From the Damage 1 - Opposites Attract by Jasmine Denton, Genna

you to know that.”
    ≈≈≈
    “I’ve never been so humiliated in my entire life,” Melanie hissed as she drove Kay home from the grocery store. “Why do you think you need group therapy?”
    “Mom...” Kay groaned, shrinking back in her seat as she stared out the window.
    “Don’t ‘Mom’ me,” she snapped. “If you feel like you need to go talking to strangers about your problems, then you can tell me. I’m your mother.”
    “I don’t tell them my problems,” she whispered. “I haven’t told anybody anything.”
    “Then why go?”
    “Because...” she sighed and slunk back against her seat. How could she explain her problems to her mother without suffering at the hands of her father? “It just helps to be around the other members. Just knowing they’re there to listen helps, I guess. I can’t explain it.”
    “What reason did you give them?”
    “I told them you and Dad are getting a divorce.”
    “For God’s sake, Kaytlin!” Melanie scolded. “How could you lie about something like that? Do you want your father and me to divorce?”
    Yes , she thought grimly. “Of course not, but I had to tell them something.”
    “Well, you’re not going back, that’s for sure.”

    “Mom, please—”
    “Is there something going on with you, Kay? Something you don’t want to tell me?”
    Kay stared out the window, wishing she could come clean to her mother but knowing she couldn’t. “No,” she whispered. “Everything’s fine,” she said, the biggest lie she’d ever told.
    ≈≈≈
    Kay didn’t want to pull a no-show at the next group meeting, so she dialed Daphne’s cell number and made arrangements to meet her for coffee. Of course, Daphne was happy to oblige and met Kay at the coffee shop within fifteen minutes of the phone call. Now, as Kay sat in front of Daphne, she couldn’t think of anything to say. Rolling her warm coffee cup between her palms, she glanced up at the compassionate young counselor who was just waiting for Kay to open up.
    “Your parents aren’t getting divorced, are they?” Daphne asked, finally breaking the ice.
    “No,” Kay said, shaking her head. “I’m sorry I lied. How’d you figure it out?”
    “I saw your mom’s wedding band,” she said as she shrugged, “and it wasn’t your dad’s signature on the release. Did you forge your mom’s?”
    Kay nodded, feeling her stomach swirl with nausea. “Are you mad?”
    “No, of course not.” Daphne leaned toward Kay, trying to convince her. “I just wish you’d told me so I could’ve helped. We would’ve worked something out.” Sitting back in her seat, Daphne sighed. “Kay, why did you really come to the support group?
    You clearly think you need help, and I applaud you for that. Most of the kids in the group are forced to be there, but you came on your own free will, and I think that’s very admirable. But I can’t help but wonder what you’re going through.”
    Feeling tears fill her eyes, Kay wished she could tell Daphne what was going on, but she couldn’t. She knew Daphne would call Social Services, and then her father would weasel out of it somehow and she’d be in for the beating of her life. Still, she needed to get if off her chest somehow, so she decided to hide the truth inside a lie. “It’s my boyfriend,” she said slowly, afraid to look at Daphne. “Sometimes he gets really mad, and...” Unable to speak the words, Kay pushed her sleeve up to reveal the finger-shaped bruises her father had left. “There’re some worse ones, too, on my back. I broke up with him and everything, but it took a while.”
    She finally looked up to see that Daphne had tears in her eyes. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that. If there’s anything I can do—”
    Kay finally let the tears fall. “My mom isn’t going to let me come back because I won’t tell her why I want to go.”
    “Why don’t you want your mother to know?”
    Kay laughed. “She would never understand. She’d just