Saving Love

The dim light came into the cluttered attic. Carrie was sitting on a bed that didn't fit her stature. The vicious abuse were coming from outside, she had to suffer in silence with her head bowed.

"Bastard, you are not the princess in this house anymore."

"You're nothing for us!"

"Why not die and go find your parents!" .

......

With tears in her eyes, she looked up but accidentally hit the roof. Carrie rubbed her head and lay down. She picked up the necklace on her chest, inside there was a small photo of a family of three, her parents were smiling at her lovely and dearly , while little Carrie was making a face naughtily.

Carrie’s parents has passed away for ten years. When she was eight, her parents moved to a new city with her, they moved in a big house, and took this picture in this new house.

She never thought of her parents got killed by an accident, they both wounded severely and passed away, leaving her alone. Her aunt’s family from the country moved to her new house, but they forced her to move to the attic. Carrie had been trying to escape from her aunt's family after graduation.

Bang, bang, bang! A crazy crash of the door interrupted Carrie's thinking, cousin Lisa stood in the doorway, leaving a pile of dirty clothes and old newspapers, and asking Carrie to wash the clothes, newspapers to throw away.

Carrie got out of bed and looked down to see a sunny big boy with a baseball on the cover of the school paper. His smile was clean. His ice-blue eyes shone like stars. ghost Carrie picked up the magazine, Lisa urged the voice sounded, Carrie did not think to throw the magazine on the bed, with clothes and other things downstairs.

"What a drag. Can you hurry up? I'm going to wear it tomorrow." Lisa said impatiently, holding the milk.

"Just throw them into the washing machine, don’t you?" Carrie snapped back at Lisa.

Lisa went to find Carrie's aunt after Carrie confronting her. Then came the curses and insults from her aunt, and Carrie just ignored them.

Back in the attic, Carrie lied down in bed, and picking up the school magazine, Eric. Carrie knew about him, he’s the star of the school , and many girls like him. But Carrie never looked at him seriously, and she just found out he is so good-looking.

Suddenly the phone rang, it was Celtic,Carrie just hung up the phone.Celtic is Carrie's ex-boyfriend. Carrie has been working to support him, but she found out he was fooling around.

Carrie just broke up with him, but he has been calling all the time to harass her. Carrie didn’t want to have anything to do with him.However after she hang up the phone again, she received a message, attached with a blurry photo.

Celtic asked Carrie to meet at school, if she didn’t show up, he will definitely get back on her. Even though the photo was blurry, but Carrie still can recognized it was her. Carrie was terrified, when did he take this photo?

Carrie left the house on bike in a hurry. She was so worried that she didn't notice the opposite car and crashed into each other. Carrie sat on the ground rubbing her legs. It’s him! Carrie’s heart was racing, she rejected Eric’s hand and stood up.

"I'm sorry. It was my fault. I’m Eric."

"Ne...Never mind. I didn't see you." Carrie was still looking down, trying to control her racing heart.

Eric noticed that Carrie's palm was rubbed, then he handed the band-aid to her. Carrie took the band-aid, and ran away as soon as possible .

"Carrie, what's the matter with you? Carrie's best friend Judith noticed that she was injured and asked her about it.

"I just fell on the bike. Don't worry." As Carrie comforted Judith, she opened her closet, and several covered photos were in it, which looked like a naked back in the shower.

Carrie was afraid Judith may found out,so she stuffed them into her book. Judith noticed Carrie’s flustered look on her face. She grabbed the book from her hand, Carrie tugged at her, and those photos fell to the floor.

Judith couldn’t believe her eyes, covered her mouth with her hand, and her soft voice suddenly shrieked, "Carrie, what’s this?"

Carrie was late. Judith had already cried out. Many people heard the sound and came over. Carrie saw they were looking at her differently and even laughing secretively.

Carrie crouched down to pick up those photos, and someone just spat at her.

"Hey, get away! "The crowd was pushed away and Carrie didn't have the courage to look up. She just wanted to get out of here.

The man crouched down to help Carrie pick up those photos and chased away the crowd.

"Eric! " Carrie was surprised to find that it was Eric. Oh my god, at her most embarrassing moment, she met him again.She was both embarrassed and furious, and her face was burning and eyes running.

"Are you all right? " Eric asked with concern.

Carrie was silent and it seemed like time just stopped. Judith broke the silence and toke Carrie into the corner, Judith asked Carrie, "Honey, when did you meet Eric? "

"I don't know Eric. "

"Come on. Maybe we can ask him hang out next time. "

"I really don't know him, Judith, I think I have to go. " Carrie didn’t have the mood to deal with Judith. And Judith stopped asking her anything about it as well.

