Underestimated Part 4

she explained.

I laughed. "How did that work out for you?"

"Well, I suck with my money, and I tend to do things on a whim without thinking them through, but I did inherit his inability to sleep once the sun came up."

I left Lauren to replenish the one coffee machine that the men seemed to be the fondest of. Of course it was the plain old black coffee without any flavoring.

"What are you doing after work?" Lauren asked.

Oh, no. I am not going to any more bars with you.

"I am going shopping for some clothes," I answered.

"Really? Where you going?"

"I'm not sure. I was hoping there was something more around here than the dollar general store."

"There isn't. We have to go into Blain for that.

They have a really nice mall. I'll go with you."

I laughed at her audacity but was really quite envious of it.

Chapter 3.

By noon the coffee shop had cleared out, and I found myself bored. I was anxious to get started on the much needed organization of the store, but decided to wait until Monday to tackle it. I was still getting traffic and was busier than any day that I had been there.

Lauren and I went into the much bigger town and shopped. I realized going from store to store that I had never in my life shopped for myself. When I was growing up, I wore hand me downs and things from the local church or Salvation Army. After I married Drew, my shopping was done for me, and I never got to pick anything out for myself.

I felt extremely joyful when I picked out new socks. I had spent the last six years in pantyhose or thigh high stockings. I wasn't allowed to wear socks. They weren't attractive enough. I was even excited about the cute little cotton panties. If I was allowed to wear panties with Drew they had to be s.e.xy, lacy thongs that I hated.

I stood in front of the rack with my hand on the underwear with tiny pink flowers as my mind once again drifted back in time.

Thank G.o.d, Lauren pulled my thoughts away rather quickly when she noticed I was off in another land again.

"Maybe if you talk about it, it might help," she said, touching my hand and bringing me back to the present.

I shook my head. "Sorry, I'm fine," I lied to her and myself.

"I'm going to carry my bags in and I will be over with some beer," Lauren said, once we were in my driveway.

I took the tags from my five new outfits and ran my hand across the leather of my new hiking boots. I thought they would support my ankles a little better when I climbed down the rocky terrain to the beach. I would have rather it been a flip-flop kind of beach, but it wasn't, and I was starting to like it just fine the way it was. I sat on my rock and watched the waves crash against the rocks for at least an hour every evening. My new friend, John, was often there, and he and his dog always stopped to talk to me.

Lauren and I sat out on my deck and listened to country music and drank a six pack of beer.

"Levi asked me for your number," Lauren said, propping her feet up to the adjacent chair.

"Don't you dare," I scolded.

"Don't you want to start dating? I mean you have to be getting frustrated by now."

"I am not the least bit frustrated," I lied, but didn't truly know that I was lying until that moment. Maybe that would help, maybe I did need some relief, but I didn't need Levi or any other man to take care of it. I was perfectly capable of it myself.

"How long were you married," she nosily continued.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "Six years."

"Wow. What did you do get married when you were eighteen?"

I didn't have to answer that question or any more.

Her cellphone rang, and it was Joel telling her he was at her house, wanting to know where she was.

"Gotta go, duty calls," she joked.

I sat on the deck and stared off into the moonlit ocean. I dumped my warm beer over the side railing and heated a nice cup of Starlight's relaxing tea instead. I wrapped myself up in my fuzzy blanket and listened to the waves as they collided with the boulders below. This along with my tea was just what I needed to unwind. It didn't last long when my mind reflected on Lauren's comment about getting married when I was eighteen.

I was exactly eighteen. Drew was there to claim me on my eighteenth birthday. I thought about the weeks before my birthday, and how much the antic.i.p.ation burned my soul. I couldn't believe what I was hearing that night as I lay in my thin walled bedroom and listened to the nice looking man who offered my father twenty five thousand dollars to marry me.

I didn't even know who he was. I had seen him once. He had come to our worn out school and did a seminar after donating five thousand dollars. I remembered sitting right in front of him and listening to him talk about success and getting out of our situations and how valuable our educations were for our future. I admired him.

I shook my head at how infatuated I was with him that day. He was so cute and dressed like nothing I had ever seen before. He had actually inspired me. I no longer wanted to stay in that poverty stricken town. I wanted out.

I wanted to wear fancy clothes like he wore, and drive expensive cars.

He sat beside me on the bottom bleacher once the gym had cleared out. I was in no hurry to go home and often hung around school to keep from it.

"You're a very pretty girl," he said, and my faced turned the darkest shade of red possible.

"Thanks," I said with my head down. How could he say that I was pretty? I was wearing Good Will clothes, and my sneakers were lace-less. My hair was too long and straggly looking, and I didn't own any makeup. Not that my dad would have ever let me wear it anyway. He didn't want me to be a wh.o.r.e like my mom.

I should have run that day. I should have started walking and never looked back.

"You should look at me when I am talking to you,"

he said, and I looked up. I had to. I was already afraid of him, and I didn't even know his name.

"I'm Drew," he said.

"I'm Morgan," I replied and looked down and then right back up.

