Opened Sores by Zarah Smith (uplifting books for women .TXT) 📖

Smiling to herself, Alyssa quickly took hold of Gavin's shirt and yanked him back into the water. Gavin grabbed hold of Alyssa's waist to bring her with him, the both of them going about two feet from surface. When they both surfaced Alyssa held onto Gavin to avoid anymore serious down holds. Alyssa spewed all the excess water from her mouth and face. She heard Gavin's laugh and looked towards him. "If I go down, you go down with me." "I've noticed," Alyssa replied with a laugh. "You know there's gators in the pond?" Gavin smiles. Alyssa's face suddenly goes solemn and her eyes become wide with fear. "What?" Gavin explodes with laughter at the sight of Alyssa's scared face. "I'm joking, if there was I wouldn't even be here." There was a long pause, Alyssa pushed the top of the water in Gavin's face. "Hey!" He yelled playfully. "Don't mess with me like that! I'm terrified of those things!" Alyssa scolded. "Okay, jeesh." They both laughed as Gavin got up in the canoe. "Come on, I gotta get you home."

As Alyssa arrives through the front door she skips off up the stairs with a smile glued to her face. It was the first time in a long time since she's had that much fun with anyone and she was glad that out of all people it was with Gavin. He made her feel comfortable, it was rare when Alyssa felt awkward talking to Gavin.

She hops into the the shower and lets the warm water trickle its way down her body. The steam filled the room and fog surrounded clouding up the thin glassed mirror. Alyssa looked down at her arms and noticed that the scars were fading away, they were now barely visible. She was happy that they were going away, but upset that she made those marks. She was more upset about how she knew she was going to do it again.

"When you're upset, you should practice smiling." She once heard that saying and knew how difficult it was to do that. Alyssa's smile was slowly fading away and she re-thought about that saying. She reattached that smile to her face. It was easy to put on that smile because joy already filled her body, it was more overwhelming than the sad and it was all because of one afternoon with Gavin.

When Alyssa got out of the shower, she gently brushed her hair and walked straight towards her room. She noticed that the people she called parents weren't home and that made her even more relaxed than she already was. Alyssa plunged herself backwards onto her soft fluffy bed sheets. Her mind was filled with thoughts about everything. The one thing that Alyssa stopped to actually think about, was Gavin. Alyssa couldn't figure out why Gavin cared so much. It's not that she doesn't want him to care, but she didn't understand his motive or even if he actually had a motive. Although she didn't know why, Alyssa liked the fact that Gavin cared so much. It made her feel...special. Alyssa looked towards the clock standing on her auburn colored nightstand. It was nine o'clock and she felt her eyes start to droop. For once in a long time, Alyssa would go to sleep happy. Her eyes fell completely shut and she mumbled the words, "Goodnight Gavin." and fell into a blissful dream.

*****
Alyssa woke to the screams of her parents argument. She checked the time and saw that it was three a.m. At least I know they're home, she thought. "That has nothing to do with this!" Her mother yelled. "It has everything to do with it!" She heard the screams from her father and knew that he was at the point where he wouldn't hesitate to hit her mom. Every word came out more slurred than the other and Alyssa knew the both of them were drunk, or at least her father was.

There was a loud shatter that came from against the wall down the stairs. Alyssa heard all sorts of things being thrown around and somehow knew that her mom didn't get hit with not one item that was thrown. Everything got silent and then she heard a loud whip. It was the same kind that she always heard when the cold leather belt hit her skin when her father knocked her down. Her mothers whimpers were too painful to hear. Alyssa put her pillow over the side of her face and tried to block out the pain of her mothers screams. Tears flood out of Alyssa's eyes and onto the bottom sheet of her bed. Alyssa got up wanting to help her mom from that horrible beating she had just received. She got close to the door and reached out her hand ready to open it. A tear fell from her left cheek as she stood there with her hand on the knob frozen. She knew she wasn't going to help her mom no matter how much she wanted to.

All the screams stopped and she heard a door slam. Alyssa always wondered how her mother slept at night, how her father did especially. How could her father sleep knowing he beat the only family he has? All she managed to hear was her mom trudging up the stairs and down to her room in pain.

Mrs. Cameron silently cried her way to her bedroom holding her back with one hand. Her tears were now dry but the pain was still burning. Mrs. Cameron felt guilty for her whole life. She was nineteen turning twenty when she was pregnant with Alyssa. A long time before that she knew she should have left Mr. Cameron before anything like that happened, but it was too late. She only wished that Alyssa wasn't even born for her own selfish reasons, but she thought she had a good cause.

Chapter 3: Witness to an action...

