Saving Georgia by Kristin Flynn Page A

made, sir.” I sigh. “What is it that I can do for you?”
    “Go to prom with me. I want to go, and I don’t have a date.” Shane says holding me tighter.
    “Seriously? That’s your life saving approach? Prom?” I laugh.
    “I don’t care how cheesy it is, as long as it works.”
    “OK, prom. We can do prom.” I say, calming down, and burying myself deep against his skin.
    “Georgia, let’s sit.” Shane says pulling me as far away from the Neuse River as possible. “Can we talk?” He says, trying to lead me into discussion.
    “OK. We can talk Shane.”
    “I want to know the deal with Cecil. I don’t want to hear anymore second hand stories. You’re an important part of my life, and I feel like I deserve to know.”
    “I know, and you do it’s just so hard… so hard to talk about it.” I plead.
    “Georgia, please… it hurts me just as bad as not knowing, as it does for you having been through it.”
    “Well… OK.” I started. Some things you never know what to say, when you have everything to say. How do you explain something so horrible, so tragic, and so dark with someone you love? “You know he was my mother’s second husband right?”
    “Yeah, I know that.” Shane says, stroking my arm. It makes it so much easier that I don’t have to look into his face.
    “Well, after my mom died, he started sneaking into my room at night. That’s where it started. I know now that he wasn’t sober or clean. It was touching at first, but then it progressed. If I fought back, which I did at first, it became more and more violent. He hit me over the head with a lamp once.” I told him, with tons of hesitation.
    Shane gasped and his clench on me became tighter.
    “Then it got even worse. He started locking me in the basements. There are times that I know I went days without food or use of a restroom. Finally the cops came and saved me. But that’s the gist of it. I can go into graphic details but I think that’s unnecessary and vulgar.”
    “Georgia, I’m so sorry. I’ll never let that happen to you again. I promise you.”
    “It’s fine, honestly. That’s really sweet of you.” I lean my head against his neck, breathing in the deep smell of home to me. “Can I ask you a question?”
    “Anything.” Shane says with the most sincerity in his voice that I have heard in a long, long time.
    “When do we develop our sense of humanity?” I ask him.
    “Hmm?” Shame responds, confused.
    “Like, Cecil. And Harper, on a less dramatic note neither of them seem to have a sense of humanity. How do we develop it and why do some people not have it at all?”
    “I see what you mean, and frankly I have no idea.” Shane says, rubbing my arm to see if I am cold. “Let’s get you home sweetie. It’s late and you’ve had a long day. “
    “OK.” I can’t afford the energy to waste to fight him on this.
    We walked back to the main road, and I see my car there and not his. “Where’s your truck?”
    “Probably back at your house. Jenn drove it home. Your car is faster on these back roads. And not blocked in.”
    “Ah, got you.”
    Shane runs up and slides across my hood to the drivers side, like Bo Duke, and opens the car door for me from inside.
    “OK. You’re driving. I won’t put up a fight.” I said, slouching down in the passenger seat. “Shane, can you do me a favor?”
    “What’s up beautiful?” Shane asks, turning the engine over.
    “Stay with me tonight?” I beg, like a little kid asking for a bedtime story.
    “I won’t have it any other way.” He says. And just like that, I fall asleep.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter 7
    The light broke in in ember colors, strewn across my face like a violent forest fire. It was hotter in my room than normal, and my body is beaded with sweat. I smell god awful and my limbs ache like crazy. My feet feel filthy and gritty, and there are leaves in my hair. I tried to sit up, and that’s when I noticed Shane