“Stop fighting.” He whispering in my ear, his voice sent a chill up my spine and I knew it was going to happen and I couldn't do anything but cry.
He pulled my pants off. I could hear Mya's muffled sobs still and was happy that she hadn't been knocked out yet. I knew she was much more of a fighter than me.
When my pants and panties were off the man touched me gently between the legs, he started to try to find his way inside of me with his finger and I just knew that something else was coming quickly after that.
“Damn, I think she is a virgin, pussy tight as hell.” He yelled to the man who was assaulting Maya.
“Yeah, this one too."
“Damn we got two virgins,” The man who was waiting his turn said, sounding proud of himself, “I actually let ya'll nigga's go first this time.” They all laughed.
“Listen, don’t think about ti, just do it. They had to get their cherries popped someday.”
The man moved his hand from between my legs and crawled up on top of me. He spread my legs wide to accommodate his hips. “Damn, you flexible too?”
“Man, hurry up, we not making love to these bitches.”
That's when I felt it, it was cold and hard, it pressed up against my flesh. He pushed hard but nothing happened. He pushed harder but still nothing. He spit on his fingers and wiped it between my legs. I started to cry harder, pleading with him.
“All that whining and crying is turning me off.” He pushed again and this time I felt like it was only a matter of time before he entered me.
Just when I gave up fight the door banged open and I heard Omar voice.
“Yely, baby, are you in here?”
“Man you can't come in here!”
“Who the fuck are you. Where's my fiancé.”
I heard a gun cock. Lights were flashing everywhere.
I heard a new voice shout, “Police, turn the fucking lights on and put your hands up.”
The man on top of me jumped up and charged one of the officers, I heard shots, a scream and someone drop on the ground at my feet.
The light switched on and the first face I saw was Omar’s, he looked horrified looking down at me.
Chapter 12
I didn't remember getting pulled out of the dressing room. I didn't remember getting put into the ambulance. I didn't even remember the drive to the hospital. When I woke up the first face I saw was my Daddy's, he was distraught, and for a second, I wondered why. I almost forgot what happened at all. I remembered when I saw Omar’s face looking just as horrified as he had when he first saw me lying on the floor half naked, tied up, and gagged.
“Where's Maya?” Was the first thing that came out of my mouth.
“Maya is fine, she is in the next room, her mom and dad are with her. Your family is here with you. We want to make sure you are OK.” The nurse touched me gently on the shoulder, smiled at me, and turned to leave the room.
I closed my eyes and whispered, “I'm not.”
I felt a hand on my arm and opened my eyes hoping to see Omar standing beside me, but he was still standing back looking just as horrified as ever. The hand was my father's. He smiled at me. He didn't say anything for a while. He only gripped my shoulder gently.
“I'm never there when you need me.” He said finally.
He covered his face with his hands and left the room. I was left with my fiancé who looked like he was scared to touch me.
I only wanted to see Mya. I need to make sure she was OK. I wanted to make sure that the nurse wasn't just lying to me to save me from dying right here on my hospital bed from a broken heart. I wanted my mommie, I wanted my auntie, I wanted my daddy, but no one was there. Omar might as well have not been there due to the fact that he was cowering in a corner and acting like he didn't even want to look at me.
"Where's Yaya?" I asked him.
"She was traveling, she will be on the first flight back from Jamaica in the morning and should be here in the afternoon."
"Can I talk to Maya?"
'Maya is getting her rest, you should too."
He then left the room without another word, he didn't even look at me. He didn't even kiss me, touch me, or wave goodbye. He just left.
THAT NIGHT AT THE HOSPITAL I got no sleep. The next morning was no better, I asked again to see Maya but they wouldn't let me. They said she didn't want any visitors beside family. I almost told the nurse that I was family, that's how it felt sometimes. It was hard to realize that I wasn't her family, even after everything we had been through, even after last night. I left the hospital before she did. After only two days, they were only concerned with a small skull fracture and some swelling around my neck. Maya worried that Mya was a worse off. I talked to her mom and dad. They thanked me from the bottom of their hearts for saving their daughters life. I accepted their thanks even though I thought I hadn't done enough. My aunt took me home from the hospital. She didn't want me to stay at my apartment by myself. My father had gone back to Mississippi citing something that had gone wrong with something to do with his company. I didn't get to see him before he left. Omar had flown out to Florida. He had postponed his trip when everything happened but he still had a job to do and it had to get done no matter what was going on in his personal life. He had been acting strange since that night anyway. He could hardly look at me, he didn't touch me at all, it was almost like that childhood game where the floor is lava so you try to avoid it at all cost, lest you die. Well in this case it was like my skin was lava and if he came into contact with it his skin would melt off. We did talk. He texted me constantly checking in on me, making sure that I was OK. I was more concerned about him, he seemed to be handling things worse than I was.
