I hate him! I hate him! I hate him! I hate her, too!

That was a new thought to J. J. Where did that come from? Yes, she hated him, but that was not always the case. She loved him before. When her mom introduced them, she was elated. Now, she hated him and wished she’d never met him.

It all started a year ago when her mother fell in love, and about six months later, two families became one. The apartment they were living in was too small for a family of four, so they rented a new one.

The new apartment was on the fifth floor of an eight-story building instead of the third floor of the ten-story building they were living in. They now had three bedrooms instead of two, the living room and the kitchen were also larger, and this new place was just a short distance from her old place where her best friend Zachariah, but Zack for short, lived.

Three months ago, J. J. was on her bed listening to music on Spotify when the double tap she is familiar with came on her white-painted door.

“It’s open,” she called, and he entered.

“What are you doing in bed? Get dressed, and let’s go!”

“Go? Go where?” J. J. asked, sitting up in bed.

“House party.”

“Really,” she asked, smiling, “I didn’t know Mom was back. Whose party is it?”

“Your mom is not back,” he said, sitting beside her on the bed, “we’re sneaking out.”

“What?” she asked, deflated like a loosed balloon and delighted simultaneously. “I can’t do that. My mom would kill me.”

“We’ll be back long before she gets in.”

“And your dad?”

“I texted him. He said he would be working late tonight, too,” Dave, her stepbrother, replied.

“How late?”

“I don’t know,” he said, shrugging, “I guess his usual time.”

“Hmm,” J. J said, “that will be around one, and Mom should be back around twelve.”

“Yep, and if we leave in the next fifteen minutes, we should get in at least two hours at the party before returning home.”

“I don’t know,” she said, biting her lower lip.

“Come on,” he said, gently jamming her shoulder with his, “we’ll be back before they get in. I promise.”

J. J. was silent for a few seconds, then smiled. She jumped off the bed and said, “Okay, fine, let’s do it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” J.J. laughed.

“Cool, and don’t take too long to get dressed,” he said, getting up and heading for the opened door.

A little after nine P.M, they were at a house party. J. J. has never been in a house like that. The owner or owners had money, lots of money. Wine and champagne were in abundance, but she was sixteen, and her mom would kill her if she drank any alcohol.

“It’s non-alcoholic, so don’t worry, drink as much as you want. You will not get drunk,” Dave said, as though reading her mind.

J. J. smiled and took a glass from the tray the man in a black and white suit had offered her.

“Mingle,” Dave whispered, “because I know I will.”

With that, he was gone, and a girl who seemed to be about eighteen, nineteen, came over, introduced herself, took her around the room, and introduced her to some of the guys around J. J., age and some a lot older than them both.

Sometime later, J. J. felt dizzy, and when she looked around for Dave, she couldn’t find him. However, the girl who had introduced herself to her was still by her side and offered to take her to a bed to lie down.

In the bedroom, J. J. collapsed face down on the soft white-covered bed, and sometime later, she awoke to find her black and white dress about halfway up her body, and something heavy was weighing her down. She tried to move, but then her arms were pinned down.

“No! No!” J.J. cried, but the words came out sluggishly.

J.J. put all the strength she could muster into her one hundred pounds body, but it did not prevent her from being violated.  

J.J. blacked out.

Sometime later, before her mother and stepfather returned home, J. J. was back home, crying on her bed.

To Be Continued