This is Victoria; tonight’s a big night for her. Tonight it’s the Homecoming dance and she has a date this year. She’s only a sophomore but she’s sure this guy is the most import guy in the world.
The beat of the music is contagious, coursing through the body straight to the bone. Everyone’s been infected by the plus, sweeping them all along with it. On a night when everyone should be happy, Victoria’s missing. Her friends, Ariel and Miranda, are looking for her panicking slightly.

“Where is she?” Ariel shouts above the music, “She wouldn’t have, left she’s been looking forward to tonight forever! She spent hours on her make up.” Their pushing through the crowd, they pass by a smug looking boy leaning against the wall.

“Something’s happened,” Miranda looks over at Ariel, worried. “He’s done something again.” They hurry out of the dance; heading upstairs threw the empty hallways. Standing outside the girl’s restroom, inside you can hear the sound of someone crying. Entering they stand in front of an empty stall.

Inside was a distraught Victoria. Her make-up was smeared and running, she looked up at the two girls. Her hair was pulled out and sticking out in all directions, hanging in front of her face. Disheveled and flustered she wiped her nose, “Oh guys!” She said her voice hoarse from crying. “What’s up?”

“Victoria!” Ariel exclaimed, rushing towards the girl to wrap her in a hug. “What’s happen girly!?” Miranda kneeled in front of her, taking the girls hands in hers.

“Oh, this?” She rubbed her cheek self-conscious, “Nothing.”

“This is not just nothing! Victoria, what’s happened!?” Miranda stood up, outraged, “He’s upset you again, hasn’t he?!”

“Come on,” Ariel said, leading Victoria up from the toilet and led her out of the stall to the sink. “Let’s clean up your make up.” She reached over and got her a wet paper towel handing it to her. “Victoria, this is getting out of hand. You can’t keep letting him push you around and making you cry all the time! It’s not cool.”

Victoria leans over the sink washing off her make-up and pulling her hair back into a pony tail. She turns around to face the two girls, “Really guys, it’s not that big of a deal. Like he say’s I’m just over sensitive and a big cry baby.” She laughs weakly, looking up to see what’s keeping the girls so quiet.

“Victoria!” Ariel says aghast, tears are pooling in her eyes, while Miranda just stands there, fuming with rage.

“What’s wrong, guys?” Victoria asks confused. Ariel steps forward gently turning her to face the mirror. “Oh.” Victoria has a blooming black eye and there were fingertip sized bruises, flowering on her forearms and around her neck. Her bottom lip was busted; she puckered it a little when she looked at herself in the mirror, tears welling up again. “This?” She asked pointing to her eye. “I tripped.”

“Don’t give me the crap!” Miranda exploded. “He hit you again! You can’t let him treat you like this, your better than that! He is not worth it! This is abuse. It isn’t right. He’s not worth the pain. You shouldn’t be hit or beat up. How are you going to explain this to everyone? What are your parents going to say?” Miranda demanded. “Break up with the jerk.”

“I deserve it ok!” Victoria retaliated, “I deserve this. I’m not a good girlfriend. Ok? This is punishment for my mistakes! I deserve it.”

Ariel stepped forward, taking the girls hand in hers and they slid down to sit against the wall. “You don’t deserve this. No one does.” She said close to crying her own tears. “We’re going to help, Miranda and me. We’ll help you. We won’t let you get hurt anymore.” Miranda nodded calming down a little. “We’ll get help from adults. Now just tell us what happened.”

Victoria wiped her nose again sniffing again, she nodded slowly. “Ok I’ll tell you.” She took a deep breath, “It all started when he picked me up and we were driving here.”

FLASH BACK

Inside of the car was clean, Victoria preened in the vanity mirror, relaxing in the passenger’s seat. He was parking the car in front of the school. When Victoria’s phone went off, she reached into her clutch.

“Oh, I see how it is.” He muttered. “I can text you all day and you don’t reply, but if they call you. You jump to answer it. I see how much you care.”

Victoria rolled her eyes. “It could be an important call, and I told you I was with my mom! I couldn’t text you back right away.” Flipping it open she answered, “Hello? Oh! Chris I’ve missed you so much! We haven’t seen each other in forever. Sorry I’m kind a busy right now. Call me tomorrow? Ok, sweet it’s a plan, love ya.” She hung up, looking up to see her dates anger face.

“Who was that?” He asked pinning her up against the car.

“Wait what?” Victoria asked confused and a little scared. “It was Chris.”

“Who the French toast it Chris?” He asked. “Oh I know one of your little boyfriends that you’re seeing behind my back. Right? How many others are there?” He reached forwards and snatched her phone out of her hand.

“Come on! Give it back!” Victoria told him, rubbing her hand, “That hurt.” He goes threw her messages. Throwing the phone back at her, she fumbled to catch it before it hit the ground. “Dude, that’s so not cool.” She mumbled.

“OH shut up!” He hissed at her, walking away, leaving her to catch up. “Your luck you even have me, your so whinny.”

“I know I am.” Victoria said, stumbling in her heels to keep up with him as they entered the school. “I’m very lucky to have you.”
Flash Forward

“And that was the end of that, I thought.” Victoria told the girls. “But then after we’d been there a while. He grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the dance.” She pointed to the bruises on her arms. “And he led me out into the hallways, away from everyone else. Then he….”

“What did he do Tori?” Ariel asked, rubbing her shoulder.

“He shoved me against the wall, and yelled….”
Flash Back

“I thought you said you loved me!” He screamed in her face, slapping her.

She cried out as he grabbed her hair. “What did I do?!”

“You know what you did you little minx! Dancing with all those boys and ignoring me, your boyfriend!” He yelled in her face, pulling on her hair more. “You’re such a wimpy little girl! I can’t believe I’m dating you! I could do so much better than a pathetic little girl like you. All you do is complain to me about everything then go and flaunt yourself in front of every guy in the school!”

“What are you talking about? I never did that,” Victoria said struggling to get free, “You exaggerating, I danced with maybe one guy, and only because I felt sorry for him!” She started crying. “You know I only love you! I’d do anything for you.”

“Don’t talk back to me!” He shoved her to the side, where she fell into a locker banging her cheek into it. “We’ll see how you like it now, you little cheat.” He kicked her as he pasted, she crumpled to the floor crying. “Shut up crybaby.” He stalked away, back to the dance, smiling sadistically.
Flash Forward

“That’s what happened.” Victoria ended sadly leaning against Miranda crying more as Ariel rubbed her back gently.

“Tori,” Ariel began slowly, “You have to tell an adult or the police. This isn’t appropriate behavior. He’s not a good person, he deserves to be arrested and taken away from you. This is abuse, and I can’t let this go on anymore.” She stood up slowly, helping Victoria to her feet.

“Let’s get out of here.” Miranda said, wrapping her arm around Victoria’s waist, leading her out of the bathroom. “Before I end up hurting that boy.”

This is Victoria; tonight’s was a very big night for her. It was the night of the Homecoming dance and she had a date. She’s was only a sophomore but she’s was sure this guy was the most import guy in the world. Until she realized he wasn’t.