I was always home with my aunt. I took two weeks off of work because I just didn't want to go out in public. Sometimes I would just need to call someone and cry while I sat curled up in the corner of my aunt's bathroom, just reliving that day. My aunt said I was lucky, the men didn't get what they were looking for, they weren't successful. The man who had been attacking me was shot and killed by the police the rest were arrested.
A couple weeks had passed, people started to ask me the question about if was I going to testify in court. I told them, simply, I would only testify in court if Mya did too. I still hadn't spoken to Mya. She moved back in with her parents temporarily. She quit her job, they weren't willing to give her time off,. She wouldn't answer my texts. I just couldn't believe that one simple night out for drinks had changed all of our lives. Just when I started to wonder when everything would be back to normal, Maya called me and wanted to meet.
We met at the dance studio. Omar stayed on the phone with me the entire commute there. He was so protective of me now. He was not the only one. My aunt wanted to hire a personal body guard for me and have me move in with her permanently. My Dad texted me every day to check on me. He tried to talk about anything else but that night. He always seemed to feel like he had to apologize for what happened.
He thought this was his fault, that there was something he could have done to prevent it. I had to stop him and tell him to stop feeling bad for himself. This wasn't about him, and it wasn't his fault. The only people's fault it was were the three men who did this. The only people who actually had to go through anything were Mya and I. She was the only one who was there with me. She was the only one who knew exactly what it felt like. I felt like this was either going to make us much closer as friends or it was going to tear apart our more than a decade long friendship.
I couldn't let the latter happen so I went into that dance studio that day prepared to fight for our friendship. When I got there she was dressed in her dance clothes and was warming up. She looked better than ever, she had cut her hair a little but it looked good on her. She definitely didn't look like what she had been through. When she saw me approaching her from the mirror she smiled at me, she turned and walked-jogged to me and wrapped her arms around me so tight.
She tossed me some clothes and shoes. "We have a lot of pract
icing to do little girl. The audition is in 2 weeks, we have to catch up."
I hung my head and just into tears.She just gave me that look like she didn't even have time for this right now, but in no time, she was crying with me, she didn't embrace me this time. Instead she cried to herself, wrapping her arms around her own body. I paced back and forth wiping the tears off my face in just enough time for more tears to replace them.
"Yely, it's OK, we are OK." She said sounding like she was speaking more to herself than to me, "We made it. They didn't win. We did. They didn't get the money. They didn't get us. We win, they lose."
"I know, it's just..."
"It's just scary to finally see the world for what it really is a really sick, really dark, really cruel place."
"No, that's not it." I said between sobs. "I'm just really glad that you made it out of there."
"Yely, baby, I wish you weren't there, I wish I didn't call you and ask you for help. You shouldn't have been there. That was my choice to put myself in danger, my choice to work somewhere like that. I'm the one who made all the bad decisions and you're the one who had to suffer and I'm so sorry."
"Maya, what was I going to do? Not come find you? What would've happened to you if I didn't come? Have you ever thought about that? I'm OK that I had to go through what we had to go through if it saved you from a much worse fate. I'm glad you weren't alone."
"Nayely, I really love you." The way she said it and the way she looked me in my eyes, I knew exactly what she meant.
It was almost like she had said it by accident. I mean we had told each other that we loved each other plenty of times. But the way she just said it was more like the way me and Omar tell each other that we loved each other. Right after she said it, she turned away from me. I could still see the front of her in the mirror, she wiped her tears.
"Come on Yely, we have to practice." I could tell she wanted to move on.
I was OK with that for now. We didn't have to talk about it anymore, we had gone through it. The only other reason we would have to ever talk about it again is if we decided to testify in court. I wasn't about to even go there right now, so I changed the subject.
"I thought you quit." I said looking around the dance studio.
"I did. I reserved it for us for the next month every night at this time."
"How can you afford that? I know this studio is not cheap to rent out."
"Well, the police did get my money back. FYI, I did finally count the cash and it came to over $13,000. Plus, I haven't just been blowing all of my money on expensive china for your apartment. I actually have enough saved up to survive, modestly, for at least a year or so."
"Wow, that's great."
"Yeah. So now I can just focus on dance getting into the Dance Academy. While the money is good, and so so fast, the stripping life is just not for me. Too scary, I'm no longer a hood Latina, I've gotten to use to the safe and quiet suburbs."
I laughed at her, "You will always be a hood Latina to me."
Chapter 13
Dance practice with Maya seemed to almost bring me back to life. I told my aunt I would be going back to my own apartment the next day. I confirmed with my job that I would be coming back to work. When I looked at the calendar the first day back to work I realized that I was down to about 6 weeks left until my wedding and I hadn't even come close to asking my father to walk me down the aisle on my wedding day. Now it would be awkward. Now I would suspect that he was only saying yes out of pity. But I had to ask him. I gave myself a deadline. I had to ask him before the end of two weeks. First I would need him to come back into town. I called him on my lunch break at my desk.
"Hey, beautiful!" He sounded so happy to hear from me.
