A Different Christmas Vacation

Chapter Nineteen

“Wake up, Reina. What’s wrong?” Jordan said, shaking me lightly.

I was still whimpering from the scary dream. I hated crying in my dreams, it made you seem so pathetic when other people saw you like that. I sat up slowly and Jordan wiped the tears away from my cheeks.

“Tell me, babe.”

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ 

I was walking down the street heartbroken. The limp fall leaves seemed to have many similarities with my body which now seemed lifeless. It was getting late, but I didn’t care because there didn’t seem to be a world without Jordan - I couldn’t imagine, but now I was living in one.

I live on the outskirts of Chicago, but we’re known for our bars and clubs around these parts of the city, and lots of thugs like to come into the neighborhood and find girls when they looked right...

I didn’t care, though. Maybe I could find a nice thug and learn from him since Jordan didn’t seem to want to be with me.

Suddenly, the hairs on the back of my neck pricked up and I sensed that someone was following me. I turned around and looked into the darkness just to find no one was there. Although I had no specific place in mind, I decided to take a ‘short cut’ down a cold alley.

After walking a short ways, someone grabbed me by the hood of my sweatshirt and pulled me into a building.

“You’re coming with us, sweet thang,” the voice said with lots of southern twang. My senses seemed to come to normalcy. Even though Jordan was gone, that didn’t mean I should throw my life away like this!

I kicked and screamed for someone to help, but another masked man put duct tape over my mouth, but that just made me struggle more. I got a good, clean shot at his face with my fist which made him grunt.

“Looks like you just want it harder.” He finished unbuckling my pants and did the same with his. How could lose my virginity like this? Wasn’t I supposed to wait and lose my virginity to the one I marry after I marry him?

A few minutes later, he was done. It had hurt like hell, but I knew screaming wouldn’t do me any good. He got off of me and kicked me with his steel toe boot, smirking under his mask. “Thanks for that, babe. Call me some time,” he said. And with that, left the room with his friend.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ 

I told Jordan everything and he rubbed my back soothingly the whole time.

“There’s a lot of things to say to that,” he said when I finished. “One, I would never, ever want to leave you, so you wouldn’t have to worry about that. Two, if you’re not worried about losing me, then you wouldn’t be raped at all. And three, it’s just a dream, it’s never going to happen, just remember that.” He continued to rub my back and I started to return to normalcy. He was right, it was only a dream, it wasn’t going to actually happen.

“I’m sorry to wake you,” I said after awhile.

“It’s okay, you’re okay.” He removed his hand from my back and I felt cold and empty. I glanced at the clock and saw it was six twenty-four. No use in going back to sleep now.

I pushed the covers off my legs and stretched at the bedside. “Where are you going?”

“Morning cartoons,” I said.

“You’re such a kid,” he said.

“But you love me for it,” I said and scurried for the couch.