No Word

I haven't heard from Sara since the day she walked out of here hand in hand with that bastard! I still can't believe that she went with him. Why would she do that? How could she go back with him knowing that he will only hit her again when ever he feels like it? Fuck! I just want to grab her and shake her! She a smart woman but fuck that has to be the dumbest fucking move ever!

I know, I know. Unless she is ready to get out, she'll stay in the relationship. I know she has to make that decision on her own but she was so close! She could've stayed here! My parents are just as worried about her as I am! I heard my mom crying the other night because she was watching the news and there was a story about a woman who was abused, who was killed by her husband. Mom came upstairs where I was getting ready for work and without knocking, she barged into my room. "You would never hit a woman, would you Tanner?"

I shook my head, "No mom."

"Good," mom said and then threatened me if I ever so much as raised my hand to a woman. "I gave you life and I can take it away!" She snapped before she stormed out of my room, slamming the door behind her.

Funny thing was, when I went downstairs to leave for work, she came over to me, told me that she loved me and then gave me a hug. "I'm sorry Tanner," she sobbed against my chest. "I'm just so upset about your friend, she seems like such a nice girl; it doesn't make sense."

I told mom she wasn't wrong, Sara is a nice girl.

"And she kissed you!" Mom beamed up at me. "You have no idea how happy I was to see that!"

"Mom it's not like that, Sara is just a friend."

Mom frowned, "But Tanner she came to you when she needed someone to take care of her, when she needed someone to trust. And she kissed you!"

I tried to hide my smile but I wasn't that successful at it. "Ok mom, she did sort of give me a kiss but it's not like that at all; if it was do you think she'd be with that bastard right now?"

My mom pondered this for a second and then sighed, "I see the way she looks at you Tanner, she likes you more than a friend."

I told her that she was seeing things. "I have to go work, I don't want to be late."

The second I walked into the store, Billy was at my side. "I finally got a hold of Sara," he told me. I didn't tell him anything about Sara coming to my place. "She says that she's ok but I don't know if I believe her. The whole time we were talking, I could hear Ken in the background asking who it was."

I stopped short. "Billy," I turned towards him. "Don't ever mention that bastards name to me again!"

Billy jumped back a little as I snarled at him. "Why? What do you know that I don't? Did Sara call you?"

"No," I shook my head. "I haven't talked to Sara since..."

"Since when? Did you see her?"

"I don't want to talk about it." I started to walk away but Billy jumped in front of me.

"He did it again, didn't he?" When I didn't answer Billy turned and kicked the full skid of show boxes. "Son of a bitch!" He turned back to me. "I've been trying to get her out of there since the first time she came to work with a black eye but she wouldn't listen to me, she told me she was ok."

I just stared down at him.

"How bad was it?"

I looked away.

"Come on, tell me."

"Why? What good will it do?" I snapped at him. "She won't tell the hospital staff the truth and she lied to the cops. How fucking bad do you think it was this time?"

"Hospital? Cops?" Billy seemed surprised. "He's never hit her that bad before."

"He shouldn't be hitting her at all!"

"No," Billy agreed and then asked me what I did. "You had to have done something," he told me when I said I didn't do anything. "Sara's friendship with you is the only thing that's changed in the past couple weeks." Billy grabbed me by the shirt. "What the hell did you do?"

"I didn't do anything!" I shoved him off me. "This isn't my fault, this isn't Sara's fault either! That bastard needs help, he shouldn't be hitting her at all!"

I walked away from Billy that night and I haven't spoken a word to him since.

This isn't my fault, is it?