It had been about a week since I last spoke to him and had borderline cursed him out for constantly throwing himself a pity party around everything that happened instead of just being there for me and supporting me. He had given me my space, but now I felt myself actually missing him, I wanted my daddy back. I didn't want to lose any more time with him than I had to.
"Hi, Daddy." I realized this was the first time I actually called him daddy.
"You sound great, how do you feel?"
"I feel good too. I am a little sad though." I said putting on my best sad voice, which also required I wear a sad face and a couple people in the office eyed me curiously.
"What's wrong? Have you spoken to your friend, if she OK?"
"She’s fine, I actually saw her a couple days ago. We had our first official dance practice since, you know, everything. I feel like our friendship is going to be better than ever."
"Well, that's good. So, what's wrong?"
"I miss you."
"Oh no, don't tell me that." He really sounded disappointed, not in me, but in himself. "Listen, I'll be on a plane tonight. I cleared everything up with the company. I'm sure the people here can take it from this point. Hopefully there is not another catastrophe until after your wedding because I'm not going to miss that for anything."
"Thank you for coming when I need you." I paused. "I actually want to talk to you more about my wedding."
"What? Did you call it off?"
"Um, no, what would make you say that?"
"Oh nothing, it's just with everything that happened, I thought, maybe, never mind."
"Yeah, I think I'm still getting married unless you know something I don't know."
"All I know is that my baby girl says she is getting married and she wants me there so I am going to be there."
"Thank you so much."
"I'll see you tomorrow."
By the time I got off work I felt good, almost normal. There was still one person that I needed to speak to and have a real in-depth conversation with and that was Omar. He was back in town and had texted me that he would be at my apartment when I got there. This was something he agreed to do from now on, tell me before he came to my apartment, and tell me when he would be there when I walked in. I was still a little jumpy, and seeing me jumpy made him jumpy so making sure to announce himself made everything better for everyone.
Just like he promised, he was there when I got home. Not only was he there, there were also tons of beautiful flowers all over my apartment and there was a beautiful dinner on the table. I appreciated all of the hard work to make me smile but he could have been standing there with a big smile on his face waiting for me and I would have still been just as happy to see him.
I ran and wrapped my arms around him."Oh my god, baby, I missed you so much."
"I missed you too baby." He gave me a big kiss on the forehead.
He hadn't kissed me on the lips since the night at the strip club. I knew something was wrong. I didn't know exactly what it was, but there was no ignoring how strange he had been acting since the incident. I was healing and moving on from the trauma. He still hadn't processed it.
After dinner we cuddled up on the couch. He held me loosely and awkwardly. Like a first-time parent held a new born baby because they are scared they are going to break their fragile bodies in half.
"What's wrong Omar?" I said with a very obvious attitude.
He shook his head with a tight smile on his face. I knew something was wrong. Normally he would respond to my attitude with his own attitude. He would ask me what the hell was wrong with me or if I was on my period. This new Omar was too sensitive and careful with me. It was like we hadn't been dating for almost ten years and he was trying really hard not to mess up.
"There is something wrong. You've been acting so weird and tense since this happened."
He shook his head no.
"If you don't tell me what's wrong with you, I am going to start an argument and ruin this beautiful night you're trying to create."
"Why does there have to be something wrong with me?"
"Your acting like you're afraid to touch me, that's why."
"I'm sorry Yely, I'm just, I don't know. I'm still in shock."
I thought back to the face he wore when he
saw me laying on the hard concrete floor half naked, tied up, and gagged. A fresh dead body of the man who had tried to rape me lying at my feet bleeding out. The face he had when he saw me in the hospital. The face he wore pretty much every time he saw me. I couldn't tell if it was shock that I was alive and had survived the attack or shock that it had happened at all or what but I did know that I just wanted it to end. I wanted him to go back to treating me like a normal girlfriend, a normal fiancé. A normal best friend.
"What are you in shock about?"
"I just can't wrap my head around what happened to you."
"What do you mean?"'
"You were raped." He struggled with the last word.
"I wasn't raped Omar."
He looked at me square in the eye for maybe the very first time since he found me.
"He didn't..."
"He didn't what?"
"He didn't, you know, put it in?"
"No, Omar, he didn't put it in." I spit the last words at him with disgust.
His body seemed to relax immediately. He held me closely like he normally did. "Oh, wow, thank god! I thought he did."
"Did I tell you he did? Did the doctor tell you he did? Where did you get this impression?"
"Well, it's just the position you were in when I found you, I thought I was too late."
"Let me ask you a question? What if he did rape me, what if he did put it in?"
"Well, it would bother me."
"Why would it bother you?"
"Because, I know how important it is for you to save it for me?'
"Wow, save it for you, huh? Actually, it's not important at all for me to save it for you. Is that the only thing you care about, that you get my precious virginity. I could easily just go give it to some bum on the street."
"Nayely."
"Your so concerned about my virginity, meanwhile you gave your's away a long time ago, should I be hurt about that?"
"Weren't you?"
Father of the Bride Page 10