Chapter 7–Return of the Ex

Chapter 7

“What are you doing here?” I ask in surprise.

“What does it look like? I’m here getting my education; I didn’t expect to run into YOU!” Allison states vociferously.

“Excuse me! That’s my boyfriend you’re talking to!” Claudia is standing up off her seat. By now, the auditorium is silent.

“This doesn’t concern you. This is between me and your “perfect” boyfriend,” Allison states matter-of-factly.

“What do you want Allison?” I ask.

“I want to talk to you.”

“Why?”

“I just want to talk to you.”

“Give me one good reason why I should talk to you,” I challenge.

“Look, I want to get this out of the way so we can at least put the past behind us,” I notice a look of sadness in her eyes.

“Okay,” I say.

“What? You’re just going to talk to her after what she did to you?” My girlfriend asks.

“Listen baby, we have a lot of stuff to clear up. I will be right back okay?”

“Okay,” Claudia gives me a hug. After ending the embrace, I notice Claudia eyeing Allison like she is the enemy—in a way, she’s right.

Allison and I walk out into the empty hallway. Normally, the halls are bustling with under and upperclassmen; today, it’s empty for the time being. Allison leads me to the courtyard outside and to a table that is empty. Allison is about two inches shorter than me, has black hair, and is a little stout. Back when we were together, she was the same height, had the same hair, but was very athletic. I look at her for the first time since the last breakup. She looks totally different than she did back then.

“What is it you wanted to talk about?” I ask.

She looks at her hands for a few seconds and then looks up into my eyes. “You know Victor, I really miss you…” her voice trails off.

“I don’t think I miss you,” I say. I know it’s a harsh thing to say, but she really hurt me.

The statement hits her like a slap in the face. “I figured you would say that after what I did to you. I wish you knew how much pain I went through. Every night for the past two years, I kept reliving that night over and over in the back of my mind. I was too young and immature when I made the decision to have sex with one guy while I was with you. What happened was an accident. I really loved you Victor, I really did; I guess my hormones got the best of me,” by now I could see tears in her eyes. “After it happened, I kept beating myself for doing it; to make matters worse, I didn’t even want to tell you for the longest time.”

“I know you didn’t. Your wonderful friends had to spill the details to me. Yeah some great girlfriend you were!” I spit at her.

“Will you stop it Victor? I’m trying to get this off my chest but you’re not making it easy on me!”

“You should have realized what you did was a mistake. I mean, I thought I was what you wanted.”

“Listen Victor, the reason why I didn’t want to tell you is this: the guy who had sex with me raped me!”

“What?!?!” I gasp. Right now, Allison bursts into tears. I don’t know what to say. For two whole years, I had blamed her for what she did without getting the truth. “I didn’t know…I thought…”

“I loved you Victor,” she choked in between sobs. “I never cheated on you; I would never do that. But I never had the guts to tell you that I was raped because I figured you would call me a ho and would hate me.”

“I wouldn’t have done that! If I had known who raped you, I would have stopped him a long time ago!”

“No you wouldn’t,” she takes a moment to blow her nose.

“Why do you say that?”

“If I told you who raped me, you would hate that person forever.”

“Just spit it out. Who is it?” I yell.

“Victor, it’s too hard to think about it, but I can tell you what happened.”

“Go ahead,” I say reluctantly.

“Well, I was having a birthday party at my house that night and I was having a great time you know? The party was a blast; everyone was having fun and I felt like I was on top of the world at 16. That night, this guy came up to me and told me that I was cute. At the time, I received compliments like that all the time. The attention was very flattering and it boosted my self-esteem. He also asked me if I was single to which I replied that I wasn’t single. He was single at the time but I didn’t know it. After that conversation, we parted ways. I went into my bedroom to get something when I heard a knock at my door. I went to open it and it was that same guy. He asked me if I could come in and I told him that he couldn’t (my parents had that rule where no guys were allowed in my room except the person I was dating). He was teasing me saying that my parents wouldn’t know it. I tried to shove him out but he picked me up over his shoulder and dumped me on my bed. He went to lock the door and I yelled out loud for someone to help me. He went and covered my mouth and disconnected my phone from the wall. He grabbed some tape from his pocket and covered it over my mouth. Then, he turned my stereo up as loud as possible to negate my cries and anyone knocking on the door. After that was done, he toyed with me. First, he made me do some things I would never do again. He destroyed my will to fight back. I just kind of sat there with no resistance whatsoever. After he did it, he kept on the tape and plugged my phone back up. He warned me to not say a word or else he would make the next time worse. I didn’t move that night. In fact, everything started going wrong for me. My self-esteem was going down, my grades were dropping, my appearance changed to where I was overweight. As you can see, I worked my butt off to get where I am now.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

“I just didn’t. I thought that it was my fault the whole time. The version that my friends gave you was designed to pry you away from me. You see, my friends were upset because I was dating you. They believed that an African-American and a white person shouldn’t be together. They tried to get me away from you before, but I urged myself to never let anyone come in between us. Well Victor that was what I wanted to tell you.” By now, she had stopped crying. Her body looked fatigued and disheveled, as if she was Atlas forced to carry the Earth on her shoulders for all eternity.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that Allison. I didn’t know! I mean, I knew you wouldn’t lie but I what they told me was very convincing. Plus, I was already upset that night because my cousin had gotten into an accident. So I was easy for me to think the worst. I’m sorry. Please forgive me?”

The tears returned to Allison like a flood. I can not believe how much this girl has endured!

I open my arms to her.

She hugs me.

I kiss her cheek.

Claudia is standing in the entryway of the Courtyard.

“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!” Allison has a look of defeat on her face. She stares at Claudia and then me and shrugs her shoulders.

“You decide whatever you want, but I don’t care anymore.”

“I hope you don’t care, because this is MY boyfriend and he doesn’t need to be around the likes of a ho like you!” Claudia shouts.

“Whatever, you don’t know anything about what I went through! So shut up you bitch!”

“You dare call me a bitch? Why don’t you call me that after I beat you up!”