Whatever It Takes

Chapter 9- We Can Try

I woke up the next morning with multiple texts and missed calls. A tangle of legs and sheets pulled away from me and memories of last night flooded my thoughts. I got up and headed towards the bathroom. My friends and I always leave clothes at each other places just in case we end up having to stay unconventionally. The shower was warm compared to the cold tile I ended up sitting on. The face of my assulter flashes with every blink. I can still feel the ghosting presence of his hands touching me without my permission. It was quiet, but I heard his voice. I scrubbed and scrubbed and I couldn't get him off of me. Once I finally exited the shower I saw my red skin in my reflection. The girl looking back at me looks as dead as I feel. Lilly was up waiting on me when I got out the bathroom. We both sat there in silence until she came and hugged me. All the tears I was holding back rushed out like a flood. I heard a couple of sniffles and realized that Lilly was crying with me. We both just held each other and let the tears run down our faces. After a couple of minutes I couldn't cry anymore. Even if I wanted to nothing was coming out. I felt numb. Lilly was still crying, so I just took time to console her.

"I'm sorry" I heard her weap out. "I'm so, so sorry. It's my fault!"
"No, no. No one is at fault here, but him." I told her. "It could've happened to anyone. Men are just ugh~"
I don't want Lilly, or any of my friend thinking they had a part of this. I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. "I should've went outside like you said. I took it as a joke, but you were really in danger." I squeezed her in a hug. "Honey you took it as a joke because I said it as a joke. I don't blame any one of you for what happened. Men just think they can take whatever they want when they want to. It's so disgusting it makes me want to kill them all!" I tried to joke around at the end to lighten the mood. I don't like to be sad for a long time. Does being goofy make the sadness go away, no, but it distracts me from it for a while. "Kill All Men! Kill All Men!" I started to shout. She giggled wiping the tears off her face. "Kill All Men! Kill All Men!" she joined in. We marched around her house holding imaginary picket signs. After, I don't know how long, we both stopped and went into the kitchen. "Wow all this protesting has me starving" I said as we entered. "Definetly, you know what sounds great right now?" "What?" " A freaking sandwhich."
" Yes, yes! Oh God yes. Where's the bread?" I started searching the pantry. "Girl you already know" she said laughing. We finished eating and invited the others. In that time I was calling and texting people back. Someone told my brother what happened and my brother told his friends. Eveyone was worried about me. Honestly it was nice to feel the love everyone had for me. It's not like they never showed it before though. The girls and I had a little talk. The same thing I told Lilly was given to Liz and Olivia. We even chanted around the house again. Ironically we invited the boys over. They all wanted to check on us.

Upon arrival, Eli came and hugged me like I would be gone in the blink of an eye. "Yo I was so worried about you. You good?" he asked inspecting me. "Yes" I answered taking his hands off my cheek. They were squeezing a little too hard. I think he did that on purpose. KJ came and hugged me, and he said no words. We just hugged and rocked and rocked. "Who do I have to kill for touching my sister?" he whispered. To clear some confusion, me and KJ aren't siblings, but he calls me his sister from time to time. He didn't have any siblings in his family. In response to his question I just shook my head. "You are not going to kill anyone" I told him. He leaned a little closer, " I will if I have to." Now, at first I thought he was joking, but I'm starting to think he's serious. It was obvious that he kept to himself, but,neither of us knew much about him other than what he tells us. Next to come to me was Nate.

He had this sad look in his eyes and it almost made me want to cry. He looked at me and just pulled me into him. Out of everyone, his touch is the one I needed the most. He gave me comfort. He hugged me like I was going away to war and I returned it. "I was so worried about you, especially when you didn't return my calls. When Lijah told me about what happened I wanted to come to you, I wanted to so bad Tianna." He placed his forehead with mine. "The only thing that stopped me was what he said to me." "He said that you may not want a man to touch or talk to you. I wouldn't want you to push me away, so I gave you space, but it was hard, so damn hard." We just stayed hugging each other forgetting that other people were in the room. "Do you want a sandwhich?" I asked with a laugh. He let me go just to grab my face. "Hell yeah."