Love Lies Bleeding

Okay, so this is my first story published anywhere! I had to pick an option for my English class and I picked short story that has to do with a lack of 2 types of love. (We just read The Secret life of Bees and this was a main point we discussed - Lily lacking typed of love) Tell me if you like it, love it, hate it, want me to make it into an actual story. no hard feelings! (:

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BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

I awoke to another miserable, rainy day. The mornings are always like this. Well, actually, everyday is like this. There are very few days that aren't rainy and depressing in this northern California town.

I didn't really want to get up or go to school. I never do. Facing everyone, everyday, always hiding my out-of-school life from everyone around me is very exhausting.

For the longest time, from 5 years old until a few months ago, my 16th birthday, I have been lonely and never really had anyone to share any of me secrets or my darkest days with.

On my 16th birthday, I met Seth. He was the first person I had ever met that really made me forget about everything. We met at my new job.

I had started working at a locally owned book shop only about a week or two before Seth came in. I had loved it there and had a plan to save all my money to get out of my house and this town the day I turned 18.

Seth and I had started hanging out when we kept bumping intop eachother around town. He was new here and didn't know anyone, I offered to be his "tour guide" of his new home. After a few weeks, we were dating. He seemed to be the perfect guy. I fell so fast and so hard. Then, about 7 months later, his real personality came out.

I went to a party with him. I don't really like parties. I don't like crowds, or people really, but it was his best friends party and he wanted to go. He said, he "wanted to show me off to his friends," this immediately brought a blush onto my cheeks.

He left me, alone, sitting on the couch at 11:30. Some kid, who wasn't even remotely important enough to remember his name, started talking to me. When Seth came back I realized he had more than a few drinks. This worried me. I had never seen him drunk before, which he clearly was now.

He had a look of rage clear in his eyes. He grabbed my arm just a little too rough, and told me not to make a scene and to go outside with him immediately.

The moment he started tugging my through the hallways full of people, wreaking of the stench of stale beer and liquor, I realized I had gotten myself into more than I ever intended.

The second we reached the outside world again, he looked around and saw that the coast was clear. There was no one else outside. That's when it all started.

He hit me. Right then and there, he had slapped me across the face. He then proceeded to yell at me and call me names. More than once he asked me what I was doing flirting with his friend. Whenever I had tried to tell him I wasn't and it was all just a misunderstanding, he would call me a "dirty whore," and shake me again.

I wasn't one of those girls who thought that he loved me and thought it was all my fault. I knew it was my fault that I kept being beaten by my year long boyfriend. It was my fault because I've had many chances to get out, and I stayed. I never tried to pull away from him, our group of friends, or our relationship. I just didn't. Don't ask me why because, I won't tell you.

I haven't even mentioned this to my best, and only, friend, Christina.

Christina and I met in the second grade, when she moved to Napa, California. She had started school, and even at that age, kids were cruel to outsiders and newcomers.