Jessica ignored his salutation
and moved past to her locker. She glanced repeatedly from the corner of her
eye, waiting for him to leave. Then after fifteen seconds and no success, she
pasted a big smile on her face and poked her head into his locker. “Hey Doug,
you got any tampons in here? If not, how bout a pad? Mine’s all bloody. You
know how it gets on the heavy days.”

The colour drained from Doug’s
face and a cold sweat broke out on his forehead. “Um… No. Um… I don’t… Why
would I?”

“It was a long shot, but I think
mine’s full. You know, I think my panties are getting full of blood too.”
Jessica reached inside and fumbled through his gym sack. She pulled out a sock
first then finally found what she was searching for. “Can I borrow your spare
undies, just in case I leak?”

Doug couldn’t take any more.
After ripping his underwear from her hands, he tucked them back into his sack,
slammed the locker door and turned toward the classroom.

“But Doug, I promise not to wash
them!” Jessica yelled as he ducked into the classroom to avoid all the stares.
“You can wear them after I’m done!”

“You’re so mean Jessica,” Lori
said, unable to hold back the smile. “I still think you guys would be great
together.”

“If he’s so nice, then why don’t
you date him?”

Lori opened her locker, stuffed
her bag inside then grabbed a binder. “Cause he clearly likes you. He couldn’t
take his eyes off you the whole time.”

Jessica shoved Lori toward the
classroom door. “I never thought I’d say this, but let’s get to class so you’ll
shut the hell up.”

The rest of the day went by like
clockwork. Lori attended her classes but found it hard to concentrate. Her mind
kept drifting back to the images of the wolf attack and to the question of why
it had resurfaced now, after weeks of being haunted by the other nightmares.
She prayed they weren’t connected, but deep down inside she suspected what was
happening and it scared her—scared her to hell.

After school, Lori hurried down
the hallway, anxious to escape. She nearly made the door before Crystal,
Monica, and the latest addition to their group, Tanya, noticed her passing.
Lori could feel their eyes following her every step and braced for the insults,
which were bound to come.

“Wolfie. Come here, Wolfie,”
Tanya called. For being new in town, she seemed to adapt to her position as
bully pretty quick. The fact that she towered over most the girls—and some of
the boys, combined with the fact that her father was the latest recruit on the
police force, made her pretty much invincible. She took advantage of her
position beside Crystal, and Monica—the English teacher’s daughter—to dish out
an extra dose of punishment.

“Wolfie want a—” Tanya stopped
when a classroom door opened and Mr. Schafer stepped out. He glared at Tanya
and point down the hall, toward the principal’s office. Without a word, Tanya
shrugged her massive shoulders and shook her head before plowing through the
crowd toward the office.

Lori turned, giving Crystal and
Monica a big smirk before stepping through the door. It felt great seeing the
stupid look on Tanya’s face at being caught red-handed, but Lori knew it would
only infuriate Tanya and the next time she’d be more careful
and
more
relentless.

Once outside, Lori scanned the
crowd and found Jessica and Kirk propped against the wall, making tongue
babies. Normally she’d wait until they tired and broke apart, but today she
found herself impatient.

“You coming?” Lori said, stepping
behind Jessica. “Or are you gonna try to get your gum back?”

“Yeah, I’m coming.” Jessica broke
free of Kirk’s groping hands. “It’s not like another few minutes would’ve
killed you.”

“No, but if the principal
releases Tanya, then she just might try.”

A big grin filled Jessica’s face.
She hated Tanya more than anybody else in the school. Not just because she was
bigger and stronger than she was, it was the fact that her father, the cop, had
been spending too much time around her mother’s coffee shop, getting too close
to her personal life.

“Why what happened?”

Lori recounted Tanya’s run in
with Mr. Schafer, and described the look on Tanya’s face when he’d stepped out
into the hall. The news seemed to make Jessica’s day, bringing her to
full-blown laughter. It wasn’t until they turned the corner and were clearly
out of sight of anyone at school that Lori tagged Jessica then sprinted down
the sidewalk. Jessica would give chase—she always did.

Lori couldn’t believe how easy it
was to out run Jessica today. Normally they were neck and neck, but today her
feet seemed to glide over the sidewalk, hardly landing before pushing off
again. She thought it might be the rush of hormones inherited from her first
menstrual cycle. The extra little push she’d been missing for the last years.
Other
normal
girls had suffered and complained for years about the pain
and mess, but Lori had been immune from the whole deal, that was, until last
month when it finally came. She’d been half relieved, half scared to death of
it. Her mother said she was lucky not to have dealt with it at a young age, but
Lori could tell its absence had worried her mother a great deal, too.

