The Road To Price by Justine Elvira

  Chapter Three

  8 years earlier

  “Come on, Chelsea! My momma is going to kill me. My curfew was two hours ago. We need to leave now!” I screamed at my best friend.

  My best friend, Chelsea, was three years older than me. We have lived next door to each other our whole lives.

  Chelsea was too busy making out with her boyfriend to care that I was going to be in so much trouble. We were in a room with twenty other people and she was straddling her boyfriend on the couch. She was dry humping him in front of complete strangers.

  She finally broke away from the kiss and turned toward me.

  “You are already going to be in a lot of trouble, Mia, so it doesn’t matter anymore. Please, just give me twenty minutes and then we'll leave.”

  “Darn it, Chelsea, you don’t give a shit about anyone but yourself.”

  I was super pissed. I went to grab my purse from a vacant bedroom and left the party we were at.

  It was late August and Tanya Miller always had the biggest end of summer bashes. I lived about three miles away from Tanya’s house, but I wasn’t in the mood to wait any longer for Chelsea to give me a ride home. In one month I would be sixteen and I could get my license and be done with it. I knew Chelsea had no intention of leaving in twenty minutes so I was going to walk home. My mother trusted me and I did not want to ruin that trust.

  To get home I had to take the main road in town. It was one lane going each way and the streetlights were few and far between. It was a road that could be scary at night, but not to me. I had walked this road several times before.

  About ten minutes after I started to walk, a car slowed down and pulled up to my side.

  “Hey, Mia, why are you walking by yourself at this hour? Don’t you know how unsafe that is?” A man asked from the driver’s seat.

  Thank God. A friendly face.

  Kyle Monroe had now stopped his car and was waiting for me to answer. I had known Kyle my whole life. I guess that’s the plus of being from a small town. He was attractive and a lot of women wanted him. He was nineteen and had graduated from my high school last year, but decided to stay in town.

  God only knows why because I couldn’t wait to leave here. In a little over two years I would be eighteen and I could leave this town and never look back. The small town life where everyone barely gets by was not for me.

  “Oh. Hi, Kyle. I was at a party with Chelsea, but she wasn’t ready to leave yet. I was supposed to be home hours ago so I decided to walk home.” It was sweet that he was concerned for me.

  I leaned into the passenger side window to get a better view of him. He was dressed casually in jeans and a black t-shirt. His car was clean for a nineteen year old and smelled like lemons.

  “Well, you know that’s not the smartest choice to make. You’re a young girl, walking by yourself, who knows what kind of weirdo you could run into.”

  I started to laugh, “Wow, that's almost funny. You do remember where we are, right? Nothing is going to happen to me.”

  “Well, I would feel a lot better if you'd let me give you a ride home.” Kyle bent over the passenger seat and opened the door. “Come on, hop in.”

  I thanked him and got in his car. I was a little relieved he offered to drive me home because I was already so tired. We sat in silence for a minute until Kyle made a left hand turn onto a road that led out of town.

  “Um, Kyle? Where are you going? You know I don’t live this way?” I said to him slightly confused.

  Kyle was silent for a second and then turned to look at me. “I know, but I figured since you were already past your curfew, it would be okay if you were a few minutes later. I want to show you something.”

  “At one in the morning? Couldn’t this wait for another day? Preferably during daylight?” I didn’t want to sound ungrateful, but I just wanted to go home.

  “It will only take a second. I… I actually forgot my wallet at the warehouse earlier today so you would be helping me out by letting me stop. I don’t want to have to stop there tomorrow, you know? Plus, I haven’t seen you in a while. You look really good,” he said giving me his puppy dog face.

  “Well, thanks, but I’m really tired. Just be quick, please? Run in, grab your wallet and then let's go,” I said to him sternly so he would know I was serious. “Oh, and I’m staying in the car.”

  “I had no intention of making you get out,” Kyle said with a wink. For some reason the wink made me uneasy, but I let it go. We hadn’t seen each other in months so maybe that was why I suddenly felt unsure.

  A few minutes later Kyle drove past the warehouse he worked in and pulled off into the open field next to it. The field was wide open with hundreds of acres of crops.

  “What are you doing?”

  Kyle continued to drive about a half mile into the field and then stopped the car. I looked out the window and was surrounded by crops of cotton. I couldn’t see the road or the warehouse. It was just pitch black.

  “What are you doing? Are you crazy? Why would you drive us into a field?” His actions weren’t making any sense to me.

  Kyle was silent for a moment and then made a weird grunting sound in his throat. “Wow, Mia. When I saw you on the side of the road I almost didn’t recognize you. You have grown up a lot since the last time I saw you.”

  His arms came out to grab me. He wrapped his arms around my torso and pulled me to him. His mouth moved to my skin and started kissing down my neck.

  I tried to pull away, but that just made him hold me tighter. He continued his assault on my body and started unbuttoning my blouse.

  “Kyle, stop!” I screamed at him.

  He ignored my plea as if he didn’t even hear me.

  “Why are you doing this? I don’t want you to touch me. Please, just drive me home,” I desperately said to him.

  Kyle looked at me with a blank expression on his face. It was like a switch flipped because any life in his eyes was gone.

  “Are you refusing me right now? You should consider yourself lucky that I want you. Girls would kill for me to give them the attention that I am giving you right now,” he spat at me.

  He started kissing my body again and then ripped the rest of my shirt open. I started crying and was thrashing my body against his, anything to get away.

  “Please, stop, please!! I won’t tell anyone about this, just, please, let me go… I don’t want this.” My sobs and screams continued while he slid my skirt up to my waist, completely ignoring my pleas to stop.

  “No… Stop!!! Please, stop!”

  Kyle slapped me across the face, hard. I swear I literally started to see stars. He grabbed me and continued what he started.

  I began to feel numb. I tried to block out what was happening to me because no one could hear my screams. Kyle was a lot stronger than me. With his weight on me I was unable to move.

  My mind became fuzzy and I just prayed the assault was over soon.