St. Cloud

derek

Since Derek was introduced to you in the last chapter, I told you he was another story for another chapter. This is that chapter. I find it upon myself to rightfully give you further detail as to who in fact he is.

Derek has been an old friend of mine since my first year of middle school. Keep in mind, just a friend.

He was the type of boy that got around, if you know what I mean. Somehow, he managed to have every girl falling head over heels for him. With a simple smile, he could get a girl to do his math homework done no problem. A stupid joke, that wouldn't even make any sense, would make all the girls giggle. One freaking text, would make a girl think she had found her prince charming. It was quite ridiculous actually, and I didn't understand it, which is why I chose to avoid Derek at all costs for as long as possible.

It worked out for a while, but when Derek ran out of girls to talk to, he made his move in our last year of middle school. He asked me for my number in homeroom, and at first I laughed in his face. Though eventually, I gave in after being asked over and over and over again.

Text messages at first were simple and short.

Then they became longer and genuine.

After that, we called ourselves friends and we texted one another all the time. As friends.

Our freshman year is when all the trouble started. Derek had officially dated every girl in the international baccalaureate program we were in. Well, everyone except me and maybe it was because I never had a boyfriend before and I didn't want to grant him that title yet again so easily. My first boyfriend would have to earn that title. That's what my mother always told me.

I guess Derek was playing some sort of game with me, because our "friendly" texts soon consisted winky faces and red hearts sometimes. Maybe he knew I was the only girl left that hadn't fallen head over heels for him, and maybe he wanted me to do just that. I became some sort of prize in his eyes, something he had to win over.

Our sophomore year, the "game" he was playing was in full motion. In the halls he'd flash me smiles all the time, in class he'd sit next to me every chance he got, and he'd even try to hold my hand when we were all out with friends.

But none of that compared to what happened one night during the summer of my sophomore year.

Derek, Mia, and a couple of my other friends, all decided to go to a trampoline park about half an hour away from our side of the city. Of course, we wanted to go to the special after hours event, so around midnight we all hopped in Zack's car. Zack, was Derek's best friend who insisted Derek and I sit together in the backseat.

I didn't think much of it. It was just a car ride. A car ride that would take us to a fun summer night.

Yet when his hand slipped in between my legs and grabbed the inside of my thigh, I knew the night was about to become something much more than that.

When we got to the trampoline park, it was dark. The lights were off, and you could only see neon splashes of color and glow in the dark bracelets. Even though I could hardly see, I was told there were foam pits, tight ropes, and obstacle courses to do too.

I was nervous, because the car ride alone hinted that it wasn't gonna be just another night.

But I shrugged it off, and I joined Mia at the first set of trampolines. For a little while, everything was perfect. There was only the sound of laughter and loud music from the speakers of the park. There were glowing bracelets and neon lights and smiles everywhere. It was all spontaneous in every way you could think of. I even got a large pack of skittles for free.

I fell in the foam pit at some point in the night. I fell, and somehow Derek fell in with me. I laughed and didn't think much of it, so I tried to climb out of the pit. As I was trying to pull myself out, I felt a set of hands on my waist, gripping tightly and pulling me back down into the pit. I was shocked and confused obviously, because I found myself held in between Derek's legs.

I felt him breathing against the back of my neck, and within that second it was like a wakeup call. I've been in a situation like that before, but I'll tell you that horrifying story another day.

Anyway, I turned around and pushed him away by the face, taking the opportunity to climb quickly out of the pit.

"What are you doing?!" I questioned after I had gotten out of the foam pit.

"Relax, I was just having some fun. You know you liked it." Derek smirked.

"I didn't. Don't grab me like that again." I rolled my eyes and began to walk away.

As I tried to leave to go find Mia, Derek grabbed me by the waist yet again. Except this time, I was thrown over his shoulder and tossed back into the foam pit like a rag doll. He jumped in seconds later, landing on top of me. I began to scream of course, not due to pain, but due to the fact that he was now pinning me down in a foam pit chest to chest. I didn't want that.

"Relax Rose." He said to me.

"This is okay." But it wasn't, because something like this has happened to me before.

Though thankfully Mia showed up right before anything else could happen, I almost couldn't breath anymore because of the way his body was forced against mine. She screamed at him to get off, and another good friend of mine named Isiah pulled Derek off by the collar of his shirt.

Mia helped me out of the pit, and even though I was okay, l spent the rest of my night away from all of them and in the bathroom.

After that night I was shaky, because I didn't want or expect any of that to happen to me.

After that night I also didn't talk to Derek the same ever again. I know it's not too traumatic of an experience, and a lot of you might think I'm a coward for allowing a simple act like that scare me, but it did.

It did because he knew what he was doing and I didn't.

Though with time, I learned how to forgive Derek and he learned how to respect me in return. Granted, I'll never forget what he did, but I can forgive him. We became mutual friends, but nothing more. Nor would there ever be a chance of us becoming more either.

So this, was the story of Derek.

And it's not quite done yet.

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