"I'll keep a secret for you. We all make mistakes, Carrie. I trusted you. "

"Thank you, Judith. "

Carrie went to the address Celtic just sent her in a haste ,it was a motel.

Carrie took out the key,opened the door, and the room was pitch dark.Too late to turn on the light, Carrie was hugged by a person. The heavy smell of wine made her breathless, Carrie wanted to struggle, but failed.

"Let me go! "

"Just behave well, if you don’t want me to send those photos to others and spread the word, just listen to me,after tonight,I’ll leave you alone. " The man was threatening her,whispering in low voice.

Carrie was too stiff to move. It was Celtic. Carrie didn't know what the other pictures Celtic in hand, she did not know what to do in this moment and just let him has his hands all over her.

"Rumor has it you're still a virgin,so let me get a taste of it tonight. " As he spoke, Celtic pushed Carrie onto the bed, laid a heavy weight on her, and tore at her clothes. The sound of tearing clothes suddenly woke her up, and Carrie began to struggle violently.

"Celtic, let me go, we're done. "

The more Carrie struggled, as if she was encouraging Celtic, the stronger Celtic’s lust aroused. Carrie clearly felt Celtic’s change, she began to panic, she has never been so close contact with a man. Celtic used to ask for money from her,but he never laid a hand on her.

Carrie reached to the lamp on the bedside table, grabbed it and hit to Celtic's head with all her strength. Celtic was very painful and held his head with pain. In the meanwhile, Carrie escaped from Celtic, opened the door and ran away as fast as she could.Carrie heard Celtic was cursing behind, she ran as fast as she could without looking back.

It was getting dark and there was no car around. Carrie found her clothes was torn and her skin was so red because of Celtic’s scratches. Some thugs on the roadside saw Carrie was alone, whistling to coax her to come around. Carrie was crowded by them, she walked wobbly and couldn’t go away, Carrie fell into despair. A light hit Carrie,she squinted. The window rolled down. It was him again!

Eric sat in the car and waved to Carrie. Carrie didn’t think too much,jostling the thugs and got into his car. Eric took off his shirt and laid on Carrie.

"Thank you. "Carrie tucked her head between her arms.

She thought it was a bad day. Eric sent her home.The house was dark, Carrie wanted to sneak in, but when she got into the living room ,lights turned on. Lisa stood in the doorway, she saw Carrie was wearing a man's shirt, reached out to pull her in.

Carrie avoided Lisa's hand, and Lisa screamed in a sharp cry: " Mom, Carrie is wearing man's clothes! "

The aunt's insults came to Carrie's ears. Carrie closed the attic door behind her. She covered her ears and tried to ignored the knocks and curses from outside. When her best friend Judith called, Carrie was helpless and wanted to get some consolations from her.

However,Judith said: "Celtic's hurt. He just went to the hospital,you really beat him up. "

Carrie sobbed : " He was trying to rape me. I was forced to do that. "

"What? Did you two have sex? "

"No, Judith. Can you keep my secret? "

"No problem. Hey, Carrie, what's your aunt talking about? Are you really a call girl? "

The voice outside Carrie's aunt's door was overheard by Judith, she didn’t know how to explain to her. To prevent her aunt from saying anything else, Carrie just hung up and told her she would explain to her later.

The next day, Carrie was eager to explain to Judith, but she heard someone in the bathroom was talking about her being a call girl in the motel.

The students saw her outside the ladies’ room, laughing as she walked by and asked, "Do you get a load by that? "

Carrie received all kinds of messages and private messages from her mobile phone and social networking sites, all of them were asking the price. When she opened her social networking account, she found that someone had posted her photos and contact information on the internet, indicating the price. Carrie turned off her cell phone and wanted to escape from it.

When she came out from the teaching building, she was stopped by Judith, she forced to take her to the baseball game, Carrie explained to Judith that she did not want to, Judith said she just wanted to know the truth. Isolated as she was ,Carrie had no one to trust, Judith was her only friend ,she believed her when Judith said yes.

As her only friend in school, she didn’t want to disappoint Judith,and Judith trusted her.So Carrie agreed when Judith entreated.

Carrie looked down and walked to the pitch with Judith. As soon as Carrie walked into the ballpark, she became the center of attention. All eyes on her. The cheerleaders pointed to her.

"Look! Who’s that? It’s the famous Carrie!" Barbara nuzzled, and the others was coaxing.

Barbara was the cheerleader in the school, and Carrie had never been in contact with cheer leading team, and she didn't know why Barbara was suddenly so hostile to her.

Judith shielded Carrie behind her and tried to protect her,she said: "Barbara, Eric fell for Carrie. He does not like you at all. Don't embarrass yourself."

Carrie was touched because she thought Judith was trying to protect her, but what was that supposed to do with Eric anyway?

