Shunned

Shunned

Prologue:

Shunned. That’s what I’ve been. I’ve been shunned. The whole town hates me. They avoid me like the plague. All the people who are supposed to care for me left me when I needed them the most.

My parents. My friends. Everybody. My parents kicked me out. My friends won’t speak a word to me. Even the teachers at school give me disgusted looks. There’s only one person in this world that I love and that loves me.

Olivia. My beautiful baby girl. My Olivia.

She may be the reason everybody hates me, but I wouldn’t give her up for the world. She’s my everything now. I guess I should tell you my story. Tell you why I have been shunned. I am Natalie Burns, I am seventeen, and this is my story.

A year and a half ago my life was perfect. I had everything. A wonderful loving family, great friends, and an awesome boyfriend. Well, I thought he was awesome. Turns out there is more to him than his ash blonde hair and sky blue eyes. He may be the all American boy but he’s a monster underneath his innocent appearance.

One night we went to a party and were having a great time, until he decided he didn’t want to wait any longer to have sex. I told him multiple times that I wasn’t ready, but he wasn’t taking no for an answer.

He took me into the rooms and the music was blaring so loud downstairs that nobody heard my screams and pleas for help. I was left alone. That night he raped me, ignoring my cries.

I passed out when he punched me in the face and threw me on the ground when he was done. When I woke up in the morning I was naked on the floor, so I quickly got dressed and ran home. When I got there my parents were both at work, so I just locked myself in my room.

That’s where I stayed for a week and a half. That’s when the morning sickness started and I realized I was pregnant with that monsters baby. I took a test and my theories were proven right.

I was 15 and scared, so I did what I thought was right. I went to my parents. I was sobbing the whole time I relayed my story to them. I told them what Andrew had done. I thought they would believe me and run to the police, but boy was I wrong.

When I was done, they looked at me with angry and disgusted looks.  I remember my father’s words perfectly. “You WHORE. I can’t believe you would do this to Andrew. He was such a good kid, and you went and cheated on him, getting pregnant with some bastards child, and now you are trying to blame him for rape. His father is the best and most looked up to lawyer in town. He would never do that. I am so disappointed in you. Now you will get rid of that bastard child this instant.” He had screamed and looked at me with fury in his eyes.

I could tell my mother had agreed with him. They both thought I was lying, and so did everybody else. I told my best friend Bethany and her reaction was exactly the same. Then she told everybody and they all thought I was a lying, cheating slut.

Andrew had come to threaten me once he found out I had told, but in front of everybody else he put up the act as the depressed boyfriend who couldn’t believe his loved girlfriend would do something like this.

School was hell and home was even worse. I refused to get rid of the baby, and after a month they finally kicked me out, saying that they never wanted to see my face again. That was the last day I had seen them.

I slept in the park for awhile. I had got a job at a diner about a half hour out of town so nobody knew who I was. I raised enough money and got a shabby apartment near the diner. My beautiful baby girl, Olivia, was born nine months later.

She was born a couple months after my junior year started, and there was no way I could finish the year, so I enrolled in online classes. I finished my junior year doing that and since I didn’t have to go to school, I could work more hours and spend time with my girl.

I had gotten really close to the woman who owned the diner, Angie. She was like my mother now and I had even told her the truth about everything.  She had let me cry on her and she couldn’t believe everybody had done that to me.

She’s helped me so much. She understands if I can’t come to work, and she pays me good money. She also gives me free babysitting. Her sister is a stay at home mom and Angie talked her into letting me leave Olivia there while I worked.

My life was great, but I knew if I wanted to get a scholarship I had to go back to school for real this year. I would be a senior and I wasn’t sure if I could stand being in the same place as Andrew and all of my old friends, but I would have to.

I would endure anything to give my baby the best life possible, no matter who her father was or how she was conceived. I just hope I can breeze through my senior year ignoring everybody and everything. One year. I could do this.