The Tracks

By Debbie Blankenship

Sky Stevens is sixteen and has just watched her best friend die. Now she has to tell her parents that she is pregnant and wants to marry a man more than twice her age. Justin Rimmer has always told her he is wiser than all the boys her own age, but after Skys parents throw her out of the house, she wonders if it is true. As she silently prays for help, Justin gives her a pill that takes her heartache awayeven for just a little while.

As she takes her wedding vows, Sky wonders if she will ever have a choice in life again that Justin does not make for her. Seemingly destined to live in a dirty trailer and endure her new husbands verbal and physical abuse, Skys already tragic life takes a turn for the worse when she receives horrible newsher parents have been killed in a car accident. Sky barely has time to grieve before she delivers her baby in a neighbors front yard.

Suddenly thrust into the responsibilities of motherhood amidst chaos, addiction, and abuse, Sky must summon the courage to take back her life from a man determined to ruin her forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Apr 28, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462012275

Debbie Blankenship

DEBBIE BLANKENSHIP lives in Trezevant, Tennessee, with her husband, Charles, and their dog, Poochie. Debbie and her husband enjoy spending time with their granddaughter, who is the center of their lives. This is her first novel.

Book preview

SKU-000448999_TEXT.pdf

DEBBIE BLANKENSHIP

iUniverse, Inc.

Bloomington

The Tracks

Copyright © 2011 by Debbie Blankenship

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4620-1226-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4620-1227-5 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev. date: 04/22/2011

This book is dedicated to my mother, who went

to be with Jesus on February 23, 2010, and to my

granddaughter, who gives me the meaning to go on.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Chapter VII

Chapter VIII

Chapter IX

Chapter X

Chapter XI

Chapter XII

Chapter XIII

Chapter XIV

Chapter XV

Chapter XVI

Chapter XVII

Chapter XVIII

Chapter XIX

Prologue

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I woke up with such fear I knew something had to be wrong. At first, I was afraid to look around—would I see something or someone that did not belong here? But I had to. I had to check on the baby. Someone might be trying to hurt the baby!

I forced myself to get up. I had to. My legs felt as though they were made of iron. I could hear Justin breathing in the dark bedroom. Should I wake him? I asked myself. No. If this is only my imagination, he will give me the talk and make me take one of those damn pills that make me feel like shit. I will check it out myself.

I walked down the hallway to the baby’s room. All was quiet. He was sound asleep, making noises that only a child can make and still sound cute.

As I watched him breathe, I recalled how difficult it was to decide to have him circumcised. Justin said I was silly to ponder such things. However, it was Tim’s body we were talking about. A decision that he would have to live with. Finally, I had just let Justin tell the doctors what to do, and he told them to do it.

It had come to the point that Justin made all the decisions. I guess I was okay with it. After all, I was only seventeen. Justin was thirty-nine—older and wiser. That was what he told me, anyway, so it must have been true.

I better get back to bed. If Justin wakes up and finds me roaming around at this time of night, he will make me take a pill. I hate pills.

Chapter I

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Did you tell Justin? Sandy asked me as we walked home from school. Sandy had been my best friend since fourth grade. She looked at me sincerely through her beautiful green eyes. She really was beautiful. I often wondered why Justin had picked me and not her. After all, Sandy and I had been walking down this same street the first time Justin had stopped his car to talk to me.

God, he was so handsome. Tall, lean but muscled, golden tan, dark eyes, and dark wavy hair. He made me melt every time he looked at me. I fell in love with him before the engine of his car had cooled off.

At first, we just rode around in his car. It was so cool. None of the boys in school had a car as nice as this. One of my classmates asked me if Justin was my father. I slapped her in the face and got detention for a week. Sandy made it all okay. She said Kim was just jealous. Sandy said Justin was sexy, and that fixed everything for me.

The rides started getting shorter and the parking longer. At first, we were just kissing and holding hands. Sure, I had done that a little with a few boys my age, but with Justin it was so different. He had some kind of electrical power over me that made every nerve in my body respond to the simplest touch. The night he kissed me ever so lightly on the neck and cupped my breast in his hand, I thought my heart would explode. What was I doing? What was I letting him do? Exactly what I had promised Mamma and Daddy I would not do.

After a night of heavy petting, Justin told me that he would take me somewhere special. I was so excited. He had never taken me anywhere. The next day, I could hardly wait for him to pick me up. I always walked down to the corner of the street to meet him. I hadn’t told my folks about him yet; I always said I was going to Sandy’s. They never questioned me. I had never lied to them before.

I saw him coming in his shiny car just as I reached the corner. I opened the car door and hopped in, greeting him with a smile. He smiled back with dimples that could slice you open and eyes glittering like black diamonds. He handed me a single red rose. Neither of us spoke. He just drove. Then, there we were: in front of a hotel.

Oh no, my mind was racing.

What’s wrong, he asked.

I … uh … nothing, I lied. We went inside. He already had a key for the room, so I knew this was not a spur-of-the-moment idea. I could barely breathe. My heart pounded in my head. The room was dark and smelled like mildew. Justin flipped on the light. Two chairs, a TV, a desk, two end tables, and a bed pretty much wrapped up the room.

Come and sit down, he said, patting the mattress next to where he sat on the bed. I did as directed. He kissed me, and I went stiff as a board. Okay, baby? He looked at me so lovingly. Am I making you uneasy? I thought you wanted this as much as I did … or are you a little girl, a little girl dick teaser?

No, Justin, no, I cried. I am not a tease. I love you.

Then show me, Justin said, his dark eyes almost dancing. If you love me, make love to me!

But I have never … I mean— How could I tell him I was a virgin?

You mean you’re a virgin?" he asked.

Yes. I’m sorry. I was on the verge of tears now. He must think I am such a loser! He reached for me and hugged me gently.

Don’t be sorry. It’s wonderful. I should have known. You are so perfect. So young and beautiful and perfect. I will be the lucky guy that gets to make you a woman.

It did not sound right, these things he said, but I was six weeks shy of being seventeen. He was older, of the world, not a kid like me. And yes, I wanted to be a woman—his woman.

Let me give you something to relax, he said, rising from the bed. He reached into the tiny fridge and pulled out two beers. "Drink this beer and take this pill. It will get you in the mood, help you relax … and enjoy."

I did as I was told, dazed even before the drug took effect.

He undressed me, touching me everywhere a man can touch a woman. I tried not to mind it, trapped as I was in my own body with him routing and poking, biting and licking, devouring me like sacred prey.

Afterward, there was blood all over the bed, my bottom, my legs, and Justin. He got up and went to the shower. I just lay there fighting back the tears. Was this what it was all about?

When he got out of the shower, he came to the bed and sat down. His nude body was glistening with water. He gently stroked the side of my face. Sky, he said, it’s going to be better for you next time. Take this pill—it will make you feel better, and here, you will need this. He handed me a tampon.

After that, it was always sex, sex, and sex. And pills; do not forget, those damn lousy pills.

Chapter II

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Yeah, he does, I answered Sandy, and he is not too happy! I had started to cry by then.

What are you going to do? she asked, crying too.

Justin said it’d be okay after he cooled off. He said he wants to marry me.

Then, there you go! Sandy replied.

What am I going to tell Mamma and Daddy? That I am sixteen, pregnant, and getting married? Not and live to tell about it!

Sandy looked at me for a long time. We had stopped walking by then, and we were sitting on the curb a ways from our houses. I am sure everything will work out. I nodded, but I don’t know if either of us believed it. Sandy stood up; we both knew our mothers’ dinner hours beckoned. I have to go now, she said, and she