Becoming Mrs. Bryant

𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐕𝐄

Cassidy

February 27, 2023

"Cass," my mom said as we had previously been sitting very quietly at dinner. I had been spending a lot more time with my parents and little brother ever since what happened between Lewis and me.

"You may not like this, but I honestly think it needs to be said. I don't think going through with this trial is a good idea." I rolled my eyes. "And why is that?"

"Because nobody's gonna believe you," my seventeen-year-old brother Connor snarked, I flicked a bean from my plate at him. "Think what you want."

"Sadly, I think your brother might be right baby," my mom argued, to which my father nodded in agreement. "This boy, from what I heard, is a star athlete. He's popular, and he is a minority. This isn't 1960 anymore, there's a lot of activism and protection when it comes to people like him nowadays."

"So you think I'm lying?" I asked my mother, and she looked over at my dad, hoping he took the wheel I assume. My dad cleared his throat, "it's hard to say that anybody is lying here baby girl."

"And what's that supposed to mean?!" I hissed.

"Well, it means that you two may both have some facts in your statement," my dad said. "The thing is, this is more about the way the situation was perceived than anything else." My mom nodded.

"Honey what makes this hard is that you two have both admitted to having consensual sex before," my mother told me. "So it sounds a little like, bitter ex-girlfriend wants to get revenge, especially seeing that ex-boyfriend is allegedly back with a girl that he'd been seeing since high school."

"Man," my brother added, "all I know is that if I were a football player at a school as big as FSU, I wouldn't touch Cassidy with a ten-foot pole. It's hard enough to believe that Lewis Tavares would ever, but rape? Yeah, no. She's bluffing."

"How about you keep your prepubescent ass out of my business?" I asked my sibling harshly. "Lewis admitted to having sex with me, so much for 'not touching me with a ten-foot pole' right? You don't know a thing, and picking a random football player who will never notice you over your sister? Fuck you." Surprisingly, my parents didn't interfere for once, they just sat and let my brother and I argue.

"I'm picking said football player over my sister because my sister has been known to lie about people in horrid ways before." I rolled my eyes, "there was no proof at all that I'd been lying about the Jordan Kellis thing, none at all."

"Oh yeah?" Connor retorted, "well the reoccurring theme is that some fight or fallout happens, and you suddenly become a victim. Jordan Kellis was dating Sabrina, who was your best friend at the time. The second you and Sabrina get in a fight, you and Jordan are close all of a sudden. And the second Jordan threatened to tell Sabrina all about you two, you claimed he raped you. You are nothing more than a crazy side chick that screams rape."

"That's not even what freaking happened!" I yelled, slamming my fist against the table.

"How are you gonna tell me?" Conner asked, "just because I was in middle school doesn't mean I didn't hear about it. The whole town knew about it! I lost friends because I was the 'freak's little brother!' Jordan literally posted screenshot evidence that he was planning on telling Sabrina due to him just wanting to come clean, and you threatened to ruin his life. You're the problem, Cassidy."

"I hope one day when you have a daughter, and she's in high school, she gets gang raped." My parents looked at me with absolute horror on their faces, "Cassidy!" my mother shouted.

My breathing grew heavy.

"Look, sweetie," my dad continued, "we are advising you because we love and care about you. You going through with this is putting you in an insane amount of danger. That Lewis boy has a very big group of friends, from what I've seen on tv and read in media reports. A few of his friends are stinking rich, and what are rich people capable of?"

"Buying their way out of serious issues" my mom finished for my dad, to which he nodded.

"They could hire a hit man to shut you up, they could pay the prosecutors to throw the case away, and many other things," dad said. "I'm not trying to make you feel any way, but I am genuinely worried. The police may seem to be on your side, but it's only a matter of time before this whole thing is flipped upside down. I've seen this one too many times."

"Look at Lewis, and then look at me" I argued. "How couldn't you believe that he raped me?" My parents looked at each other, and my mom looked especially irritated. "Maybe you perceived it that way baby" my mother finally spoke after a moment of silence, "but as I said, you two have both consented to sex with one another before. Lewis could very easily argue that he believed he had the okay to do something."

"So this isn't worth fighting for because the kid is a star football player at some fuck ass school?" I asked, "are you kidding me?" My mom bowed her head.

"We wouldn't be here having this conversation right now if Lewis hadn't dumped you," Connor said, "and that's the tea. Mom and dad will never say that because they're too nice too, but I'm real, not friendly." I looked at my brother. "Besides real and friendly," I began, "is their a 'dead' option?"

"Alright," my father said, "this whole thing is pointless. We've known Cass her whole life." I smiled, thinking my dad was finally about to defend me. Instead, he threw a big curveball. "We should have known that she wasn't gonna listen. She's always been stubborn and does as she pleases. Just allow her to now. All we can do is pray for the best."