Ashanti and Doria's Story (A Friend For Forever)

As my best friend and I sat together at the police station, I thought about what brought us here. It all started the day I met Doria. Our sixth grade teacher put us in groups to do compare and contrast charts on our personalities.

"Hi, I'm Ashanti." I introduced myself first, because I could tell she was shy.

"Hi, I'm Doria." She replied back just as nervous as I thought.

After we finished our assignment we were best friends. Just as I thought, Doria was very shy and had little friends because she's afraid to approach people. Later on in our lives, we were still close. When you asked people about Doria and Ashanti, they would tell you how different we were, like night and day. As different as we were, we were inseparable. I taught Doria how to express herself, but she still kept a low profile. She taught me how to tone down my attitude, but of course I kept my outgoing personality.

I talked Doria into trying out for our schools volleyball team with me. We both made the team. When ever we had practice, we would change clothes in the restroom on the other side of the gym, because Doria was still shy. When ever we had practice there was this man sitting in the bleachers. I always thought he was one of the other girls' dad. I've always been used to men of all ages looking at me, so I didn't feel weird when the man in the bleachers was looking at me.

After practice our coach told Doria and me, that there would be no more changing in the restroom when that's what the locker room is for. With the new rules, Doria and I decided to wait until everyone got done in the locker room before we went inside. When everyone left I looked around the gym to make sure that no one left anything. Once again I saw the man. This time seeing him scared me, because everyone else was gone and I knew that Doria didn't know him. When we were in the locker room I was going to ask Doria if she knew the man, just to make sure she didn't know him, but I decided against it.

I thought he would leave before we got done changing. After we got dressed we headed over to the restroom, because the locker room didn't have mirrors. Walking across the gym I felt eyes watching me. I looked over and saw the man still sitting in the bleachers. This time I was determined to ask Doria if she knew him. I stepped into an empty stall for a quick pit stop after I finished fixing my hair. I looked under my stall door to see if Doria had left me when I heard the rest room door open and close. I heard Doria scream and some loud crashes, so I hurried up and took care of my business so I could protect my friend.

I remember opening the door and seeing the man holding Doria up against the wall. After I punched him and yelled for him to let her go I got blurry visions. I remember opening my eyes and being on the wall now instead of Doria. The man slapped me causing me to blank out again. I opened my eyes again, but this time I was on the floor. The man was towering over me trying to rip clothes off of me. I saw Doria coming from the other side of the rest room with her cell phone out and saying that she's calling the police. That took the man's attention off of me and back to her. It gave me enough time to get up and try to get him off of Doria who was now cornered in one of the stalls.

The man pushed me so hard I ended up back on the wall. The push was so hard that it mad me fall and hit my head on one of the steal trash cans. I blanked out again. I opened my eye again and the man was on me again, now working on pulling my pants down. I saw Doria crawl out of the stall and stand up. She started limping and motioned for me to be quiet as she picked up the other steal trash can.

I blanked out again. I woke up to Doria trying to help me sit up, but she was obviously in pain herself. I blanked out once again, but this time when I woke up I was in the hospital. I looked all around and saw my parents, my boyfriend, and his parents. I didn't see Doria though. I started crying, because I started thinking the worst, she got hurt even worse. My mom woke up when she heard me crying, and started waking everyone else up.

Immediately, everyone started asking me questions. My mom and my boyfriend's mom both grabbed my hands and started crying. My dad, my boyfriend, and my boyfriend's dad all wanted to know who did this to me. The nurse came in and told everyone to give me space so she could ask me some questions. After she got done she took my mom off to the side and started talking to her. My dad left and came back with a police officer. It was all too much for me.

I spoke up and asked no one in general, where Doria was. My mom told me she was a few doors down resting. The nurse told me that she had a broken leg and a broken wrist. I started to cry again, when a lot of commotion broke out from everyone once again trying to figure out what happened. After I explained everything that happened to everyone from my point of view, the police left and so did my boyfriend and his family because it was getting late. I asked my mom what's wrong with me. I knew it had to be bad if Doria had a broken leg and wrist. She told me that I hit my head pretty hard and needed stitches. She told me that my back was messed up too, and that my left shoulder was knocked out of place. As she told what was wrong with me I started to feel it.

A few days went by before I got to see Doria, she had to come visit me in the hospital. Since her injuries weren't as bad, she got to go home a few days before me. When she visited me, not much was said. We just sat and watched television. A couple days after I was released from the hospital, we were down at the police station trying to identify the man who had attacked us. With no luck, I started to think about how close me and Doria had become over the years and how we had gone through so much with each other. I came to the conclusion that she would always have a friend in me, and judging by the way she's looking back at me I can tell I will always have one in her too.