As Corey drags me up the stair I scream bloody murder. It’s no use; no one can hear me over the booming music. I can feel the bass vibrating the house. I smell the vodka on him, he is buzzed I can tell. He stumbles like a man with a broken leg. What does he want from me? What is he going to do? I taste iron in my mouth from him hitting me. I thought he was my friend. We get to the top of the stairs. He throws me. My head makes a loud thud as it hits the door frame of the room he pulls me into. The room is dark accept for the on except in the corner which reveals a family photo. My mouth starts bleeding even more. I see deep red as I wipe my mouth. Corey comes at me like a raging bull, everything goes black.

It’s Monday morning. I still feel nauseous, and I still don’t know why Corey did this to me. I mean over every girl at the party he chose me. I can’t tell my parents what happened. They will just look at me with a disgusting look on their faces. Mom hollers at me from down stairs as she gets ready, “Sabrina hurry up. I have a big case in court this morning. Get out of bed!” I really don’t want to go to school, but I have to. If I don’t play by his rules, he will do it again. Yet, if I do go, I have to look into hid brown eyes and have him watch me. I think I will go just because I don’t need it to happen again. I feel queasy, I run to the bathroom and vomit. Something is up; I’ve felt like this since Friday. I tell myself, “Whatever Sabrina. There are things other than you puking to worry about. Just get ready for school.” School should help get my mind off things… I hope.

As mom drives me to school she sees my face. “What happened?” she asks this as we come to a stop.

“I can’t tell her so instead I exclaim, “It was the party, just got in the way-“
Mom cuts me off before I can finish.
“Who hit you? We’ll press charges!” this was mom’s typical answer when I got hurt. She was like a broken record. What would you expect from an only child whose father was a cop and mother was a lawyer. The rest of the way to school was silent. I will tell her about what really happened, but later.

I walked into school hoping I wouldn’t see Corey. If only all wishes came true. I come up to my locker, and saw his eyes staring at me like a tiger hunts its prey. His dark brown eyes scare me. I look away. As I do, my best friend comes running up to me. “Dude, the party Friday was AMAZING! What ever happened to you and Corey? I saw him talking to you, and then you guys disappeared.” The only thing that was going through my head was the images of him. Hurting me. Raping me. I get the images out of my head. I respond.
“Oh… well… I… just need to talk to you later.” What had I just said?! Corey must have heard me because he came over.
“Hey, babe,” he greeted me. I know what he wants me to do. I have to play along or else it will happen again. Josie’s jaw just about hit the ground when he said that.
She asked,” When were you going to tell me you two are dating?” Corey looked at me which meant let me answer this.
“Well, Sabrina and I were going to tell today.” Great. Now I’m going to have to be by him all the time. Whatever. As long as it doesn’t happen again. I feel sick again. I run to the bathroom, vomit. Josie comes in after me.
“Bri, what is going on? Something doesn’t seem right.” She was right something was wrong. I have to tell her.
“Josie-“the bell cuts me off. We are late. We walk out Corey wants to talk to me so I stay behind. He pins me to a wall as Josie paces away. Tears come into my eyes. Again flash backs of Friday come into my head. The principal walks by asking us what is doing on. Corey kisses me, I want to vomit but I don’t. We have to clean lockers after school for a week and pay a fine for PDA. There was two months left in the school year and I just knew they weren’t going to be fun.

Corey watched my every move the days we cleaned locker together. The secret is killing me. I am going to tell Josie, today. As soon as I think of it, Corey texts me. He wants to hang. I tell him I am grounded, and then I text Josie. I ask her if she can come over today. She can, this is great. I will finally get this off of my chest.

Josie is to my house in about an hour. As soon as she walked in the door I told her I needed to talk. She looked scared. We go upstairs into my bedroom. I finally get words out. “Ok, if I tell you, no one can know until I say they can.” Josie’s face goes pale.
“What is it? You know I wont tell.” she seems frightened.
“Well Corey isn’t really dating me. He just says that so he can watch my every move.”
“Ok, Sabrina you are really starting to scare me.”
“Ok, ok. I will get to the point. Something happened at the party that Friday night and that is why I have been acting super weird. I-“Josie cuts me off.
“What did he do to you?”
“Really, you should ask what he didn’t do to me. Anyway, he punched, kicked, slapped, threw, and…” this was it. I’m going to get this off of my chest. “Raped me. That’s what he did!” I broke out into tears. Josie gasped and covered her mouth. All we did for the rest of the day was talk. Josie and I became better friends because I told her. Now I have to figure out how to tell my parents. That was going to be challenging.

Josie never left me alone with Corey no matter what. About a week after I told Josie, I told my parents. It’s hard to describe their reaction or the events that followed. Things didn’t settle for a while or end completely happily. However, Josie was with me and so were my parents. With their strength, I am still standing, and I am haunted less and less by my secret.