Reaching her driveway, Lori
glanced back, spotting Jessica a block behind, holding her stomach and gasping
for breath.

“Come on, Jessica! Let’s get you
in the house so you can rest.” Lori jogged back, bouncing on her toes and
grabbed Jessica’s arm. “You want me to help you the rest of the way, Grandma?”

“Ha, ha, you’re so funny.”
Jessica shrugged off the offered hand.

Lori’s mother was standing just
inside the front door when they entered. Her face relaxed the moment Lori
stepped across the threshold and Lori wondered if her mother had moved from
that spot at all during the day, or if she’d stayed there waiting, unable to
proceed with her life until she knew her baby was safe at home.

“Hi, Mrs. Foster,” Jessica said,
trying to hide the fact that she was tired and out of breath.

“Hello, Jessica.” She smiled and
turned to Lori. “And how was school today?”

“Oh, the same as always,” Lori
dropped her school bag onto the hall table, “boring.”

Jessica jabbed Lori in the ribs.
“Hey, what about Sex Ed class?”

Lori felt her heart race. Jessica
had a way of turning the ordinary into the extraordinary. She shook her head,
praying that Jessica would hold her tongue, but knew her prayer would go
unanswered.

“They showed slides of diseased
penises.” Jessica smirked at Lori. “Now you can’t tell me you were bored
looking at penises?”

Lori’s mother nervously moved the
school bag then arranged the magazines on the table. “That’s enough, Jessica.”
She shook her head. “You must drive your mother crazy.”

“I try.” She grinned. “I think
it’s my duty as a teenager to make her ponder her decision to reproduce.”

“Oh, I’m sure she ponders often.”
Lori’s mother turned and headed to the den. “Supper will be ready shortly.
Don’t spoil your appetites with junk food.”

Lori led the way into the kitchen
and rummaged through the cupboard for a snack. After plucking a bag of cookies
from the shelf, she turned to Jessica. “Nobody’s gonna ask me to the dance.
They’re all scared of me. They think I’m some kind of freak and this scar
proves it.”

“Scar? You can hardly see it.”
Jessica ripped the bag from Lori’s hand and set it on the counter. She closed
her eyes and rubbed her temples. “I can see a young man who’s interested in
your body. Nice looking boy, dark hair, full lips, tight butt. Oh… Oh… but
wait—Wait a minute. I see it! Yes, I can see it! Oh…” Jessica opened her eyes
and shook her head. “Too bad, he has a small cock. But hey, you’re still a
virgin, so you won’t know the difference.”

Lori glanced around, making sure
her mother wasn’t near. “I’m proud to be a virgin.”

“Spoken like someone who’s never
had sex.”

Lori exhaled heavily. “Who is he?
And how do you know he likes me? And why didn’t you tell me before?”

“Slow down.” Jessica closed her
eyes and reached for her temples only to have Lori restrain her arms.

“Just tell me without all the
crap!”

“It’s Josh Hughes.”

“From English class?”

Jessica pulled her arms free of
Lori’s tightening grip. “Yes, Josh. He’s always staring at your ass when you go
to the blackboard.”

Lori glanced out the doorway.
“He’s nice, right?”

“He’ll do.” Jessica grabbed the
cookies from the counter and popped one in her mouth. “Too quiet for me. But
Kirk kinda knows him and he mentioned you’re looking for some action.”

Lori shoved Jessica back. “He
didn’t!”

“Who knows what they talked about?”
Jessica skirted around Lori and settled in at the table. “The important thing
is, Josh is interested in taking you. Kirk’s gonna call tomorrow and find out
for sure.”

“And what exactly is he
expecting?”

“I don’t know. Probably what
every boy’s looking for. But don’t worry, just tell him Aunt Flow’s in town.
That turns them off fast.”

“It might not be a lie. It’s been
three weeks since my first period so it could start any time.” Lori grabbed two
pops from the fridge and sat down at the table, then took a cookie from the
bag. “Hell, if I was three years late, it might not come back for another six
months.”

After dinner, the rest of the
night slid by with the usual routine of television and gossip. When eleven
o’clock rolled by, Jessica headed home before her mother started calling.

With Jessica gone, the house
seemed too quiet. Lori peered into the den and saw her mother sound asleep on
the couch, the book she was reading still clutched in her hands.

Lori fought away a yawn as she
made her way up the stairs. She was almost to her bedroom door when she paused
to gaze at the old family photo hanging in the hallway. There she was, four
years old, hoisted on her mother and father’s shoulders as they posed before
the colourful backdrop of the carnival. She found herself drawn to the picture
like a magnet, probably because they all seemed so happy that day, something
they’d been missing for many years now.