Invulnerable

Invulnerable {2}

My feet the pavment so hard my cheeks jiggled. My hair flew every which way as I continuously looked back to see if he was after me. My clothes billowed in the wind and sweat into my eyes and mouth constantly. With no where to go, I remebered that back when I was seven, I had a friend named Sage. We would always go over to her house after school and play Barbie's and watch scooby-doo. I stopped talking to her because she was one of my few friends that had to go to a different school. I remember where her house was and I began running in that direction. I see her beige van in the driveway and thank whoever's up there that some things actually going right. I run up to her door and ring the door bell. I see her peppy mom walk up to the door and look at me. I smile and wave and she opens the door.

" Is that you Natalie?! Ohh, I haven't seen you in years! How are things, how old are you now?"  

She pulls me into one of those grand-motherly hugs and leads me into the house.

" Yepp, its me."Trying to calm down from my sprint, I throw on one of those fake smiles you get around adults. " I'm sixteen now and things.." I trail off as she get this worried look on her face. I go into a slight panic. "things... can we talk?" and I point to the living room.

"yeah, sure, what do you need?" she sits down on the couch and looks at me.

I explain what I've been going through and tell her how I have no money and no place to go. I tell her that if I go back, i'll never be allowed to do anything ever again. I ask if I can crash there a while.

"Oh, yes honey of course you can stay here!" She hugs me again and calls Sage down stairs.

Sage definitely grew up since I last saw her. Her brown, wavy hair had grown out and she had definitely become a woman.

"Mom, what do you want? 'Im doing my homework!" she looks toward my direction. "Nathalie! Ohmygosh! Hi!" she runs over and hugs me. Huggy people, they are.

"hey!" we pulled away from each other.

" What happened to your blond hair?! And your clothes! Why are there marks on you?"

Sages mom cuts in and says that im going to be living here for a while. She throws in that I should go wash my hair and that sage should get me some of her clothes. I tell sage that ill explain once were upstairs after my shower.

I go upstairs and go into their bathroom. It was always so cool because her mom loves fish and she had fish curtains, toothbrush holders and the like. She even had a mouth wash cup that had a fake ocean as the base of the cup. I cut on the hottest water, strip, and dive right into the shower.The hot water felt like burns on my body at first, but then it began to sooth me.  I immediately start on my hair, letting it down and putting shampoo and conditioner in it. I then grab soap and wash, three or four times. I grab a razor and shave, then washing my hair 2 more times before getting out. My body is steaming and I grab a towel. I look down again and remember that I need to take care of something. I go into sages room and put on the clothes she had left out for me. I brushed my hair with a brush that was on her dresser and watch my hair go back to the way it was supposed to be. My hair was always low maintenance so being locked up for a year with out shower didn't do much to it.

I look at myself in her body mirror hanging on the wall and realize that I was actually kind of pretty.

"Hey, you done in there?" Sage was at the door.

"Yeah, come on in."

She walked in and looked at me. She had a sad but worried look on her face and I asked what's wrong.

"You have marks on your face, arms and legs and mom said horrible things have been happening to you. Why didn't you call?"

I explained how I was locked up in the basement with nothing to call her with. I also told her about the blood I found the last time my father raped me.  

She grabbed my hand and drug me down stairs and to the door. She ordered me to put on my flip flops and then she took me outside.

"Where are we going?" I asked trying to get my hand free.

"To the store!" she replied sitting me down in the passenger seat of the van. For her being such a girly girl now, she was really strong. She closed the door and then got in the driver side, started the car and pulled out of the driveway.

We rode in silence until we turned into the local CVS parking lot. I looked at her and she reached into the glove box. She pulled out a 10 dollar bill and told me to stay in the car with all the doors locked.  

5 minutes passed and she knocked on the window and told me to get out of the car. She shoved a box into my chest and told me to go to the bathroom.

I walked into the CVS and looked around. I saw where the bathroom was and went into there. I sat down in a stall and looked at the box in my hand. It read pregnancy test. I sighed really loud and asked myself what did I get into. I opened the box and pulled out one. I did what the instructions read and walked out back to the parking lot.

I walked back to the car and got in. She looked at me and I looked at her. She then began driving back to her house.

When we got back in, she told me to go into the bathroom and see what it read. I told her I didn't want to know. But she took my hand again and pulled me up the stairs. She pushed me into the bathroom and closed the door. I could hear her sitting by the door.

"Your not coming out until you tell me what it says!"

"Why are you doing this?" I asked, a little flustered.

It was silent for a moment but then she replied.

" Because you're my friend. Yeah, we haven't talked in what,9 years maybe but were still friends and friends are there for each other when they need them. And right now.." she stopped. I could hear her rustling around at the door. "I feel this is what I should do."

I closed the toilet seat and then sat down. I looked at my hands thought about what she said. I glanced at the test that had been set on the counter by the sink. I let out a sigh and got up. Hesitantly I reached for the test and looked at it.