Always And Forever by Lyn Denison

Author:Lyn Denison
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Literature of special Lesbian interest, FICTION, Fathers and daughters, Love stories, Mystery & Detective, Single mothers, Contemporary, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Modern fiction, Romance, Popular American Fiction, Lesbians, Romance - General, Fiction - General, General & Literary Fiction, Romance - Contemporary, Women singers, General, Lesbian, Women Sleuths
ISBN: 9781594930492
Publisher: Bella Distribution
Published: 2006-01-15T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

Shann’s revelation hung in the air about them like a heavy, pungent fog. Leigh stood up again, put space between them when Shann desperately wanted Leigh to just hold her.

“Raped you? Shann you can’t go around accusing someone of doing that when you don’t even know who did it. If you were so drunk—”

“Leigh, I told you. I think someone drugged me, and it had to be Evan, Caleb, or one of the Kingsley twins. They were the only ones there.”

“No one will believe you, Shann. Two separate people told me they’d seen you leaving the hall drunk. I heard Angelina tell my mother that Ruth had taken you home.” Leigh looked at her. “Do your parents know? About the night of the party? Or—”

“No one knows.” Ruth was convinced Shann had been drunk that night and so was her father. They’d grounded her for a month. Little did they know she had no desire to so much as leave 127

her room. She’d have stayed there if she hadn’t had to go to school. She bit her lip and looked at Leigh. “You believe me, don’t you?

About being raped?”

“Well, yes. If you say it’s true,” Leigh replied without meeting Shann’s gaze.

A sharp pain stabbed the region of Shann’s heart. If Leigh didn’t believe her—

“What are you going to do?” Leigh asked. “You’ll have to have an abortion.”

Shann couldn’t seem to compute the word. Abortion. Contraceptives. Condoms. Pregnancy. They’d only been words until now. Words that had had nothing to do with her or her life. They were way out of her league.

“You are going to have an abortion, aren’t you?” Leigh asked.

“I don’t know,” she said flatly.

“Shann, you can’t have this baby. You’re too young. It will ruin your life.”

“I just don’t know what to do.”

“If, as you say, you don’t even know who the father is, well, how can you even consider it?”

Shann looked at Leigh and swallowed. “You don’t believe me, do you? That I was raped?”

Leigh’s gaze fell. “I don’t know what to believe, Shann. It’s such an improbable story. I mean, how would you not know if someone was doing that to you?”

Pain clutched inside Shann again, and she fancied she felt her heart actually break. “Oh, I remember that, Leigh. Believe me I won’t ever be able to forget it. I just don’t remember who it was or if I actually saw him. It was dark and—” She made a dispirited gesture with her hand. “It was too dark.”

Leigh made no comment, and Shann pushed herself to her feet.

“I can’t stay here. I do know that. Dad and Ruth will—” Shann shook her head. “I’ve decided I’m going to run away.”

“Where will you go?” Leigh asked.

“I don’t know yet.” She looked at Leigh. “I was going to ask you to come with me.”

128

The words hung in the air between them.

“We could get a flat together,” Shann said quickly. “Maybe Sydney. We could get jobs.”

“I can’t do that, Shann.”

“Why not? We said we were going to move out of home together, share a flat.

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