The Guidance Counselor

Love Story

"Will you go with me?"

"I already go."

Lauren's voice was so low when she replied, Camila almost missed what she said as the waitress returned with their meals, setting down the corresponding meal in front of each girl; And Lauren swallowed thickly when she saw Camila looking at her with wide eyes and a curious disposition.

"You already go?" Camila asked cautiously, unsure whether or not her mind was going as far as it needed to go.

Lauren nodded her head and bit down into the French fry she was holding, "I go."

"Because you're a volunteer, right?"

"No, not because I'm a volunteer," Camila just stared and Lauren shifted uncomfortably. "I go because it's a survivors group and-"

"You never told me."

"I didn't," Lauren said, humming out an agreement.

Camila's face was scrunched up as she took in this new found information, she wasn't sure how to respond or how to react. This was not something she had suspected or even expected for that matter. "When?"

"I would have been sixteen, a year younger than you and attending school with a bunch of kids that were a lot older and a lot more experienced than I was," Lauren said with a small shrug, her eyes refusing to meet Camila's.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Lauren pursed her lips and looked up at Camila, "I don't know, I mean I told you once that the worst thing that ever happened to me was a story for another time."

"But you-"

"When it happened to me, I hated people coming up to me and saying things like, I know how you feel, I've been there before, or its happened to me too," Lauren said honestly. "It was hard for a while, but I'm in a good place now, I deal with it a lot better than I once did."

"I don't know what to say," Camila admitted. "I didn't think, I mean you don't look-"

"People don't look like rape survivors, Camila," Lauren said with a laugh. "No one walks around looking like anything."

"I just meant-"

"I know what you meant."

Camila sighed and got up from the table, moving herself and her food into the same side of the booth Lauren was sitting in. "I wish you had told me," Camila said as she turned slightly in her seat and looked at Lauren.

"Everyone tells their story in their own time," Lauren replied nonchalantly. "I'm gonna ask you a serious question, but first I'm going to tell you what happened."

Camila nodded her head and began to pick at her fries, "Okay."

"I never did anything but study, so my roommate was going out one night and I decided to tag along," Lauren began. "She didn't think it was a good idea, but I insisted even though I really had no place at a party with a bunch of kids that were that much older than I was. I had a few drinks and it started to hit me pretty hard, I just assumed it was because I had never drank before, but that wasn't the case, the alcohol had little to do with how I was feeling."

"Someone roofied you?" Camila whispered as the realization of where Lauren's story was going hit her.

Lauren nodded her head and let out a small breath of air, "Someone roofied me," she confirmed in a whisper.

"Did they catch him?"

"Nope, I woke up in a strange room at some frat house, completely alone with no recollection of what had happened, all I knew is I was bleeding and I was sore," Lauren said honestly. "I got a rape kit done at the hospital and they did an investigation, but with the circumstances, they turned up nothing."