Abby Love

By Michelle McGriff

Abby Greene is a young woman with low self esteem. Desperate to be loved, she finds herself caught up in an abusive relationship. There is only one thing that can free her—love. Love of self.
Abby thought she’d paid a high price for love before, but claiming and owning self love does not come cheap. Nonetheless, she’s willing to pay the price—whatever it is.
Set in the mid 1970’s this short story takes us back to a time when many women were realizing their independence, strengths and the power in “sisterhood”.

Author's notes:
Abby Love was written in omnipresent, monophonic voicing. Heavy narrative moves the story along a single voice gets inside everyone’s head. It’s a story not to be judged on strict editing qualities, but on story content and the love-lessons learned.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michelle McGriff
• Release date: Dec 24, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301435432

Michelle McGriff

Native Californian, Michelle McGriff shares her love of storytelling with readers.

Book preview

ABBY LOVE

By

Michelle McGriff

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2012 Michelle McGriff

Published by Michelle McGriff

Abby Love. Copyright 2012 by Michelle McGriff. All rights reserved. No part of this e-book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages to be included in a review.

All characters, names, descriptions and traits are products of the author’s imagination. Similarities to actual people – living or dead – are purely coincidental.

Abby Love

Author notes:

Abby Love was written in omnipresent, monophonic voicing. Heavy narrative moves the story along a single voice gets inside everyone’s head. It’s a story not to be judged on strict editing qualities, but on story content and the love-lessons learned.

Chapter 1

It was l975. The world was a little crazy. It was as if everyone suddenly realized they could do whatever they wanted and so, they did it. Everyone was doing just about anything, just for the feel of it. I often wonder now if anyone really felt anything at all in the end.

When all was said and done, the 60’s age of Free Love and Flower Power had given way to promiscuity under a new slogan – Do your Own Thing. With what was now referred to as Adult Consent. Doing your own thing was the way to go, and with the pass of a new law that made children adults—it was all a bit foggy to me.

Janice and Abby were two newly made adults. Actually if anyone at the nightclub door really looked closely at Abby’s ID, they would see that twenty-one was at least eight more months away. But, with Janice clearly twenty-one by three weeks, it usually only took a wink of her eye, a smile, and false promise riding on the sway of her hips, to get them both in.

Janice had that smooth fair brown skin that usually got her as far as she wanted to go with any man. She was about five-five and petite in her build. Her manners were sweet and innocent to the untrained ear. But life had not been as fair and things were not as easy with Abby. Abby stood an awkward five-ten and her skin was dark. To the ‘on the surface’ eye, she was considered to be ‘not too pretty’. In my opinion, upon closer examination, her beauty went deeper than anyone at that time could comprehend.

Anyway, back to the story. That night, the joint was jumpin’. It was wired and crowded to the maximum. Abby and Janice had made their way deep into the club so as not to draw undue attention to Abby by the carding waitresses. Janice wasn’t much of a drinker and often tried to get by the two-drink minimum by ordering club soda but Abby liked to have at least one shot of something – just to calm her nerves, she would say.

I’m always the designated driver, Janice would say, adding, Designated drivers always order club soda ya know. I saw that on TV. It’s so chic, she would say, with a big smile. Her freshly painted lips were full and inviting. I often thought that maybe she had invited too many to take a taste of them and that’s why she had such a bad reputation in school, but then that was just me. I