Chapter 8

A hand reached for her arm and she cringed, only the touch wasn't rough and it didn't bring pain. Two hands helped to lift her into a sitting position and she held up her bleeding palms but didn't otherwise look at them, she just stared fearfully into Scotty Tremont's blue and grey eyes.

II

Scotty's brow gathered as he stared at the gruesome sight of the bloodied girl. She was pretty scraped up but wasn't crying. She was just staring at him in shock. What in the hell was she doing out in the night wearing just pajamas?

As he took in the sight of her bloody palms his expression calmed. It was pretty bad. Hiding his grimace he took one of her hands and gently removed small rocks that were embedded in the heel of her palm. When he thought he'd found them all he reached for the other hand and did the same.

When he was finished he met her eyes again and the little girl was watching him in surprise. He looked at her knees and masked the look of disgust at the sight of the layers of skin, which had been scraped away to reveal blood-coated flesh. She surprised him when she didn't make a sound as he picked out the gravel burrowed in her flesh. He scanned her for more injuries and then suddenly frowned.

"You are in so much trouble." Vanessa tensed and her heart slammed against her narrow ribcage. She shied away from him. "There is no way that you're going to hide this from your mother," he continued and Vanessa's eyes widened as she realized the truth of those words. Those words cut through the fear that she had only a short moment ago felt for him. Yet despite the sudden awareness that she was destined to be in trouble for sure and should be darting back to the house to hide the evidence of her crime—she just had to know.

"How do you know me?"

Scotty stood and headed back to his bike. "Your mother drives a white Cadillac." He climbed back on his bike and continued his circuit around her parking lot. She sat there and watched him until he headed up the smaller hill to the second parking lot. He turned his head swiftly and looked at her.

"Go in the house Vanessa." And then he was gone.

Slowly she made it to her feet despite the pain that settled into her scrapes like knife wounds. She wanted to be in the house before he came back down the hill. She wanted to understand why Scotty hadn't beat her up or run her over, but more importantly she wanted to know why he knew her name just because he knew that her mother drove a white Cadillac.

The next morning Vanessa got up and out of bed before her mother came into wake her up. She ran to the bathroom and looked at her face in the mirror, hoping that she would have healed overnight.

"Oh my God … " she whimpered. It was worse. Her lips were so swollen that it looked like a baboon's butt. It was still bloody too. When she opened her mouth her chipped tooth was pretty obvious and there was no way that she could ever conceal that. Now she could clearly see the evidence of other injuries like scratches on her nose and chin. She looked at her hands, which were bruised and purple and then she pulled up the legs of a fresh pair of pajamas that she had put on after she had buried the ripped and bloody pair in the bottom of the garbage.

Blood had seeped from around the bandages on her knees and now they were stuck to her. Tears blurred her eyes but she had no choice but to face her mother and to take her punishment.

Leelah was just swinging her legs out of bed when Vanessa walked slowly into her bedroom.

"You're up earl-" The words froze on her lips at the sight of her beaten child. "Oh my God, Vanessa, baby girl!" She said while leaping out of bed. "My God, baby, what happened?!" She grabbed her daughter's arms roughly and searched her swollen face.

Vanessa had thought of all kinds of lies from being jumped to falling down the stairs but each story had holes and she would rather take the punishment and have it over with.

Vanessa met her mother's worried eyes. "I went…I went outside yesterday." The color literally drained from her mother's face. Her lips parted but no words came out. Vanessa continued. "I was playing tag and I fell in the parking lot."

Vanessa waited but nothing happened. Her mother just stared at her in shock that slowly transformed into something else. The look of worry finally retreated to be replaced with anger—no, not just anger but something much worse than that.

Leelah straightened and placed her hand on her hips, her head cocked in disbelief as she stared down at her child that had broken the supreme rule that existed in their household; Do. Not. Go. Outside.

"You are not telling me that you have been going outside when I'm not home, are you?" Before Vanessa could answer her mother continued. "I know you are not telling me that all of this time I thought your little ass was safe at home you've been running around with those little bad-ass kids while I'm working!"

Vanessa shook her head to deny it but her mother pointed to the closet. "Get the belt! And hurry up!" The tears began even before the words were completely out of her mother's mouth. She got the belt out of her mama's closet and she snatched it out of her hands and gestured to the bed. "Over the bed! Now!"

Sobbing Vanessa lay across her mother's unmade bed. She squeezed her eyes closed and waited for the first painful strike of the belt. Waiting for the first hit was the worst and her legs began to shake as she cried. It took her a moment to realize that the belt hadn't landed. A moment later she dared to look behind her and mama was just rubbing her forehead and it looked like tears were in her eyes.