A Moment

• Blurb
  
• Copyright
  
• Dedication
  
• A Moment
  
• Chapter 1
  
• Chapter 2
  
• Chapter 3
  
• Chapter 4
  
• Chapter 5
  
• Chapter 6
  
• Chapter 7
  
• Chapter 8
  
• Chapter 9
  
• Chapter 10
  
• Chapter 11
  
• Chapter 12
  
• Chapter 13
  
• Chapter 14
  
• Chapter 15
  
• Chapter 16
  
• Chapter 17
  
• Chapter 18
  
• Chapter 19
  
• Chapter 20
  
• Chapter 21
  
• Chapter 22
  
• Chapter 23
  
• Chapter 24
  
• Chapter 25
  
• Chapter 26
  
• Chapter 27
  
• Chapter 28
  
• Acknowledgements
  
• A Note From the Author
  
• About Marie Hall
  
• Marie Hall's Books
  

A Moment

Copyright 2013 Marie Hall

Cover Art by Regina Wamba at www.maeidesign.com Copyright March 2013

Formatted by
Jennifer
Blackstream

Edited by 4 Real Edits

www.MarieHallWrites.blogspot.com

The author acknowledges the copyrighted or trademarked status and trademark owners of the following word marks mentioned in this work of fiction: Silver Springs by Fleetwood Mac, Jell-O, Schlitterbahn,
University
of
Texas
merchandise.

This is a work fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental. Many of the locations within
Austin
are purely from the author’s imagination.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Marie Hall, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in the context of reviews.

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. Thank you for respecting the hard work of all people involved with the creation of this ebook.

Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Marie Hall. Unauthorized or restricted use in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patent Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

Published in 2013 by Marie Hall,
Honolulu
,
Hawaii
,
United States of America

Dedication

To all those too afraid to speak out…

Moment: The dictionary defines a moment as a minute portion or point of time. But for me, it’s more. I see a moment the way a scientist does… the product of quantity (as a force) and the distance to a particular axis or point. A moment is that indefinable period in your life that only makes sense when you look back and you realize I made the right choice. I didn’t know it then, but I made the right choice and I’d do it all over again.

This is my moment…

Liliana Delgado

Chapter 1

Liliana

The smells are the first things that hit me. Huddling into myself, knees tucked under my chin as the hospital doors whisk open and shut, a sick sort of feeling sinks its claws into my stomach. I’m ill. Have been for days.

Throwing up, always nauseous, and my boobs hurt.

Biting my lower lip I glance at my father sitting beside me. Angry doesn’t even begin to describe how he’s feeling. The school called, said their daughter was puking her guts out. He’d seen me puking my guts out the last ten days. Every time he’d give me a look that said, “girl, that better not be what I think it is.”

I close my eyes as the ache in the back of my skull intensifies.

The smells in here are awful-- blood, sweat, and vomit. Beside me a little kid is hacking her lungs out. I’m not a germaphobe, but each time I get blasted with the spray I tuck further into myself and count to five before taking another breath.

Surrounded by people, but I’ve never felt so alone.

I wish mom was here with me. She would hug me, tell me it will be okay. But she hasn’t been feeling good the last year.

Doctors say she’s in the beginning stages of multiple sclerosis, which means dad had to come.

The doors slide open with a loud whoosh. Huffing the bangs out of my eyes I look up and my heart stills.

In fact, everything seems to freeze. It’s a strange sensation, sounds grow dim, and the world recedes to a pinprick of light, a halo that surrounds
him
. I have no idea who he is, a perfect stranger in a room full of them, but something about him stands out and makes me notice.

He has dark wavy hair and intense blue eyes. He stands squinting in the doorway and it’s obvious why he’s here. The entire left side of his face is a swollen mass of discolored skin. Grabbing onto the corner of his jaw, I notice his knuckles are also split open. Hard eyes scan the waiting room, and for a second, I glimpse in his face the same emotion I’m feeling right now.

Anywhere but here…

Then our eyes meet. He’s older than me, I can tell. There are whiskers on his cheeks, and he doesn’t look like a boy.

Especially not like the boy who did this to me.

The look lasts only a second, but feels more like an eternity-- a stolen moment in time that exists outside of where we’re at right now. But like so much in my life, it’s fleeting.

He sits far in the back of the room.

I want to turn and look. To see if I’d been right and he’d understood-- if somehow a stranger understood
exactly
what I was going through.

But I can’t, because then a nurse comes out and calls my name.

“Liliana Delgado?” Her voice is calm, cool, and it sends chills straight through me. Wrapping the ends of my thick sleeves around my closed fists I sit like a deer in the headlights, spooked out of my mind with a mouth tasting like cotton.

“Get up,” my father growls low, for my ears only.

Coming here, it’s just a formality. We all know, but it’s one of those things that you can ignore until you no longer can.

Swallowing hard, I look back at the guy one last time.

He has his face turned and is staring at the wall. No one is going to save me from this.

Grabbing my stomach, I force my feet to move. The nurse’s smile is small, but reassuring. My father’s look is full of hate.

An hour later he won’t even look at me.

The test is positive.

At fourteen, my life is over.

***

Ryan

Fuck! This is just what I need.

The bastard had cracked my jaw in two places, granted they’re hairlines, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t throb like a sonofabitch.

It’d been worth it though.

I smirk, even though doing it makes the pain feel like someone’s shoved a hot poker through my face. I don’t care. It’s done. Over. Never again.

The doctors gave me pills, sent me home.

Home.

I don’t have one of those anymore.

But I don’t care. I’m more free now than I’ve ever been. My parents, they’ve never believed me. Just think I’m a big fucking screw up. I barely graduated high school.
There goes Ryan, such a disgrace to his parents. Such good god-fearing people, what a shame to be saddled with something like that.

I’d heard it all before.

It’d stopped bothering me a long time ago.

But today I’d had to do it-- had to confront my uncle, because I’m eighteen and I’m a man and I had to show him that.

Never again. Not to anybody else. I’d pounded that truth into his fat face with my bloody fists.

Flexing my fingers I stare at the swollen and distorted mass of tissue, the sun is beating down on my head. All I have left in this world is the clothes on my back. I’m not going back home, couldn’t even if I wanted to.

My dad kicked me out after the fight, says he can’t handle me anymore. Honestly, I think he would have found a way anyway, but this fight was the perfect excuse-- a way for him to maintain his spotless reputation within the community.

All I’ve ever wanted is for him to fucking believe me. But his chance is over. I’m done and no matter what anybody else says, I’m not stupid, but with my grades there won’t be any college in my future.

Glancing down the busy street it takes me all of two seconds to decide where I’m going.

Away.

Far, far away from
Austin
,
Texas
. In fact, I want out of the country.

I can’t breathe here anymore.

I’m joining the Marines and I’m going to war.

Chapter 2: Seven Years Later

Liliana

He’s screaming again.

Groaning, I open my eyes, stare at my ceiling and wonder what will happen if I just ignore him.

But I can’t, he’s my baby.