The Fate of Serendipity

Chapter 3

I decide that I value my life above all else, so I listen to Asher's orders and jump to wrap my legs around his waist.  He moves his hands up and down my thighs while still kissing me, and I no longer feel the thrill of his touch.  I can't stop shaking with fear as he continues to hold me against the wall.

Asher begins to unbutton my blouse and when I attempt to push him away again, he grabs his knife and holds it against my throat again.  I cease my attempts to escape and feel my throat begin to choke up as I try to hold back my tears.  He takes my blouse off and appreciatively glances at my black-laced bra.

"Now, you better stay quiet, you little whore," he seethes into my face.

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After Asher got his fill of my body, he let me go, but I was too weak to stand up on my own.  I slumped against the ground and looked up at Asher's smug smile, my face completely void of emotion and my body completely void of feeling.

"Remember what I said." Asher glares down at me and spins around to walk back into the bar.  As he turns, I catch a glimpse of the knife in his back pocket, reminding me of what would happen if I were to tell anyone about what happened tonight.

As soon as Asher disappeared from my view, all the emotions and pain that had been hiding for the past thirty minutes came crashing down...I lied down on the cold cement and curled myself up into a ball.  The tears that I'd been holding back came all at once, pouring out of my eyes as sobs racked my body.  How could I have been so stupid?  What seems perfect on the outside is not always perfect on the inside, and I know this from first-hand experience.  Everyone at school believes that I'm this...perfect girl: intelligent and pretty, but also rebellious, daring, and full of ebullience.  I want to believe that this is how I chose to live my life, but this is what is expected by me by my classmates, and being a daredevil and rebellious has led me to this situation.  The sole reason why I came to this night club in the first place was to prove to my classmates that I can keep up with my bad-girl reputation, but right now, I would rather deal with being called a wimp by every single one of my friends and fellow sophomores than be lying here on the ground, aching in thirty different places.

After a few minutes, I reach across the small alleyway to grab my phone from where it fell.  Wow.  13 missed calls from Ari and 9 missed calls from Wes, not even mentioning the plethora of texts I've gotten from them.  I catch sight of the back of my hands where there's already dried blood and a few cuts that should be gone by next week.  My head is throbbing and my fingers are shaking but I manage to scroll down to Ari's name on my contact list.  After a few seconds, I hear Ari's frantic voice from the other line.

"MAYA!! Oh my god.  Where are you?  Wes and I have been trying to find you for the past hour.  Did you leave?"

"No, Ari.  I was trying to find you too.  Please help me.  I'm at the back entrance where we came in and Asher was here..."

"Asher? Asher Collins?  The hot quarterback from school Asher?  I just saw him walk by a second ago.  Are you okay? I'm trying to find Wes, we'll be there in a sec."  She hangs up.

I'm almost drifting off to sleep when I hear Ari's shriek as she takes in my condition.  Wes is standing right behind her.  He hurries around her with a worried look on his face and reaches toward me to help me up.

"What happened Maya?" Wes cradles me in his arms and I dig my face into his chest.

"I'll t-tell you guys tomorrow.  P-please bring me home."

They both look at me and then at each other, probably contemplating about whether or not they should take me to the hospital.  I guess they decide not to because soon, I'm in the backseat of the car with Wes and Ari in the front.  I struggle to keep my eyes open, but they feel as if they weigh a hundred pounds.  I drift off to sleep again, this time welcoming the darkness it brings.

I'm back in the small alleyway.  Asher is claiming my mouth with his own and pinning me against the wall.  He releases me slightly to grab the knife that's in the back pocket of his jeans.  Asher takes off my shirt and throws it to the side.  He forces me down onto the ground and looms over me with the knife in his hand.

"You deserve it, bitch," he spits into my face as he trails the knife down to my stomach.  My breathing is erratic and I try to calm it because Asher is pressing the knife closer and closer to my skin.  He trails the knife over the side of my hip and down to my thighs.  The knife digs deeper into my skin.  Blood begins to drip from my legs onto the cold cement.  Asher lets out a harsh laugh and positions himself above me.  I scream for Ari and Wes, even though I know they can't hear me through the monstrous roar of the music.  Asher starts to lower himself onto me and...

"AHHHHHH!!!" I wake with a jolt and tears streaming down my face.  I look around the familiar dark room.  Ari and Wes must have brought me home.  I wonder what my mom thought of my bloody knuckles.  She probably thinks I got into a fight.  My whole body is aching like crazy and I try to shake the dream from my head.  It felt so real.  I can't stop my shivering no matter how hard I try to forget about tonight.  I need to clear my head.  I carefully swing my legs around to the edge of the bed and stand up.  I go to the bathroom and decide to take a shower; I turn on the shower and let the water cascade down my back and arms.  The water beneath my feet is a light red color as the water washes off the dried blood.

I stay under the shower head until the water turns cold; then, I wrap a towel around myself and blow-dry my hair.  The skin around my knuckles is ruined and numb; I rummage around the medicine cabinet until I find the bandages.  I should get some more sleep, I yawned.  Going back to bed, I knew that it didn't matter if people liked me or not.  High school only lasts four years, and most of the people who think that I'm cool now, probably won't even remember me in the future.  It's not worth it to have every person in the school know your name.  I learned today that your reputation can cause you to experience horrible things, just as Asher took advantage of the fact that he knows I'm rebellious, and he probably believed that we had similar motives when he did what he did to me.

I realized that trusting someone is like creating a house of cards.  It may take years and years to build, but within a second, one small act may cause it to come crashing down.

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"I do not pray for a lighter load but for a stronger back."

-Phillips Brooks