Theresa and Lisa: Just Starting High School

By Rob Roy

Theresa and Lisa are normal fourteen year old girls, attending a Denver high school and doing what teenage girls do. But life as they know it comes to a screeching halt when both girls face the shock of pregnancy—one as a result of sexual assault, and the other through a relationship with the boy downstairs. As they struggle to adapt to teenage motherhood, family drama, drugs, and alcohol will affect their attempts to raise their sons.

Coming of age has never been explored in such a raw and realistic way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jun 16, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098307493

Rob Roy

Author/editor Rob Roy has been building, researching and teaching about cordwood masonry for 25 years and, with his wife, started Earthwood Building School in 1981. He has written ten books on alternative building, presented four videos-including two about cordwood masonry-and has taught cordwood masonry all over the world.

Book preview

Copyright: 2020 Rob Roy

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

ISBN (Print): 978-1-09830-748-6

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-09830-749-3

Contents

PART ONE

Chapter 1: You Can’t Keep Me from Going!

Chapter 2: Theresa at School

Chapter 3: Lisa—I Gonna Get Me a Baby!

Chapter 4: Theresa and Lisa—Free at Last!

Chapter 5: Lisa…Glenda! Ooh-Oh!

Chapter 6: Theresa—Girls Can’t Afford to Get Drunk!

Chapter 7: Theresa—I Can Write My Own Excuses!

Chapter 8: Theresa—I Heard a Train in My Ear!

Chapter 9: Lisa—Oh…Oh…Oooooh!

Chapter 10: Theresa—They Untie Me During Day Shift.

Chapter 11: Lisa—I Miscarry Again

Chapter 12: Lisa—Kristi Call

Chapter 13: Lisa—I Know You Be Back

Chapter 14: Theresa—My Little Yeast Infection

Chapter 15: Lisa—Someone That Love Me

Chapter 16: Lisa—A Mean Look from Glenda

Chapter 17: Theresa—A Reunion

Chapter 18: Lisa and Theresa—Summertime and Summer School

PART TWO

Chapter 1: Theresa—Back to School

Chapter 2: Lisa—I Don’t Be Sick Anymore.

Chapter 3: Theresa and Lisa

Chapter 4: Theresa—What’s Your Name?

Chapter 5: Lisa—Just Another Day at School

Chapter 6: Theresa—I’ll Be There Everyday

Chapter 7: Lisa—I Write It

Chapter 8: Theresa—Back to Work

Chapter 9: Lisa—Momma and Kristi Be Fallin’ Down!

Chapter 10: Theresa—After the Police

Chapter 11: Lisa—Go Pee in the Cup

Chapter 12: Lisa—Momma Check

Chapter 13: Lisa—It Hurt So Much

Chapter 14: Theresa—Holiday Business Was Good

Chapter 15: Lisa—My Own Apartment

Chapter 16: Theresa—Pant Like a Puppy!

Chapter 17: Theresa—Postpartum Blues

Chapter 18: Lisa—We Buy Us a Car!

Chapter 19: Theresa—March Check

Chapter 20: Theresa—I Went Nuts!

Chapter 21: Lisa—Bambi for Lonny

Chapter 22: Lisa—I Got a Right!

Chapter 23: Lisa

Chapter 24: Theresa

PART THREE

Chapter 1: TJ and Lonny—Life Goes On

Chapter 2: TJ Gets a New Home and Lonny Sees His Dad

Chapter 3: Back to School

Chapter 4: The Christmas Rush

Chapter 5: Just in Time for Valentine’s Day

Chapter 6: Two Babies and a Computer

PART ONE

Chapter One

You Can’t Keep Me from Going!

T heresa! Where are you going? demanded Mom from the open front door that I had, a moment before, slammed shut in her face.

Out! I snarled, only half-turning my face to her when I stopped to answer.

It’s a school night and your grades….

They’re my grades and my business! And I don’t care!

Blotches of red began to grow across Mom’s face as she stood in the open doorway. She reached for the frame to steady herself and snatched her hand back when it hit the scarred, splintered hole left from a previous tenant kicking the screen off.

Then, Mom advanced toward me and I turned to face her, standing firm in the dry grass. I kept my eyes narrow and my face in a sneer. You can’t stop me from going! You can’t stop me from seeing Tom! I spat with the sneer, On Tuesday or ever, I’m grown!

Before I could add another insult, my shoulders slammed onto the ground, and the sudden weight from Mom slamming on top of me forced out the air from my lungs. As I struggled to breathe, I could feel her hands pressed around my neck.

About that time Mom must have realized that she lay on top of me with her hands at my throat. You ungrateful… she exclaimed in surprise and stopped trying to strangle me. Get out! rasped Mom as she solved the problem of what to do with me. She pushed away from me like I smelled rotten and struggled to her feet. I still lay on the ground struggling to breathe and Mom took two deep breaths. She yelled at me, Don’t you ever come back here again! Then Mom straightened her faded blue work shirt and blinked her crying blue eyes that tried to look daggers at me through the dirty blond hair hanging in her face. Finally, she turned, walked back through the open door and into the apartment.

