Janet
"Then what happened?" LaToya laughed.
"He leaned in to kiss me and all I smelled was garlic and onions."
"Ewww." We laughed.
"I know."
"Hold your head this way." She tilted my head and continued braiding my hair. "So what did you do after that?"
"I got out of it by pretending I had to use the bathroom. Then I suddenly remembered that I had homework."
"Did you ever talk to him again?"
"No." We laughed.
"I remember the first time I cut off a guy."
"You cut off a guy."
"Oh yeah."
"When was it?" She finished the braid and went onto the next one.
"Freshman year of high school. The boy was a junior and he was the quarterback of the football team. He was tall, muscular, and dark."
"Dark?"
"Oh yeah. A beautifully sexy dark chocolate."
"You like dark skinned guys?"
"Don't get me started. I love them."
"I didn't know that."
"Yeah. Anyway, he was very handsome and always smelled good with a beautiful voice. We flirted at school and at games he would smile at me. I thought he was just perfect."
"What happened?"
"We started talking and it was going well. We went on a few dates and were one step away from dating. Until he told me that he didn't believe that rape was real."
"What?!"
"That's the same way I reacted. I was shocked because he always seemed very sweet, but when I started telling him what happened, he was like....'ohhh'..."
"Wait." She finished the braid as I moved away and looked at her. "What do you mean 'what happened?"
"Nothing. Let me pin your braids."
"No. What happened?" Her demeanor changed.
"Well, I was raped when I was 15." She began pinning the extended parts of my braids.
"Oh my god. Does mother know?"
"No." She started applying gel to slick my hair back. "I tried to tell her and when I tried to tell her, they were more focused on the boys. On some level, I think she knows and so does Joseph but he was more concerned about the money and success."
"Are you serious?"
"Yep. We had just moved to California and I had been tagging along to see the music process. Joseph went with the boys into a meeting with a few producers but one had stayed behind. He had been looking at me kind of funny for a while. He would do little things like touching my hands or arms. One time he touched my thigh but claimed it was an accident. Anyway, Joseph and the boys were in a meeting. I stayed behind to play around with the equipment and learn more when that producer came in. He sat close to me. I kept moving away until he had me in a corner with his hand on my neck. Next thing I knew, I was in the recording booth, trying to fight him off as he forced himself on me. I don't know how long it went on but they were in that meeting for over an hour and he finished right before they came back." A few tears were in her eyes.
"Toy."
"When Joseph came back he was angry because my shirt was untucked." She chuckled with tears tuning down her face. "I had to sit there for a few hours with that man's 'energy' all over me. I took a shower that was so hot and so long that my skin was extremely red after scrubbing so hard." I grabbed her hands.
