There were too many impaired teenagers to send home that night so it was decided that if you could stay the night, stay. You were one of them. I was perfectly able to go home but you looked sick now and tired. I remember when Justin came downstairs to announce that if you were going home you had to go now because Dylan was locking the door and activating the alarm system. It was already very crowded in the house and I was crushed sitting beside you trying to keep a conversation going. I didn’t want that night to end. When I got up to leave, you jerked awake and grabbed hold of my wrist. I shot my head around surprised and you asked in a caring voice, “Are you leaving now?”I nodded and you tried to get up but instead fell even deeper into the couch. I sat back down beside you checking your temperature and asking if you felt sick. You then said, “I’m not sick, at least I think I’m not. I might be in a few hours, oh maybe minutes. I just don’t want you to go yet. I didn’t get your cell number. Wait a few more minutes till I find my cell ok?”You tried to get up again, this time I held onto you. I was confused why it was important that you find it now. I told you that I could just write all that information on a piece of paper and you refused saying you could lose it. I then suggested your arm and you turned to me, swaying and said,“Why can’t you stay the night?”
I ended up staying the night. Looking back on it now it looks like I was completely hopeless. Liking a guy and listening to his request for me to stay the night. I liked you a lot though, so does that make it alright?
When I awoke the night morning you were already up drinking coffee with Justin and Dylan. You were sober now and I was embarrassed. Nothing happen I know, but I was afraid at how you would treat me now that you were sober. I walked into the room where all three of you sat and said good morning. Uri, you can try to deny it but your head was the first to shoot up and towards me, and in those few seconds I saw the embarrassment on your face and how timid you acted towards me.
We must have been nearly there. The sun was beginning to dip deep now into the hillside picturesque to my right and I could feel the last remnants of the sun’s glow touch my face. The road was rougher now as Mr Brown drove on up the winding hill. The memories were tempting and painful. I wanted to see more but was afraid of the pain I would experience after. Which one would come next? I had locked them out, and there was no way for me to choose since I had nearly forgotten them all.
Before I could make up my mind the next memory had sashayed into my fortress and gave me what I was deliberating about.
This memory was agonising and slowly the numbness my body had fallen into was unthawing. We weren’t dating but we did become very close over the next few weeks following the party. It was the middle of spring now and I remember staying out later than usual because of the warm weather and the late, setting sun. We conversed through the phone and through text, but because of our schedules, we didn’t see much of each other. On this one night the sky had darkened earlier because of the grey clouds that were forecasted to bring showers in the middle of the night. We were texting as I walked home. You knew my exact location; I had forgotten to ask.
It must have been close to midnight and it was a Saturday, two of which never really clicked into my head. I was oblivious of my surroundings and didn’t notice that the men across the street at the local bar had taken a liking to me. While I waited at the stoplight, the men watched, and began to move further up the street, wisely understanding that I would still be continuing up the street for another block or so. You didn’t tell me that you had left from your location and were on your way to meet me. I innocently thought nothing of it when you asked every now and then where my location was. Then when you told me you had to stop texting but wished me a goodnight, it sent no suspicion down my back.
Those men I had talked of were following me. When I had turned the block they predicted I might, you stopped texting me and that’s when I first noticed them. I listened intently to the faint footsteps behind me, the faint steps of someone trying not to sound too obvious. It was two blocks up that they first called out to me. Addressing me as ‘sweet cheeks’ and asking where I was going on such a beautiful night. I found nothing beautiful about it. You knew that I didn’t and had sent me a picture of a beautiful sunny day. Likely some picture you found in a magazine. I continued on, picking up my pace and trying to ignore them. They persisted.
I had felt my heart quicken as I heard their footsteps pick up. They still tried getting my attention by calling out to me but I didn’t want it. I called back that I was very well and heading home. I thanked them for the offer of a drink but said I must refuse. They then asked for me to slow down so that they could get a look at the beauty that had turned them down. I turned around then and tried to get the point across that I didn’t want anything they were trying to offer me. I was scared then when I saw how many men there were and how old and tall they were. They came closer with smiles. I wasn’t sure if I was going to become another rape statistic or if these men would leave me alone after they got a look at my face.
When the men were just half a block away I heard the words'do it’and ‘no one will know’whisper through one man’s mouth. I narrowed my eyes on him and noticed how tall and lean he was. He could out run me, I knew that, but the other men couldn’t. They were all much older looking and heavier than this man. I smiled and in a firm voice said that I didn’t associate with strangers and that whatever they think they want from me they wouldn’t be getting. With that I turned on my heel and picked up my pace. They did the same. The one lean man said they were hurt that I thought such a thing about them and how rude I was being. I could sense from his voice aggression and in that moment I grew very afraid. I could scream. I told them if they didn’t leave me alone I would call out for help. That’s when the lean man said, “Do it. That makes it fun.”
Before anything could happen, before I could feel the full effects of the fright running through me or the numbness in my knees and how pathetic I felt, you appeared.
Even now I feel how lucky I was. It was like a scene out of a movie. The one where the man saves the girl just in the knick of time. Those scenes usually follow a lot of tears on the girl’s side and undying love and passion on the man’s. Our scene never turned out like that.
You called out to me from across the street, “Asia! Your late, I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” I snapped out of whatever state I was in and yelled sorry. I then ran straight towards you. When I got in view of your face I saw how unsettled you were. Your features were tense and unpleasant. You threw your arm around me and we walked back towards the street that I turned off of. I remember feeling so flustered. Your body was close to mine and your arm was thrown over my shoulders pulling me even closer. I wasn’t weak. But from that incident I learned that I was easily taken over from shock and surprise.