Surprised but unhurt, I scrambled to my feet, took a deep breath, and began to run off into the September evening. As I ran, I brushed some dry grass off the back of my crop top, the skin of my lower back, and the seat of my jeans. I also brushed my hand through my blonde hair, but I found nothing but tangles. Mom was always crabbing at me to take care of my hair.

After several minutes of running, with 7-Eleven store in view, I slowed down, out of breath with my chest heaving. I could see Tom through the window. Tall Tom, with his dark hair, coming down the side of his face and scattering out just past his ears, as he played a video game. Tom had a funny white cross on the back of his T-shirt that moved from side to side as he wrestled with the controls of the video game. I ran in the store.

Go! Go! Go! Shit! Tom complained in exasperation and he slapped the side of the video game he’d just lost as I ran in the door of 7-Eleven. Tom looked down, and as always, he looked past my eyes to my breasts.

What’s up? He questioned to my uplifted chest.

Mom and I had a fight—she threw me out! I announced still out of breath. Isn’t that great? Great for us? I continued trying to catch my breath while still looking up at Tom.

Let’s go party then, Tom suggested. There are always some people getting together at Kevin’s.

All they do at Kevin’s is get wasted, I complained, knowing that one of the first to be wasted would be Tom. They never do anything fun, just get sick, or pass out.

Let’s check it out and see who’s there, said Tom, ignoring my protests. Besides, I’d like to get a little high, relax, and see if there are any other parties tonight. He slid his hand across the bare skin of my back, between my jeans and crop top, pulled me close, and steered me toward the door and his Mustang. It might help you to relax more if you took more than one small pull on a brew or single hit on a joint, he commented on the way out.

Pure volume of sound blasted the night and drowned any possibility of talking once the Mustang started and Tom’s sound system came on. I let myself in from the passenger side after Tom reached across from the driver’s seat to unlock the door. I slid to the middle. Tom, reaching for the floor shift by my legs, ran his hand up the inside of my leg to the point where I stopped him by taking his hand and guiding it to the gearshift. I scolded him by shaking my finger at him knowing that I couldn’t be heard because of the blaring music. Before putting the car in reverse, Tom grabbed a Michelob out of the cooler installed in the back and waved it in invitation to me. I declined, and he opened it up for himself.

A beer and several heavy metal songs later, we parked near Kevin’s and climbed out. Tom got what was left of the six-pack out of the cooler. With the beer dangling in one hand and me firmly in the other, Tom led the way to Kevin’s. Tom and I stepped around and over beer bottles and cans, we cut across the dry grass to the side of the red brick apartments and the stairs down to Kevin’s.

Smells like some good stuff, remarked Tom sniffing as we approached the battered screen door of the apartment. I just wrinkled my nose at the smell of marijuana rising from the basement apartment. I had the feeling that everyone there would be polluted already.

Just inside the screen door, bodies sprawled individually, in couples and in groups on the floor, confirming my suspicions that everyone would be polluted. Each person seemed to hold a beverage in one hand while the empty cans and bottles on the floor served as ashtrays for some of the cigarette butts and roaches. Tom accepted a joint offered as we passed a threesome on the floor who had been sharing it, took a hit, and offered it to me. I declined.

Music blasted the room continuously from a sound system stacked against the wall near the door. We found a place on the floor near the back corner, and sat down. I started nursing one of Tom’s beers and snuggled close to him on the floor. People had to shout into each other’s ears to be heard. I saw that few were even trying.

Kevin touched my hand. I looked over and accepted a joint that I passed on to Tom. Tom took a couple of long hits, and then offered it back to me. I waved it away and snuggled closer. Tom and Kevin yelled in each other’s ear for a few minutes, finished off the joint, and started making another.

While Tom and Kevin occupied themselves making the new joint and smoking it, I watched the traffic in and out of the kitchen. People rose from the floor and turned right into the kitchen for a bottle or a can, returned, rose to go to the bathroom next to the kitchen and back to the kitchen to start over again. Other people, probably unconscious, didn’t move at all on the floor. Tom, after he finished the joint and had a long pull on his brew, interrupted my observations. We got down to the serious business of kissing.

Way too soon for me, Tom went for my neck to leave his mark and slid his hand up under my top. I pulled closer to protect my breasts and he slid his hand around to my back. His fingers started working at trying to unhook my bra. I could feel the clumsiness of the beer and the dope in his hand movements. I knew that he wasn’t going to be able to get it unhooked, not with one hand anyway. I didn’t reach back and help him either.

After a while as he became even more clumsy and frustrated, I had to yell at him. Tom! You’re going to rip the hooks off my bra! There are too many people here anyway. Besides, here comes Kevin. I pushed his hand away. I quickly moved my own hand from the floor before Kevin stepped on it with his steel-toed boots.

Kevin interrupted by yelling in Tom’s free ear. Try this shit, Tom. It’s the best stuff here tonight! After Tom took a strong hit from the joint Kevin offered and coughed, Kevin shouted, It’s a bit rough, but really good stuff, huh? He took the joint back from Tom, took a hit, and squeaked into my ear as he exhaled smoke in my face. Try some, it’s great.

