It was spring break of my senior year, and all of my friends decided to go on vacation. I decided to stay home in my little town Crown Point. It was a pretty typical spring break for a girl living in a small town, but that would all soon change with one text message.
I had just jumped out of the shower and looked at my phone when I found a message from a boy whose name was very familiar…
This boy's name wasn't just familiar to me, but familiar to the majority of the high school girls in my town. Although he was a few years older, everyone knew him. He was the running back of the football team, one of the cutest guys in school, and overall every high school girl's dream boy. He was the boy in high school who got away with anything, he even got around the punishment of having drugs in his car during school.
And for some reason, that boy was messaging me? My curiosity led me to respond to his "Hey, how are you doing?" message.
Soon enough I was driving my car to pick him up from his house to bring him to mine. I was confused as to why he didn't have a car, but I wasn't going to ask questions. I was still so honored he had chosen to message me out of all the girls in our town.
When I got to his house, he jumped in my car and we talked to the whole ride home. He explained that he has been in trouble in the past, so he moved back home to get a job and get back on his feet. I have always been understanding in the past, and I truly believe if someone wants to get better they can so I encouraged our friendship.
When we finally pulled up at my house he informed me that his friend was wanting to come over and hang out too, and asked if I could bring another one of my friends over. I called up one of my girlfriends to get to my house ASAP. Although I found this odd, I didn't ask questions, I didn't want to ruin this opportunity to hang out with him.
We spent the next 2 days hanging out, me driving over to pick him up, him inviting his friends over, and us all hanging out.
Yes, I get it. This was a weird situation, but I never thought it was odd at the moment. I really thought he was trying to become a better person. 3 days went by and he and I were having fun with our friends hanging out at my house. We would listen to music, watch movies, and just talk and gossip.
Day 4 was the day everything changed. I had begun receiving Facebook messages from his "girlfriend". The girlfriend was 2 years older than me, and she was someone I had known in high school. I had even taken prom pictures with her before. I thought we were friends…
The girlfriend was calling me every name in the book. I was confused because this boy had told me in the past him and this girl were not together, so I sent a message to him right away. He explained that they had not been together in a while and that I should just ignore it. I decided to block this girl on Facebook, but she then began following me on every other social media platform.
I was confused and annoyed so I decided to message this girl back explaining the awful things he said about her and that I was not "with him myself." I told her that she needed to stop, and just let him go.
One minute later and I have him on my phone…
"You are just a little girl, you do not have any idea who you are messing with."
Thoughts started racing through my mind. Was I receiving a threat? This boy knew where I lived, he knew my parents were never home, he knew my schedule, he knew what my car looked like. What if he actually did come over and try to hurt me?
I was petrified. At that moment I had no idea what to do. I was a high school senior dealing with the star football player in our town. Everyone loved him, and I was fearful of what people would say if I came forward.
I decided that I needed to go to the police. I truly did not feel safe. When I explained the situation to the officer he explained what I could do next and asked for the boy's name. When I told him, he replied with an "ahh great". He explained that he did know him. To this day I still do not know if he knew him due to being a bad kid, if he knew his parents, or was going to help him out of this just like they did when he was caught with drugs in high school.
To all the girls out there who read this article and felt like they could relate to my situation, speak out. You do not deserve to live life like this. No man is allowed to treat you in the way I was treated. You are worth so much more than a scumbag like that. You may be afraid, but I promise whatever is ahead is better than what you're facing now. Be strong and speak out, I am standing right by your side.
