⚠️  Warning: difficult content ⚠️ 

---

He pushes me onto his bed. “Let me see your piercing.”

I get up and laugh, flashing my belly button ring and hoping for a smile back.

No smile. He pushes me back on the bed.

I get up halfway and he grabs my wrists. I struggle in an arm wrestle I didn’t sign up for – he wins.

I’m on the bed and I can read his mind through his penetrating and determined eyes.

My eyes dart everywhere looking for a solution and hoping I don’t need one. I continue to laugh as though it will have some magic power to change his plan. If I just keep laughing, this will be a joke. I’m giving him an out – Please, my eyes plead, tell me you’re joking.

He’s not joking.  He’s holding me down.

I look up to the basement window of his room. The sky looks blue from way down here – a lovely afternoon.

And then I see legs – glorious legs – walking past the window and then voices coming in the front door upstairs.

He yells, “Fuck!” and releases me. The joke is over.

I gather myself and race past him up the stairs, past his friends, and out the door.

I speed all the way home and never speak to him or see him again.

I tell no one. I was only almost raped.