Fourteen
DECEMBER-16 YEARS OLD
I missed school today. I know, I am a coward, but I just couldn’t go. I feel so humiliated at the way I reacted to him. I spent the day in bed mostly and watched a little TV with Mom, I went to my private place, scraped a little bark off one of the Sassafras trees and wrote a poem.
When I walk through the back door, Mom looks at me funny a few times and asks, “Are you sure you are sick?”
“Yes ma’am, kinda.”
“Want to talk about it?”
“No, not really. I think I might go lay down again.”
“Okay. Do you want some hot chocolate maybe?”
“No. Thank you though.” I make my way through to my room and fall across the bed. Just as I was about to fall asleep the phone rings. I jump across the bed and pick it up.
“Hello?”
“Why aren’t you at school?” his coarse voic
