Betrayed by my best friend
As a child growing up friends are everything. Your best friend is the one you share all your secrets with and trust them not to tell anyone. They are the one who knows everything about you and stands by your side through everything. For some, best friends may change frequently, but that wasn't the case of Michelle and I.
That was the type of friend Michelle was. We had been friends since the first grade and shared everything. We never kept secrets from one another and more importantly, we never shared those secrets with anyone else. Well at least I didn't.
One fall I learned many important lessons in life. The most important one was not to trust people. Sounds cynical i know, but I don't know any other way to put it. I was 12 years old and trust had never been an issue for me, but that year brought on many changes.
On a beautiful Saturday afternoon my whole outlook on life changed. On a day that seemed like so many before, my brother-in-law raped me. Dealing with that was more than I knew how to handle. The betrayal of the one person I thought I could trust only added to the pain.
A few weeks passed before I could even bring myself to tell Michelle. He had made me feel like it was my fault, that I had done something to deserve it. He has also convinced me that if my sister found out it would cause her to lose the baby she was carrying. At that time I really didn't know any better so I believed him.
Finally I realized I had to tell someone and of course Michelle was who I turned to. I explained what happened, how it made me feel, how it made me view things. Never in my life did I think she would tell anyone. Once again I was wrong, within three days it seemed the whole school knew.
To make matters worse Michelle told people that it had been my fault. That it wasn't rape at all, that I had agreed to it. Even worse she told them I was pregnant by him.
I couldn't understand how she could do something like that to me. Here I was trying to cope with
That was the type of friend Michelle was. We had been friends since the first grade and shared everything. We never kept secrets from one another and more importantly, we never shared those secrets with anyone else. Well at least I didn't.
One fall I learned many important lessons in life. The most important one was not to trust people. Sounds cynical i know, but I don't know any other way to put it. I was 12 years old and trust had never been an issue for me, but that year brought on many changes.
On a beautiful Saturday afternoon my whole outlook on life changed. On a day that seemed like so many before, my brother-in-law raped me. Dealing with that was more than I knew how to handle. The betrayal of the one person I thought I could trust only added to the pain.
A few weeks passed before I could even bring myself to tell Michelle. He had made me feel like it was my fault, that I had done something to deserve it. He has also convinced me that if my sister found out it would cause her to lose the baby she was carrying. At that time I really didn't know any better so I believed him.
Finally I realized I had to tell someone and of course Michelle was who I turned to. I explained what happened, how it made me feel, how it made me view things. Never in my life did I think she would tell anyone. Once again I was wrong, within three days it seemed the whole school knew.
To make matters worse Michelle told people that it had been my fault. That it wasn't rape at all, that I had agreed to it. Even worse she told them I was pregnant by him.
I couldn't understand how she could do something like that to me. Here I was trying to cope with