It was the beginning of summer after 10th grade. My high-school theatre club was having a pool party at the local pool to celebrate us doing Beauty and the Beast. I lived a couple blocks away from my ex boyfriend who was also in theatre and at the pool party so we decided to walk home together, I lived farther than him so i expected to drop him off and keep going my own way as we ended things because i caught him cheating and i didn’t want him to know where i lived. but he kept walking with me after we passed his house. So i made a decision when we got close to my house that we would walk down this pathway that circled back to his street and we would part ways. halfway down the pathway we stopped. We were very secluded in trees and he took my glasses and refused to let me go home. I kept telling him over and over to stop and that I just wanted to go home. I was 15. I didn’t tell anyone for 7 months. We went to a very small high-school (300 students), and so I had every single class and extracurricular with him until I graduated. It was torment for years. He even got a new girlfriend over that same summer and all 3 of us shared every class together. I never told her, but I always wonder if I should have. I ended up moving to a different city and I haven’t seen him since highschool. I struggle most knowing i’ll always have PTSD from what happened.
I felt Trapped. Alone. Isolated. I would tell someone to not be afraid of speaking up and getting help. Therapy is going to be your best friend, and to create a good support system for yourself. I regret not telling someone sooner, but it felt hopeless at the time.
