HOW I LOST YOU

CHAPTER NINE

Author’s Note: Thanks for reading! Please vote, comment and like! This is my recent YA contemporary novel – if you like this please check out my other books I’m Not Her, If I Stay and Who I Kissed and look for 16 Things I Thought Were True in March 2014!

Copyright © 2013 by Janet Gurtler

Chapter Nine

My heart thumped and guilt swirled heavily through my body. My head pounded even harder. The radio DJ chirped at a low volume in the background.

“For real?” Levi asked.

“Unfortunately. Very real.” I kept my gaze on Kya but she didn’t move. “I never told anyone that before,” I said quietly. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”

My parents knew, but only because they found me a crying mess in my room after the trial. I’d never told another soul. Yet, with this boy I barely knew, the secret spilled out.

My face burned. I pressed my lips tight, placing my hand protectively on Kya’s arm, though she was completely unaware. Her head tilted back, her lips were open with drool coming out one side of her month.

It wasn’t the image of the girl I loved. But. It also was. I swallowed an incredibly powerful urge to cry.

“Man.” Levi swore under his breath. “I’m sorry.”

An overwhelming need to talk brought tears to my eyes. “It happened before we met.” I stopped. Waited for something bad to happen. I half expected Kya to open her eyes and scream at me. But there was nothing. No repercussions.

“It’s okay,” Levi said softly. “If you want to talk.”

I took a deep breath. Maybe it was because we weren’t facing each other, or maybe I trusted him. I did. I wanted to talk.

“When we were fifteen, she asked me to come with her to the rape trial. She’d only been thirteen when it happened. I’d had no idea.” I took a deep breath. “She didn’t cry. She pretended it was no big deal. She said she’d never told anyone else. Not James. None of her friends. Just me.”

I paused, closing my eyes to keep tears inside. Flashes from streetlights danced like tiny fireworks under my eyelids.

“I’d do anything to protect her.”

He nodded his head. “I get that, Grace. I do.”

I took another deep breath and continued, “It was awful, the trial, but at the same time, I was so proud of her for taking him to court. She tried to keep it from happening again. It took a lot of bravery to do that.”

“It must be hard,” he said. “Keeping her secret.”

“No. It’s not. I’m her best friend.”

Silence.

“I can’t believe I told you,” I finally said softly. “Please, don’t say anything. Especially to Lucas. No one knows. Not even James.”

He looked at me in the rearview mirror. “You have no idea how good I am at keeping secrets.”

Something about his attitude, something in his voice, made me want to cry again and my breathing came out in short panicky hiccups.

“Seriously, Grace. Trust me.”

“Okay.” And for whatever reason, I did.

Silence hung thick in the air.

“It makes more sense now, why she kind of went off the rails today,” he finally said.

“Yeah.” I glanced out the window as we passed by a mostly abandoned strip mall. Real estate signs littered weedy grass in front of it. “The worst of it is that the guy got off light.” I looked back to Kya. Sprawled out, looking half-dead in her bikini. She was a mess. But how could I blame her? “He wasn’t convicted. He was put on probation, but only for statutory rape.”