The Party Never Ends

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay\u27s first paragraph. Alison McCay darted through the door, shut it quickly and locked it, pushing her weight against it to make sure it was shut tight. She threw her keys and the black sunglasses Dr. Kane had given her on the dark grey carpet and checked the lock once more before she flopped down into the fire red bean bag chair which lay beside the window of her dorm room. Her tears were hot, and she could taste the salt on her lips as she let the streams flow down. She was too tired to wipe them away. Her head was heavy, too heavy to hold up, and it dropped back against the bean bag. She wanted to sleep, but the fear of Ed coming back overcame her each time she let her eyelids close for more than a minute. The moon was bright and golden and the light shone through onto her pale face. Black mascara formed big half circles over the puffiness around her eyes. She kept trying to think of ways to tell Shane and her parents what happened. She was terrified they\u27d blame her, that they\u27d tell her she was stupid and naive. She didn\u27t want them to know, but she knew keeping it inside would be too hard to handle. She knew she wouldn\u27t be able to say the words, she couldn\u27t even think them