The dance wasn't completely terrible despite the run in with Bradley. Rowan confessed that he loved me and then he became the hero of the night with his quick thinking. I couldn't believe he thought to record the conversation with Bradley. Part of me wanted to yell at myself for not thinking of that sooner. The other part of me was glad that Rowan was there to do it for me, because I knew that Bradley still had a hold over me mentally.

It was about time for Rowan to pick me up for school so I didn't have much time to get dressed. I found a t-shirt that was a bit wrinkled shoved in the back of my dresser and a pair of black jeans. Brushing my hair was a chore. The tossing and turning from last night had turned my hair into a knotted mess.

"Hey Lennon can I talk to you for a minute?" I turned around and saw Raven standing in my doorway.

I turned back around and consecrated on getting the knots out of my hair. "I don't have much time Raven. Rowan will be here in ten minutes."

"It will only take a minute." She said inviting herself into my room.

Come on in. I shook my head.

She sat down on my bed and waited for me to finish with my hair. I admit, I took my sweet time getting the knots out. By doing so I hoped she would get tired and leave. I didn't need her telling me how much of a freak and disappointment I was, of a sister.

"Okay what do you want?" I asked sitting the brush on the dresser. I didn't see this ending well. We hadn't had a real conversation since I blew up on her the night we picked her friend and her up from that party.

"Well I wanted to talk to you about the whole party thing." She began taking her left leg and crossing it over her right. "I know that night I owed you one and I fucked it up. I shouldn't have said that about you. You didn't have to come and get me yourself but you did and I should have been grateful for that. I made a mistake."

My whole body was in shock. She was apologizing for the first time in forever. I couldn't believe my eyes.

"Okay." I didn't know what else to really say to her. The things she had said to me were things I didn't know if I could forgive her for. She pushed me to the edge and forced me to tell her something that I wasn't ready for my family to know.

"I'm serious Lennon, I treated you horribly. I understand now why you were always commenting on my appearance. You were doing it to protect me. If you would have told me when it happened I would have went to mom and dad with you. You shouldn't have had to go through that all alone." Her voice was sincere and I was starting to feel bad.

A voice in the back of my mind made me want to jump up and down with joy that she was finally starting understand where I was coming from. What she was saying made me think. What would I have done if I told her? What would have happened? I would have never wrote in a journal and I would have never meet Rowan because of it.

"I wouldn't change anything." I said after thinking it through. "If we went to mom and dad I would have never met Rowan."

Raven tilted her head and asked, "What do you mean you would have never meet Rowan?"

I forgot that she didn't know about the journal I wrote in. Thinking for a moment I decided to just show her what I was talking about. My legs carried me over to my bedside table where my journal was stashed underneath a bunch of magazines.

"What are you doing?" Raven asked following my moment with her eyes.

I pulled the drawer open and picked up the magazines, throwing them on the bed beside her. At the very bottom in the back was my journal I held it in my hands and took a deep breath. This was it. This is me coming to terms with what happened. If Bradley was going to get caught all the details where going to be out in the open soon enough.

"Here." It felt so weird to be showing another person my journal. Of course Rowan had seen it but that wasn't my choice in the beginning and I became accustomed to the idea of him reading it. I waited for her to take the book from my hands.

"What's this?" She asked taking it from me.

I watched as she looked at the cover of the journal it wasn't nothing special just a light purple flower on the front, but it was a part of me. All my darkest secrets were in that journal tucked away from the light of day.

Motioning for her to open it she flipped to the first page. The very first page Rowan read and the very first page I wrote. Her eyes widened as she read the first line. I WAS RAPED.

"This... this is your journal?" She questioned.

I nodded my head and sat down beside her. "When I had no one to talk to about what happened I decided to write it down. I needed someone who would listen and the paper did that for me. I didn't have to worry about someone pitying me and my sob story. I could just write down whatever I needed to give me peace of mind for a few minutes. That journal probably saved my life." I admitted. It was scary knowing how close sometimes I came to ending my own life. Every time I seen Bradley or looked at my reflection in the mirror it triggered a wave of emotions that were never good.  

"If you would have told me I would have helped you anyway I could." Her eyes filled with tears and I felt bad for making her cry.

"One day I brought this journal on the bus because of how bad the feelings were getting. I just needed something to be there for me. I left this journal on the bus without knowing it until that night. I looked everywhere for it, turned my room upside down looking for it. I even looked at school, in the lost and found but couldn't find it anywhere. I gave up." I told her.

"Well then how did you find it?" She asked, holding up the journal. "You had to have found it otherwise it wouldn't be here."

"Think about it." I said, raising my brow.

She thought for a moment and then she gasped. "Rowan! Rowan found it!" Her face was full of surprise and she looked like she was about to have a heart attack. "Oh my god, that's how he knew about you being raped. He knew all this time before me?" She was putting everything together.

I nodded my head. "But it wasn't my choice. He read it not knowing it was mine. He only found out it was mine after our group project. The teacher gave him my letters and he noticed how similar my letters where to the journal." I explained.

Her face softened and then she spoke, "So you really weren't kidding when you said you wouldn't have meet Rowan without the journal."

"Yep." I said taking the journal from her and setting it on the bedside table. "I'm sorry that my ways of protecting you were so harsh. I just didn't want what happened to me to happen to you. I wanted to protect Dakota and you from the evil in this world, but I know now that I could have done it a differently."

"No I understand now. I'm sorry for everything I've said god I've been so awful to you." She cried. She wasn't the only one who was awful. I was too.

"Come here." I said as I wrapped an arm around her giving her a hug. "We both have been awful, but that's in the past we have to move forward with life and start living again." We sat there hugging each other, crying, until Rowan arrived.

—

We dropped Raven off at the entrance that she normally went in so she wouldn't have to walk as far and it gave Rowan and I some alone time. The halls were buzzing like the day Bradley came to school with his face all busted up. It made me feel uncomfortable but I just figured that word had gotten out about Bradley and Rowan's fight at the dance.

Once we were at my locker we started to hear the rumors. A girl next to my locker was talking to her friend about someone getting arrested. I didn't think anything about it, people were always getting arrested for drugs. Mexico was so close that drugs burned across the state like wildfire.

In English, Rowan and I both noticed that Bradley was nowhere in sight. We just figured he was suspended for the fight. Rowan wasn't suspended thanks to Officer Stone who pulled a few strings with the school's superintendent. We thought we were right until we got to lunch and we sat with Zach and his friends.

"Did you guys here it? Bradley got arrested." Ivy said as she plopped down beside me.

Rowan and I looked at each other, confused. "What did he get arrested for?" Someone walking by our table stopped and asked.

Kevin was the first to speak. "I heard it was from drugs." That's believable considering he did drug me.

Next was Zach. "I thought it was because he didn't pay his speeding ticket."

"It was because he threatened to kill someone." Ivy stated.

I shook my head. These were just a few of the rumors that were being spread around the school. I didn't know which to believe most were crazy and nowhere near true.

It wasn't until seventh hour that I received a text from my mom telling me what was going on.  

They have Bradley in custody and they want you to be at the station after school for more questioning. I'll pick you up.

Hi guys! We hope you can show this chapter some love.

What do you think he was arrested for? What is your thoughts on this book?

Tiffany is currently working on a new project for camp nano so wish her some luck. Wordsprints are welcomed!

Make sure to check out Allies books too!