[Highest ranking: #72 in General Fiction]
Spring semester is here!
Classes are back in session but will the girls be able to handle the struggle or will they get taken down like 'hay fever'?
College wasn't easy before but throw in a proposal, newbo...
⚠️ Warning: Sensitive subject matter ahead; Mention of Sexual Assualt
The support group ended a couple of minutes ago but one of the members asked Alyssa if she could hang back. She didn't expect to see anyone she knew when she went to the W.A.R. (Wolves Against Rape) support group was that held after hours behind the tinted windows of a room on the fourth floor in the student union, let alone this person.
Alyssa stood then pulled her white jeans up reminding her that she had dropped more than ten minutes. Her loss of appetite resurfaced in January when she discovered her rape trial was moved to March. Now, that April had arrived she'd eaten an apple a day; just an apple—that's all.
"The group has a policy of anonymity." Alyssa fixed her black-framed glasses on her face. "I won't tell anyone that I saw you here." Her words hit the person's back as they stared out the window into the black night.
"I just can't have anyone outside of this group knowing."
"You don't have to be ashamed." Ariel to a step closer to the person but her footfalls stopped when they turned around.
"If I don't have anything to be ashamed of then why didn't you share tonight?"
Alyssa rubbed her hand down her stubby, silky ponytail, "Everyone already knows my story. Didn't you read the front page of T.U.G. I'm Bridget Doe?"
"The girl that Jacob Richards raped." Remorse riddled the person's face and Alyssa abhorred the expression. She didn't want another person's pity that was the main reason she didn't opt out of sharing.
"That's me." She shrugged lazily. "So, you can trust me 'cause I wished I could keep my ordeal secret but since it was the Dean's son...you know."
The person shook their head, "Oh...I know. That's why I'm here and not back home."
Alyssa's joined the person by the window and snuck a peek at the vacant parking light drown in yellow floodlights, "So...your family knows about..."
"Yeah..." The person's eyes dropped to the brown-carpeted floor. "They know." The person looked up showing Alyssa their mist forming in their eyes. "My mom cried like it happened to her and accused me of lying cause I waited so long to tell her about something that happened to me at eleven."
Silence wafted around them as the person turned back towards the window.
"And your dad. What did he do?"
The person sniffed then heaved out a breath, "He said I was a disgrace and kicked me out."
"I'm sorry, Sinclair." Alyssa placed her hand on his shoulder. "You shouldn't have been berated for something that happened to you."
"I accused my dad's friend of rape." He shrugged with a dismissive tone.
The hollowness in his eyes affirmed a feeling that Alyssa was victim to after she was assaulted. "This wasn't your fault. You were a child." She pulled his shoulder willing him to face her. "Children are supposed to be loved...taught...cared for; not fucked."
Sinclair's eyes widened, "That's blunt."
"It's the truth." She let her hand fall off his shoulder. "And your parents are the ones that should be ashamed for siding with a pedophile."
Sinclair rubbed his face, "Can we talk about something else?" He faced her, leaning against the wall, "How did you like the group?"
"It was okay but I'm not coming back. I don't really want to sit in a circle and talk about my anger problem."
"So...what are you going to do?"
"I was thinking about taking a kickboxing class or..." A coy grin hitched up her lips, "Take classes at the shooting range."
"I think you should go with the former."
"Why, you don't trust me with a gun."
"You showed what you could do with a wine bottle." He smirked. "So, that'd be a no."
"I guess." She stretched her arms over her head feeling tired from the day.
Sinclair walked back to his chair and grabbed his backpack off the floor, "I don't want Ariel to find out."
"She won't learn it from me." Alyssa placed her hand firmly on her heart.
Alyssa watched Sinclair leave after she told him he didn't have to wait for her. She pulled cell from her back pocket. She went to her contacts, scrolled down to the D's, and tapped on the name she wanted. The phone rung for times before she heard his voice.
"Detective Jensen, it's Alyssa." She pulled a deep breath into her lungs. "I'll testify."
Do you think Sinclair can trust Alyssa to keep his secret?
Why do you think Alyssa decided to testify and should she?
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