He laughed, and I didn't think I had ever seen such perfect teeth in my life.

"I am going to marry you, Morgan," he said. I remember choking on my own saliva.

I got up and walked out of the gym, listening to him laugh as I did.

Why would he say that? Why would someone like him want to marry someone like me?

I went to bed that night thinking about Drew, and living the life of luxury. I fell asleep dreaming of the perfect life with the man with the perfect teeth. That dream soon turned into a nightmare when I swore I heard him in my house talking to my father. It was late, very late, and the thin walls did nothing to conceal the private conversation.

I could tell by my dad's slurring words that he was drunk. I lay on the mattress on my floor, trying to stop my racing heart.

"So you're telling me that you want to marry my daughter, and you're willing to pay me twenty five thousand dollars to do so?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I wasn't property. He couldn't sell me. I knew he was going to punch him in the face and tell him to get the h.e.l.l out of his house.

"That's right, Mr. Willow, but there is one condition that is nonnegotiable."

"What?" my father asked.

"She has to be pure. If she's not, I don't want her."

"You mean a virgin?"

"Yes, that is exactly what I mean."

"Well I can guarantee that she is, or she better d.a.m.n well be anyway, but I didn't say she was for sale."

"And what are you going to do with her when she turns eighteen? You know that you are going to lose her welfare and food stamps."

"I didn't say she wasn't for sale either, did I?"

What? This couldn't be happening. You don't sell people. This wasn't some third world country. This was America. Things like that don't happen here.

"Watch you want a girl like her for anyway? I betcha you could have any girl you wanted."

"Oh I could, but, it's time for me to settle down."

"And no other girls will marry you?"

"Oh I have plenty of women that would love to marry me. I am not interested in spoiled little rich girls. I want a pure girl that can be trained to be the kind of wife that I want."

Trained? What the h.e.l.l does that mean?

"Fifty thousand," my dad spat out.

"Thank you for your time, Mr. Willow," he stood to leave, and I was praying that my dad let him.

"Thirty thousand," he retorted, and I couldn't believe what was going on.

"You've got yourself a deal," he said. I was sure they were shaking on it.

The next three weeks were pure h.e.l.l. My dad drove me to school every day and picked me up, insuring that I stayed pure. He didn't go out drinking for three weeks and wouldn't even let me go out after graduation.

We attended the ceremony, stopped at the liquor store and went home to our dumpy little trailer. That was the night that he told me my plans to marry a rich man that was going to take care of me. He tried to make it sound like I was going to be living the life of luxury and he was doing it for my own good. He had forgotten to mention that he was also receiving thirty thousand dollars for selling me off.

I would like to say that my eighteenth birthday was the worst day of my life, but I had many worse days of my life. Drew was there at eight o'clock in the morning to claim me. I had gotten sick so many times during the night, hyperventilating and dry heaving for hours.

He had two men with him. One carried a leather bag, sort of like and old timey doctor's bag. I stayed in my room, rocking back and forth on my mattress, willing this not to be happening.

My dad yelled for me, and I couldn't move. I stayed sitting on the mattress staring at the door with my heart in my stomach. He opened the door and the man carrying the bag that I had watched through the window came in with Drew.

"This nice man is going to exam you a little Morgan," my dad explained.

Exam me? What the f.u.c.k?

My dad stepped out, and Drew closed the door behind him.

"I need you to undress from the waist down," the man said, and I was in panic mode. I wasn't about to take my jeans off in front of either one of them, let alone let him touch me.

I looked at Drew, and he stood in his fancy suit and tie wearing a smirk.

"Why?" I managed to say.

"We just want to make sure that you are not damaged."

"I'm not," I all but yelled.

"Take your pants off, Morgan," Drew said with his dark eyes that scared the h.e.l.l out of me.

I didn't know what to do. This was going to happen whether I wanted it to or not.

After not moving and staring at the two of them in shock, Drew finally squatted to my face and put both of his hands on my knees. "We have a plane waiting on us, Morgan," he smiled.

"I don't want to go with you," I demanded.

He grabbed both my ankles and pulled me flat on my back. I could only stare in total shock. He unb.u.t.toned my jeans and slid them off with my panties in one swift move. I crossed my ankles and covered myself with my hands.

"Spread your legs, Morgan," Drew spoke while the doctor or whatever he was removed a light and some sort of silver tool.

I couldn't even cry. I didn't know what emotions were transpiring as I lay there and trembled.

"Now!" he demanded.

I slowly opened my legs and squeezed my eyes shut. I didn't know which one of them was even touching me. I thought that Drew had been the one who pulled my knees up, exposing my very personal s.e.x. I jumped when I felt the instrument penetrate me and then felt the warmth from the light between my legs.

"Her Hymen is fully intact," the man examining me said, pulling the tool from my v.a.g.i.n.a. I jumped again.

He stepped out leaving me alone with Drew.

"Get dressed, we have to go," he said, and that was when the tears started.

This was really happening. My dad was really going to let this man take me. Drew squatted down to me again and placed his hands on my bare knees after pulling me back to a sitting position.