I accepted the joint from Kevin and took a small hit. I gagged and coughed before I could pass it on to Tom. He rescued the joint from my hand, banged me on the back with his hand, and laughed. Kevin offered me his bottle of what I thought was beer to wash the rawness out of my throat. I took a large drink, desperate to stop the coughing, and I gulped stuff that tasted like cough syrup. Kevin and Tom smoked some more and then Kevin smiled at me and drifted away.

Soon, Tom’s eyes started getting glazed and he seemed to slide even closer to the floor. I drank my beer to get the bad taste of Kevin’s drink out of my mouth. Tom didn’t even attempt to talk to me. So, I snuggled close. Before I knew it, drowned in the music and the beer and the stuff that tasted like cough syrup and the dope, I passed out.

As I awoke, I felt strange. Something felt wrong. I felt cold where I shouldn’t be cold. Where was my top? Where was my bra? My breasts were bare and cold. Something felt wrong with my jeans, too. With an effort I dragged my eyes open and looked down to see what I felt. In the dim lights from the open door to the bathroom, I could see that my crop top hung around my neck along with my unhooked bra and that my jeans had been unbuttoned and pulled down from one hip along with my panties.

My other hip and shoulder lay against Tom, my first suspicion, who lay wasted and not moving. Someone had started to undress me while I lay there, and I didn’t know who. The hair began standing up on the back of my neck. I began to check myself as I lay against Tom. My jeans, on the side against Tom, didn’t seem disturbed. And, important places like between my legs and my legs still had jeans on them. My shoes were on.

I moved my legs back and forth and nothing felt wrong, on my body. Nothing felt wrong except for how I felt. Now, no one in the apartment moved. The few other people still in the apartment seemed to be sleeping. Someone had pulled the plug on the music.

I had to get my arm back through the support strap of my bra before I could pull my top down. I pulled down the top and then I arranged and hooked my bra. Tom started to stir as I struggled to pull my pants up. I buttoned my jeans and started nudging Tom, trying to rouse him enough to leave. I didn’t want to be at Kevin’s anymore. My tongue felt like it had grown mold. Even worse, I knew that I had been undressed by someone. They had tried to take off my pants. My stomach ached.

It took the longest time for Tom’s eyes to focus on me when I yelled, Get me out of here.

Getcha w—?

He still looked drunk.

Tom’s watch said it was twenty minutes to midnight when we left.

BLAM! BANG! The sound system blasted when Tom turned the car key. Tom jumped for the switch to turn the system off and then unlocked the passenger door from the inside so I could climb in. Tom drove and soon I recognized the nice Park Hill houses in the neighborhood of his parents’ house. I remembered the time when, before they divorced, I had both a mom and a dad and that we lived in a nice house too.

His parents didn’t wake up when Tom let us in, so we crept quietly to his room. A lot scared and tired, I used the bathroom, rolled up in a blanket on top of Tom’s bed, and waited for sleep. Tom, with bloodshot eyes, complained, I have a large headache. He gave me a kiss, stripped down to his underwear, and crawled under the blankets.

Tom! Tom! yelled his mother through the door from the hall, You’re going to be late for school! Tom answered with a groan and we woke up.

Still dressed in my jeans and crop top and wrapped in the blanket, I sat on the bed and waited for Tom to pull on his pants and put on his shirt before going out to face his mother. Hi Mom, said Tom as he and I walked into the kitchen together. Mrs. Steward turned from the stove when we entered; she started to say something but stopped when she saw me. Theresa had to come home with me last night, Tom explained, Her mom threw her out. This new revelation kept Mrs. Steward quiet long enough for Tom to add reassuringly, No, we didn’t do anything, Mom.

What happened? said Mrs. Steward after a pause, her brow wrinkled as she tried to make sense of the situation.

Her mom tried to strangle her last night and threw her out, Tom continued. I met her at a party at Kevin’s and told her that she could stay here for the night. She couldn’t stay at Kevin’s. You know how rowdy it can get there, and she couldn’t go home.

Mrs. Steward nodded knowingly and said to me, You must need something to eat, you poor dear. Then she added sympathetically, You can stay here as long as you need to. I would never send a child home to abuse.

Thank you, I mumbled. When Mrs. Steward motioned toward the food on the stove, I said truthfully, No, thank you, I’m not very hungry.

At least drink some Tang then, said Mrs. Steward. It’s fortified with vitamins, she added.

Once I had taken the glass, Mrs. Steward paid no more attention to me. She devoted all of her attention to fixing two helpings of eggs and toast. Did you see the weather? she asked looking at Tom.

Tom shook his head. No.

Well, it’s still going to be warm for fall, she informed him. While they ate their eggs, I sipped my Tang in silence. When they finished eating and Tom and I started toward the door and school, she assured me, You can come back here tonight.

On our way to his car, Tom stopped and picked up another six-pack of Michelob from the well-stocked refrigerator in the garage to restock the cooler in his car.

Chapter Two

Theresa at School

Separate and insulated by the music blasting from the car sound system, we drove through the streets of Northeast Denver on our way to school. Squinting into the sun as we crossed Colorado Boulevard, I noticed an early riser hitting golf balls in the park.