It's her

7

Dani's POV

She's here. She's here. She's finally here! 

I couldn't contain my happiness. Finally getting to see my best friend after what feels like ever; there's no better feeling. When we got off of the freeway, Taylor woke up. It's so weird how people can sleep the whole ride home, but always wake up when we're right about to be home. It must be something about the speed and they can feel it or something. I've always wondered about that.

We pulled into our driveway, and all climbed out of the car. It was only 10:10, but we've all been up for over 6 hours.  A few of us helped Taylor with her bags, and we showed her in the house. She was speechless. She said that she had never been in a house this big. We told her that was what everyone said. 

I practically dragged her up the stairs into the room I share with Lauren and Lisa. "And this is where you'll be sleeping," I said as I opened the door. " You're going to be here for a while, so we can figure out bed situations a little later." She smiled, and we set her bags down on my bed. 

I gave her a tour of the rest of the house, and we ended up in the kitchen where Amy had just made herself a sandwich. "Hey Ames, do you think you can make two more?" I asked, and looked at Taylor to make sure she wanted one. 

She shook her head. "Oh Dan, I can just have a half, it's fine."  I nodded. "Okay Ames, one and a half please." Amy just laughed. "This one time only okay?" I nodded with a big smile. 

"Amy you're a doll. Love ya kid."

"sure thing.." She responded.

-

The day was spent just relaxing and enjoying each others time. We lazed around the couch and Taylor caught up with everybody. We didn't want to tire Taylor out her first day here, especially because we were all already tired.

At around 1:20 am, I woke up on the couch. There was a movie playing, and a few blankets. I looked around and saw that Taylor was asleep. I guess we didn't make through that movie. All the other girls already went up to bed.

I got up to go get a drink of water.  When I was done, I put the glass in the sink and went back to the couch. Taylor was still asleep, so I tried to get back in my blanket quietly and fall back asleep. 

I was unsuccessful. I spent the next 15 minutes laying in silence and I was starting to get irritated that I couldn't fall asleep. Then, I heard Taylor sniff and her blankets rustle. "Taylor? Are you awake?" I asked. She stopped moving. "Hey, is something wrong?" She sniffs again and I start to wonder if she was crying.

"You know you can tell me anything right? We're best friends." She just lays for a few more seconds. I can start to hear her crying more clearly. "I'm always going to be here for you. Tell me what's going on," I try to persuade her.

She takes in a big breath and sits up. I sit up too so that we can face each other. "I'm just thinking," she starts to break down a little bit more. "About life." 

I nodded. "What about it?"

"There's just," she started. "So much that I haven't told you." Seeing her this sad breaks my heart. I moved over to sit next next to her and put my arm around her. She leaned into me and I could start to feel her tears on my neck. 

"That's okay. You can tell me now, right?" She looks up and into my eyes then shakes her head no. She looks so broken. "Hey," I say, wiping away a few tears from her cheek with my hand. "I'm here for you. You can trust me."

"You're going to think of me differently," she mumbled, looking down. 

I shake my head. "No I won't. Now tell me what's going on in that head of yours."

"You know, my mom, she's no longer with us. And I live with my dad. Well I kind of don't live with him really. I live kind of on the streets. Well I have a room and a house that I can go to but. Well my dad is.  Well I don't know. He's, well, I guess, he's, um. He's abusive." She looked down into her lap like she was afraid of what I was going to say. I was broken to say the least.

"He hits you?"

"More. Worse."

"How often?"

"Anytime he sees me. More when he's drunk or mad."

"Do you have marks?" She just nodded.

"Can I see them?" She just nodded again, and walked into the downstairs bathroom while I followed. 

She turned on the light and shut the door behind me. I could see her tear stained face clearly in this light. Slowly, she takes off her sweatshirt. As she drops it on the ground, I can see many bruises covering her arm and her stomach, her very thin stomach. I'm left speechless, and she turns around. Seeing her almost bare back, besides her bra strap, there were bruises on her back too. And scars, quite a few scars. Then I started to notices all the scars she had. She had one on the inner part of her arm, above her elbow, probably 2 inches long. 

Then she slipped her sweats off, and I could see 3 large bruises on her thighs, and multiple scars on her shins. This killed me, seeing my bestfriend in so much pain, and just now learning how bad she was hurting when I thought that she was happy. I started tearing up a bit, and it all clicked. 

Why she would get tense all the time, and flinch when we got near her. Why she always wore clothes covering up her body. Why she would always change the subject when we started talking about her life.

How could I not have even suspected. I felt horrible, and then only thing I could think to do was pull her into a hug.