People You Do Not Know

was seventeen. And I was about to finish high school, and start college the following year in film and television production. I had a boyfriend in high school, and did not realize that he was abusive because I was not ready to sleep with him, but he would make me feel guilty so I lost my virginity at fifteen. When I decided not to see him again, he slept with a girl that I knew, a ‘rough’ girl, and I was confused by our relationship to begin with, I used to make him food and he would be abusive, but I felt sorry for him, and explained his behavior away, so that when I heard he has slept with someone else, the day after I had ended things, I was upset. I drank a lot of vodka which I usually did not do, And I went to a party with someone who wasn’t really a friend, but I my friends and I knew him well. He took me to a party of someone that I had heard of, but again, ‘rough’ people. My friend, Jack, left me at the party after fifteen minutes or so, and I was offered a drink by the person who’s party it was. I do not remember much after that, except being led to the forrest area surrounding the party, and being coerced in to sleeping with someone, and someone else, and someone else. I remember very little, except trying to find my phone afterwards, and not being able to walk. I was drugged with that drink. The next day, everybody was talking about what I had done. As if I had done something, and I could not remember. My friends did not take it seriously, only one of my girlfriends suggested going to the police, but I didn’t know what to do. And I thought, the more days that passed, the better I would feel. But it always came back. The anxiety the flash backs, and now at twenty four, I am finally ready to resume studying. But I still feel that, that night, changed me, and stole the last seven years form my life to be who I was before this happened. I was free, and trusting and now I am no t trusting and very afraid.

— Eve