School passed by and Gavin occasionally seen Alyssa. It seemed like today she was sort of hiding and Gavin knew that something must have happened but didn't know what. Alyssa came up to Gavin only sometimes, she didn't want him to start to get suspicious about why she was acting so weird after one of the most best days that she's had in awhile. Alyssa tried to shield the pain she was feeling but she just couldn't. She felt like when she talked to Gavin that day, that he saw right through her, he saw what was really there and no doubt he would want to know what was wrong. For practically the whole day Alyssa avoided him, but not too much. The bell rang and Alyssa had her last class with Gavin. She walked off, almost running, out of school. Alyssa wanted to go home and get away to give her some time to think, not that there was much to think about, but at the same time she wanted to be with Gavin.

It was around nine o'clock and Alyssa sat at her desk doing her honors homework. She didn't like homework much, she couldn't imagine who actually did, it was just annoying. She put her pencil down and was about to shove her earphones in her ears when she heard a knock on the door followed by the doorbell. Alyssa walked down stairs wondering who it could be. Just as she took her last step she wondered why she didn't just look out the window first. She could clearly see anyone who would be at her front door through her window. She opened the door and seen a guy with black shaggy hair turned around. The guy turned around and she seen that it was Gavin. What was Gavin doing here?

"Um, hey?" Alyssa greeted.
"Hey," Gavin smiled. "Can I come in?"
"Sure...I guess." Alyssa stepped aside and let Gavin in. "I was kinda doing something in my room so follow me." Alyssa said turning around and stepping back upstairs. Gavin followed her glad she wasn't interrogating him about why he was there. He plainly wanted to see her, and maybe find out a little more.

They both walked into Alyssa's room and Alyssa took her papers off her desk and placed them on her bed. She jumped on the bed and crossed her legs to hold her books. She looked up and motioned for Gavin to sit anywhere. She kind of hoped he would come sit next to her. It almost seemed like Gavin was reading Alyssa's mind, he walked over to her and sat next to her. Gavin was a couple inches taller than Alyssa so when he sat down it felt like he was hovering over her. "What are you doing?" He asked looking over her shoulder. "OUR homework." Alyssa said emphasizing our. "Let me guess, you didn't do it." "Not at all," Gavin smiled. "But I will." "Uh-huh." The room got silent but it wasn't that awkward silent, it was sort of calm. "So what's up?" Alyssa said looking down at her lined paper. "Just thought we could hang out again. I had fun yesterday." Gavin said getting up and walking around Alyssa's room. "This is a very interesting look for your room, " He commented. "Thanks...I guess. I had it custom made."

Alyssa's room was wide and square. Her walls we different shades of all the colors of the rainbow. The main color was black, it was used as a background. There were lines of different colors all over the wall. Blue, red, yellow, and purple were the semi-main colors. It all went in patterns, line after line after line. There were four walls, Two striped horizontally and two striped vertically. It all seemed to mesh together in a neat way. Multi-colored hand prints were covering the wall also and the stripes were used as a background just like the black. Some of the other stuff looked like she drew it on there herself. "Whose hand prints are these?" Gavin ask touching his hand to the wall. "Mine," Alyssa laughed. Alyssa walked over to Gavin and put her right hand on the hand next on the right of his, her hand fit perfectly. Gavin took Alyssa's' hand and his eyes grew wide. "What?" Alyssa smiled. Gavin stretched out his long fingers and placed on Alyssa's. This clearly showed that his fingers were way longer than hers. His eyes were still wide and her slowly opened his mouth. "What?" Alyssa laughed a bit confused. "Me Tarzan, you Jane." He said taking his other hand and pointing one long finger towards her. Alyssa laughed, she loved that movie. "That's nice. But there's one problem. You don't wear an old diaper that you had since you were a kid and you wasn't born in the jungle." She laughed. "You don't know that." Gavin smiled. "Oh I know more than you think." Alyssa said turning around and walking towards her bed. Gavin's long arms wrapped around her small waist and pulled her close to him. "Oh do you?" He whispered softly in her ear. Alyssa's face was turned sideways slightly as she listened to Gavin's voice. The both of them leaned into each other, their lips almost meeting.

A door slammed shut and the sound of an angry man stomped across the floor. A bunch of glasses were shattered against walls and the marble tile. Mr. Cameron grunted as he checked around for anyone. He was furious and he didn't know why but he could careless. He just wanted all of his fury out of his body. His mind instantly thought of Alyssa. She was the perfect target, so weak and scrawny, she would never fight back. Just thinking about it made Mr. Cameron a bit upset, she would never fight back. Everyday he enjoyed whooping the living daylights out of her and made it seem like he