Her tears fell like the rain that splashed against her window as she remembered the night she'd had. The beginnings of a black eye were starting to show on her face. Her Prom dress lay abandoned on the floor, torn and dirty. Her only thought as she drifted into forgiving sleep were the words, "I love you," as he had said them that night.

School the next day was hell. The make-up covered the bruises well enough for the masses but, not for her. She stayed quiet all day, not that it wasn't a normal thing, but this was a new silence: full of sorrow and malice.

All through the day she tried to avoid her friends because they were more attuned to her emotional silences but, all in vain.

As her jolly physics teacher rambled on about acceleration due to gravity, Kaitlin, her best and dearest friend leaned toward her across their lab table.

"Elizabeth?" she said empathetically, "Are you all right? You haven't said a word since yesterday." Elizabeth could tell by the way Kaitlin looked that she was truly concerned.

"I'm fine," that was a lie. "Just a little tired from last night." that wasn't. She tried to contort her face into a convincing smile, her blue eyes brightening just enough to get Kaitlin off her back.

She bought it.

"Well.. Ok." Kaitlin said merrily before launching into a monologue of the previous night's events. Elizabeth just smiled and nodded at the right places to keep her going but, despite her interested look, she didn't hear any of it. Her mind strayed back to the night before as her dearly beloved raised his fist in anger... no... Love... and struck her to the ground.