Barbara was infuriated , dragging Carrie over and slapped her in the face badly. That slap was so hard that Carrie couldn’t stand straight and her ears were whining. Judith was also trying to reach out for her,they were both pulling and dragging,one of them just lost her grip and Carrie just bumped to the chair. Before she lost her conscious, she was hold by the strong arms.

"Eric! "

Carrie woke up in school’s hospital,and Eric was leaning on the bed right next to her. Carrie’s heart was racing and she blushed with embarrassment, she was too nervous to move. Eric found out she was awake,then he reached out to touch her forehead, while his face was closing to hers,she could feel his breathe.

"The fever was gone, did you still have a headache,Carrie?"

It was too close, Carrie’s breathing became rapid,she could see Eric’s eyelash clearly and smell the faint peppermint from his body.Freshened up by the air, Carrie was much more sober than before.

She said in a shaky voice. "Thank you so much!"

She was so embarrassed that she just hided behind the blanket and crouched in the bed, and Eric just laughed about it.Carrie peeped from the blanket and their eyes met, Carrie just sank into his ocean-blue eyes. They were involuntarily getting closer and closer...

'Clap,clap,clap.' They were woken by the applause ,

There was a smoking guy with gauze wrapped in his head and flipped the ashes into the ground,sneered to them.

"Well, well ,well. What a slut, just getting out from my bed and now you are already hooking up on someone else.Good job."

Celtic was getting closer to Carrie while he was talking, she was scared , shameful and wanted to retreat,but there was no way to go when she thought about what he just did to her last night...

Just when she was in dilemma, Eric hold her hand, comforted her and stood before her to protect her, Carrie looked at the man standing right before her,she thought his figure was so strong and powerful like he could carry the world on his shoulder and in the meanwhile his handsome face became more aggressive and hardened.

Celtic threw away the cigarette and punched Eric without expectation.Carrie was too scared to breathe and worried Celtic may hurt him. But Eric dodged away nimbly, fought back and hit right on his nose.

Celtic shouted at them while rubbing his nose: "I would get to you later. I promised."

Eric paused when he heard what he said, staring at him, and made Celtic nervous, stepping back involuntarily.

Eric ignored him and walked back to Carrie, said coldly: "We would wait for it."

Celtic was knocked and left right away, Carrie relaxed and thank Eric again.

Eric rubbed her face and said: "You got to take good care of yourself, and you have to fight back,if you put up with it, he will become more and more rampant."

Carrie was flipped,it was so surreal, she could not believe he was so nice.

And Carrie could not help herself asking him: "Would you like to have a dinner with me?" But she regretted after she said it out loud.

"Hey, you just promised,no backing out." It seemed like Eric knew Carrie’s thought, and he accepted.

Right before Carrie was stuck, the infirmary doctor walked in and tested her temperature.

"She’s free to go now." Eric smiled slyly and helping her get down, Carrie couldn’t resist it and they walked out of school together.

The dim light in the restaurant made the air affectionate.Eric was sitting across Carrie, as they were getting to know each other, the uneasiness was gone, and she could even making jokes with him,they were having a great time.

But Carrie didn’t notice someone was looking viciously at her in the distance, and seemed that Carrie just did something horrible to her.

However, Carrie still was enjoying this perfect evening unknowingly and had on idea what’s going to happen.

"As in return, how about seeing a movie with me?" Eric took out two tickets from nowhere.

"It seems like I can not refuse to you." They walked out from the restaurant side by side and someone was right after them. Carrie felt like someone was looking at her, and making her very uncomfortable. Eric also noticed that and asked her:’Is there something wrong?’

‘I always feel like someone is following us, maybe I am just thinking too much.’

‘Relax, I got this.’

While they were walking into the theater,Eric helped her gentlemanly.His hand was a little bit cold,the peppermint smell from him refilled around her again. Carrie was obsessed with it,so she slowed down her steps accidentally. Carrie was a little bit distracted,she was dating Eric? Eric brought her a coke, put the straw to her lip, smiled to her, very passionate. Carrie’s eyes met Eric’s again, and Eric was closing to her.Her face received the warmth of the breath.

No, no, she couldn’t cross the line, Carrie warned herself silently.

Her cheeks blushed with shyness,reeling slowly and said quietly:’The movie has already begun.’

Eric pretended he was disappointed and acted like a child having things his way,said: "Oh,that was too bad,the movie has begun."

When the movie was over, Eric drove her home.On their way home,Eric suddenly pulled her over carefully.

"Carrie,can you be my girlfriend?"

Carrie looked at him with shock,did he really like her? After those awkward incidents, she didn’t know what to do when he confessed to her all of sudden. Was he playing some kind of hard-to-get trick?