A cry in the dark

I woke with a start when my phone rang. Who the hell would call me this late? I lunged across the bed and picked up the phone.
"Hello?" I said rubbing sleep out my eyes
"Is this Laura Penets?" said the woman on the other end of the line
"Yes, who is this? What do you want?" I replied

"We need to talk in private, come to the bridge that crosses Cloem creek in one hour, come alone, and please don’t be late." Said the woman hurriedly, she sounded scared. Suddenly I heard a click and my mother asked me whom I was talking to this late at night. The woman hung up the phone instantly. I told my mom that one of my friends was having a hard time and that she needed to talk to someone. My mom hung up and I heard the door to her room open. I got out of bed and started to get dressed. My mother came into my room. She saw that I was intending on leaving the house, and started to throw a fit. But I told her to be quiet I wouldn’t be gone long, and I would call her if I wasn’t home by morning. I grabbed my knapsack that I carried with me everywhere off of the chair by my desk and walked out of my room. My mom followed me down stairs and would have followed me out of the house if I hadn’t closed the door in her face and dove into the bushes next to the door.
The door slammed open and she walked out onto the porch, she looked all around and eventually went back inside muttering about what a stupid girl I was. It didn’t matter to me; I was a student councilor. Sometimes people needed to talk to shrinks that were their own age and knew what they were going through. One of my promises was that I would always be there when they needed me. No matter what time it was. I intended to keep that promise, even though I didn’t recognize the girl’s voice I wasn’t going to ignore a cry for help.

As soon as my mother went inside I crawled out of the bushes walked around to the side of the house and un-chained my bike. I took off riding as fast as I could; I would barely make it. I didn’t have my license yet, and Cloem creek was about a forty minute bike ride. 

I got there just about when she had said to meet her. I got off my bike and leaned it against the edge of the small bridge. I could see the figure sitting on the banister of the bridge. They looked almost like they were considering jumping off of the bridge. It was a thirty foot fall from the bridge to the creek and even then the creek was only about knee deep at that point. It would be certain death if someone were to jump off it. suddenly the person looked up and got off the banister. They hurried over to me. they were wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and ragged jeans.

The girl under the hood looked up at me. she was pale with black hair and green eyes. she had obviously been crying and she also had a black eye and a bloody lip. It took me a moment to recognize her. she was one of the loners at my high school.

"Thank you for coming, I, I just needed someone to talk to." she said in a shaky voice.
"What happened Sonja are you ok?" I asked, I was required to know the names of every student at the school. But she never talked to me; in fact I had never seen her talk to anyone except teachers when she had to for school. She started to tell me she was fine but broke down.

I gathered her up in my arms and held her as she cried into my shoulder. I was used to this; a lot of people were in tears when they came to me. But most hadn’t been beaten. After she had calmed down enough. I stepped back and looked her in the eyes.
"Sonja who did this to you?" I asked
"My dad" she said silently
" Why?" I asked as I led her over to a bench that was by the one end of the bridge. She sniffled a bit and took a deep breath.
"Its not just who I am its what I am. He hates me for it. But that’s not the problem. I’ve fallen in love with someone and I cant even work up the courage to talk to her most of the time." She said
"Well who ever she is she is really lucky. Don’t let your dad get to you Sonja. You have the right to love who ever you want. It doesn’t matter whether you’re straight or gay. Just let this girl know how you feel about her and let her make up her mind about it." I told her.

"I don’t think I can, my dad will kill me if he finds out," she said
"Don’t worry about him, if he tries to hurt you, you can stay with me, until you find somewhere else to stay. My door is always open no matter what my parents say," I said taking her hand in mine.
"Just let her know how you feel" I told her
"She already knows" Sonja said
"What? Did she reject you?" I asked
"Not exactly" replied Sonja, I felt Sonja’s grip on my hand tighten and I felt my mouth go dry.
"Sonja, I wouldn’t happen to know her?" I asked nervously already knowing the answer.

"Yes you know her very well" Sonja said and leaned forwards. I hardly registered what was happening until it happened. She kissed me square on the lips; I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t used to me being the subject of a conversation much less this. She pulled back and looked at me.
"I’m sorry" she said and got up to leave. But I reached out and grabbed her hand pulling her back. What was I doing? All I knew is that I wanted her. I wanted her more then I had ever wanted someone. I leaned forwards and kissed her again.

"Oh goddess is this really happening?" she blurted out between kisses.
"Yep" I said and kissed her again. What seemed like no time later it was getting light out and she was showing no signs of wanting to stop but I pulled back and looked at her? She smiled kind of nervously and she leaned forwards again, kissing me again. I suddenly heard footsteps quickly approaching. I pulled away and straightened my clothes just in time. Mike Donhurst, one of the locals in town came around the bend. He jogged in the woods every morning. When he saw us he stopped.

"Laura? What are you doing out here this early in the morning?" he asked
"Nothing Mike, I was just talking to a friend" I said
"Ok but you be careful, you never know what kinds of perverts could be lurking in these woods at night." I smiled and thanked him, once he was out of sight I turned back to Sonja.
"Well I know one type and honestly I see no need to be careful about this one" I said with a small laugh and kissed her again. We continued kissing and touching each other until there started to be too many joggers and we had to stop every few minutes. Suddenly her watch beeped and she looked at it.

"I’ve got to go, I’ll have just enough time to sneak back into the house before my dad wakes up" she said
"Then I’ll see you in a few hours" I said smiling. She nodded and leaned forwards giving me a kiss that was way to brief and then she stood up, she looked at me and paused, she smiled and bent down. She used the sleeve of her sweatshirt to wipe my mouth. I looked at her confused, and realized now that I could see her in the dim light that she was wearing lips stick. She blew a kiss at me, and turned around nearly colliding with a jogger who had stumbled when he saw her blow the kiss at me.

We laughed and the jogger looking rather embarrassed kept jogging a bit faster than he had been before he had seen us. She smiled and after a minute we seemed to realize that we were staring at each other. We both went red at almost the same time, then laughed nervously.

"That brings back memories of when we were first together" I said one of the two women who jogged by us together. This caused us to both go redder. She smiled and then waved good bye and walked away. She kept looking back over her shoulder, and the when she thought that she was out of sight she let out a small whoop and did a little jig. I smiled and tried hard not to laugh. I walked across the bridge, got back on my bike, and rode home. When I got to my house I skipped up the lawn whistling and smiling.

I opened the door and crept inside. I hurried to the bathroom. I looked myself in the mirror making sure I didn’t have any of her lipstick still on me. That would be hard to explain, since I never wore makeup. I straightened my hair and clothes. Took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and went into the kitchen where my mother was cooking breakfast. My father as usual was sitting at the table reading the newspaper. My brother wasn’t even up yet.

When I entered the kitchen they both looked up. They were both silent for a moment, then started asking me questions all at once. Once I got them to slow down I looked at mom.
"Why didn’t you come home last night?" she asked

"Mom, I told you, one of my friends is going through a hard time and she needed my help" I replied. That seemed to answer both their questions. I sat down ate breakfast and ran up to my room. I changed into some slightly nicer clothes and grabbed my school bag. I ran back downstairs and kissed my parents on the cheeks then I ran out to my bike hopped on and rode away towards high school, and what was going to be a very interesting day.

Part 2 is on the way...