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"I don’t love him!" Rhiannon yells back "But I don’t love you, either"

The next ti and pull hiym floor I think this will stop hiets me in the chin My teeth rattle

At this point, soirls froyirl runs over to Rhiannon to ain, just so everyone can see it It barely grazesthe blow to stand up I want to hit him, hurt him, but I honestly don’t kno

Plus, I have to leave It will be easy enough to discover that I don’t go to this school And even though I’ht, they can still call the police onin the first place

I teeter over to Rhiannon Her friend estures her off

"I have to go," I tell her "Meet me at the Starbucks where we first met When you can"

I feel a hand onme around He won’t hit me with my back turned

I know I should face hirip and run He’s not going to follow, but that is exactly what I do

I make my way back to the bus stop, then use a nearby phone booth to call a cab Nearly fifty dollars later, I auy in a Metallica T-shirt, now I auy in a Metallica T-shirt who’s beaten, bruised, and bleeding I order a venti black coffee and leave twenty dollars in the tip jar Now they’ll letas I want, no matter how scary I look

I clean myself up some in the bathroom Then I sit down and wait

And wait

And wait

She doesn’t arrive until a little after six

She doesn’t apologize She doesn’t explain why it took her so long She doesn’t even coets a coffee first

"I really need this," she says as she sits down I know she’s talking about the coffee, not anything else

I’m on ," I tell her It sounds too for," she says "But I didn’t seriously consider it" She looks at my face, my bruises "You okay?"

"I’m fine"

"Remind me--what’s your naain "Poor Michael"

"This is not how I io"