Page 9 of Between Never and Forever
She pulls her damp shirt over her head, grunting a bit when her arms have to rise higher than her shoulders. I swing my legs out of the bed and stand.
“That’s not nothing, Savannah,” I whisper. “You look like you were kicked in the side with a steel-toed boot.”
The way her shoulders jerk tells me I’m probably right.
“Who did it?”
“Shut it,Leviticus,” she spits, then starts to open my window like she’s going to leave.
I step up and place a hand on her shoulder, turning her back to face me.
“Savannah, who gave you this bruise?”
My whisper is louder, my eyebrows scrunched. She looks into my eyes, then clamps hers shut.
“Just forget it, Levi.”
I reach down slowly and grab the hem of her shirt. When she doesn’t bat me away, I carefully lift it until I can see her entire side. My breath catches, and I swallow hard.
“Savannah...”
I can’t say anything else. My tongue is numb.
The bruise looks even worse up close. Purples, blues, and blacks swirl together. There are areas of raised swollen flesh. I squint at it, and I think I can almost make out a boot tread mark, but it might be my imagination. I use my other hand to trail my fingers lightly over her skin, and Savannah sucks in a harsh breath, stepping away quickly. My hands drop to my sides.
“Savannah, that’s...this is bad. This is worse than before.”
“Just leave it alone. Please.”
“You can’t stay there anymore.”
I don’t know what else to say. I don’t know what I can possibly do. How can something like this happen? How can God let something like this happen to Savannah?
“You have to leave,” I stress, and she laughs.
It’s hollow and eerie. When she speaks, she sounds defeated.
“And go where?”
“You have to tell someo—”
“No.” Savannah’s eyes go wild, and she shoves my shoulder. “You can’t tell anyone, Levi. You can’t. You have to swear.”
“Savannah, someone kicked you so hard half your body is black. You have to tell someone.”
“You know what happens if I tell someone, Levi? I get sent somewhere worse.” She closes her eyes and tilts her head to the ceiling. “At least I know what to expect with him.”
I shake my head. How can she think that? He’s unpredictable.
“He’s going to kill you, Sav. You know that, right? He’ll kill you. You could have internal bleeding or something.”
“This happened days ago,” she says with a sad smirk. “If I was bleedin’ internally, I’d be dead already.”
“Dang it, Sav, how can you be sookaywith all of this? How come you’re not trying to get some place safe? You need to protect yourself.”
“Why do you think I’mhere?” she snaps. “Why do you think I come here? You think it’s just ‘cause I wanna be closer to the Lord?”
I bite my tongue. I want to tell her that if she told my dad, he could help. That’s what he does. He helps people. It’s his job as pastor. He could help her, but apparently, she’d rather let her mom’s boyfriend beat her to death.
