INNER CITY STORIES

Years passed after the incident in the woods that night. The little girl picked herself up from the ground and headed home. No one ever suspected or ever found out what happened that night. She was eleven when that happened and now she is sixteen. She’s in the eleventh grade now and she has a boyfriend who is a senior in her high school. One day they’re hanging out at his house in his room. She’s been alone with him many times before so she doesn’t think anything about it. They’re making out on his bed and he starts raising her shirt and then takes it off. She’s too into the moment to think about what’s happening, so she lets him. He doesn’t do anything else for a few minutes because he’s not sure how she’s going to react; once he sees that she doesn’t protest he keeps going. He lays her down with him on top and slowly reaches down and starts undoing her pants, taking them off slowly and then pacing his hand inside her. She tries to be okay with it and enjoy the moment. She lets him continue as they keep kissing hard, but then she starts getting flashbacks of that night five years before. She can see his face again, the smell of his musk returns, the way he held her so tight, and suddenly she returns back to reality and freaks out. She pushes her boyfriend off of her and jumps up quickly, grabbing the blanket, trying to cover herself as she backs into the corner of his room.

She can’t control herself anymore. She’s crying and has this crazed scared look in her eyes, which startles her boyfriend. He is still lying on the floor where she pushed him and he’s just staring at her in shock. He doesn’t understand what the hell just happened. He thought everything was going well and then all of a sudden -- he starts asking what he did wrong. Why is she freaking out? Did I do something wrong? he wonders. He gets up and walks toward her but as soon as he gets close she starts to freak out so he stops. She can barely get the words to form in her mouth. She is shaking and tears keep falling from her face. All she can say is No, stay away. Not again. I won’t let it happen. She can see that he is completely lost now and she realizes that he doesn’t have the same intentions as that devil of a man from her past. She collects herself in his bathroom and then apologizes to him for what just happened. She sits on his bed with the blanket wrapped around her waist trying to catch her breath as her boyfriend slowly approaches and then sits near her. He doesn’t know what he should do or say. He keeps getting closer little by little, until finally she is in his arms. He asks her if he did something wrong, if she doesn’t want to have sex with him, if she isn’t ready, but she doesn’t say a word. She just lies there in his arms in silence.

They fall asleep for a while, and when they awake he asks her to tell him what happened. She can’t stand the idea of telling him the truth because she doesn’t want him to look at her like she is this injured soul and feel bad for her, or even worse, think she is just a whore because all he can hear is sex at eleven, so instead she tells him that she got scared but that it wasn’t his fault. The truth is she did want to make love with him, but she was too scared because she could still feel those cold rough hands on her from that night long ago. He asks her if she wants to make with him now and she just shrugs. He touches her body gently as before and she allows it.

That night she feels as though it is her first time, as if nothing ever happened and she has been a virgin her entire life. She allows herself to give in to him, to let him take over her body, and she discovers that she actually enjoys the experience. She doesn’t think about that terrible night from the past, she is completely and totally submerged into what is happening in this moment. His hands flow over her soft skin losing themselves in the mystery of her beauty. Their bodies intertwine like vines in the trees. When they finish they lie together on his bed, his arms wrapped around her, holding her so gently as though she might break. The blankets are pulled over them both and she lies next to him with her head nestled in the crook of his neck. For the first time since the terrible event five years before she’s able to be with him and not be scared of what might happen. She can enjoy him as her boyfriend and not feel terrified of some guy who might take advantage of her again.