Broken Inside

16 - The Sisterly Bond

Alex knocked on Neesha's door the next morning. She opened the door slowly and was glad to see her sitting upright in bed and smiling. Alex went inside and sat on her bed. 

"How are you feeling?" Alex asked her.

"Okay," Neesha responded, sighing. "That's one birthday I will remember forever," she commented, rolling her eyes.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Alex asked.

Neesha scoffed and got off the bed. She picked up her dirty clothes from the floor and tossed it into the laundry basket. "What is there to talk about? Mike's a jerk," she said scornfully. She opened her closet and went through her clothes. 

Alex frowned. "He attacked you! We can go to the police, make a report against him," Alex suggested.

Neesha spun around, looking surprised. "What? No, no, you got it wrong," she said, chuckling. 

"What do you mean?"

Neesha looked upwards and rubbed the back of her neck. She looked at Alex and grinned sheepishly. "Before things escalated, I was having sex with Mike willingly," she explained, blushing slightly.

Alex gaped at her. "You and Mike?" she asked in disbelieve. "Is he your boyfriend?"

"God, no!" Neesha said, scoffing. She exhaled and said, "He's more of a friend with benefit?"

Alex eyes widened and Neesha looked more ashamed. She turned around and pretended to look at her clothes hanging in the closet.

"Let me get this straight," Alex said, getting up from the bed. "Last night, in that storage room, what I walked into... You wanted that?" Alex could see the image clearly in her head. It would haunt her forever.

Neesha turned around. Her face was flushed now. She was trying to find the words to explain. "No," she finally said, "Not really."

"Neesh," Alex said, holding her shoulders at arms length, "Please explain to me what happened, because from where I was standing, Mike was choking you!"

"Oh, God," Neesha said hoarsely. She took a deep breath and exhaled. She looked Alex squarely in the eyes. "Okay, so it started with normal sex. Mike took some ecstasy earlier so he was super horny. Then normal sex turned to rough sex. But I kept pushing, and pushing, for him to do me harder."

Neesha cringed at the look of horror on Alex's face.

"Hey, I was drunk!" she protested, "And it was my birthday. So, anyway, that's when he started choking me. When I couldn't breathe, I started to panic." She moved and hugged Alex. "I'm so glad you were there to save me."

Alex sighed and hugged her back. "I'm glad I saved you," she said, then added, "But I'm worried about Mike pressing charges."

Neesha pulled away and said convincingly, "He won't, believe me."

"How do you know that?" Alex asked.

"I just do," she said, "Don't worry about it."

*****

After that incident, Alex and Neesha became closer than ever. But Alex kept to her promise, she never stepped into another club.

Just like Neesha said, Mike didn't press charges. In fact, Neesha told Alex that he was showing off the scar to their friends. He thought the scar made him look badass, to Alex's relieve.

But from there on, Alex declined any invitation to hangout with Neesha's friends. She preferred to hangout with Neesha by themselves anyway. So they would do spa dates, weekend trips and shopping spree, just the two of them. When Neesha wanted to spend time with her friends, Alex would enjoy her alone time with a good book. 

It was the perfect friendship which mould into sisterly bond.