Chapter 5 Chap

"It happened again Tonny."

"Did the guy you were seeing do something?"

"This time he outdid all the others."

"Just tell me when you're comfortable.

"It's okay. We were on a normal date with the others we've had, when after taking me to a restaurant like he always did he suggested we go to his house."

"So?"

"I didn't feel comfortable with that, but since he seemed like a nice person and never tried to do anything to me, I ended up accepting. When we arrived at his house, he showed me where his living room was and told me to make myself comfortable, I sat on the couch and he suggested we watch a movie or something. So far I was relieved that he only suggested a movie or something, since I didn't know if I was ready to have something sexual with him."

"Okay...go ahead."

"He went to the kitchen to prepare the popcorn while I picked out a movie, when he returned, he sat down next to me and we started watching. During the movie he put his hand on my thigh and I withdrew it almost immediately, and as the movie went on, he was trying in other ways to touch me, and I was always rejecting his overtures."

"What a big sucker."

"I was starting to get scared when he tried to kiss me, and I returned it, figuring that if I did that he would be satisfied and just stop. But suddenly he stuck his hand under my blouse, and I pulled away startled. He was furious."

At that moment she started to cry again, and she cried until there was no liquid left in her body. Her beautiful eyes became waterfalls, they were swollen from crying, she sobbed nonstop, like a helpless child, my despair increased every moment with the fear of what happened in that sack of shit's house from then on. Of what he could have done to my poor Sarah.

"He started yelling at me asking me what my problem was, and I just said that I didn't feel comfortable with it right now and that it was too soon. He got even angrier and started saying horrible things like 'what good is all the attention I'm giving you if I can't even fuck you?' and he went on like a madman and said 'do you think anyone would really be interested in you if you weren't so beautiful?'"

Did that sack of dung that was left in the sun have the nerve to tell you that?

"He finished by saying that I was scandalous and unbearable, that he didn't want to see me ever again and sent me away from his house. Since we drove there, I didn't even know exactly where I was, so I just walked until I found a familiar place to guide me to my house."

As soon as she finished speaking, I let out a long sigh, a sigh that had two meanings: the pain of seeing my best friend, one of the sweetest and funniest people I know going through this kind of thing feathers for crossing the path of assholes who aren't even worth their own shit. And a certain relief that the asshole wasn't crazy enough to try something worse, to do irreversible harm to my dear friend.

That was not fair at all. The day I saw her getting into that asshole's car, Sarah had looked so happy, radiant as a guiding star, and now here she was, trying to pick up the pieces and glue them together with the marshmallow of a hot chocolate, my dear friend having to wonder if she had done something wrong, if there was something wrong with her while that shit sleeps peacefully convinced in his sick head that he is right to have treated her this way.

I sit next to her and hug her; she cries into my chest and when she's done, she says absolutely nothing. I try to find some words of consolation but can't, so I just ask her to sleep at my place tonight and tomorrow I would drive her home, when she agrees I go up to my room and get some pajamas that fit her minimally well. Sarah was quite thin and small so it was hard to find, when I finally find one, I go downstairs and hand her the pajamas.

"Go take a shower, I'll order some pizzas and we'll have a mini slumber party."

"What about your mom?"

"She picked up another night shift, so no need to worry."

She climbs into the shower and I go to the kitchen looking for any phone numbers of a local pizza place, when I find it, I call them and order Sarah's favorite flavor of pizza 4 cheese, my favorite flavor, Portuguese, and a sweet brigadeiro pizza with hazelnut. After Sarah got out of the shower already in her pajamas, I ask her to choose her favorite movie or series to watch while the pizza arrived. After a while the doorbell rings and I answer the door and see the delivery man, I pay for the pizzas and thank him.

The rest of the evening went smoothly. Sarah had chosen a comedy series and we watched it while stuffing ourselves with pizza and the soda that was in the fridge, we laughed a lot and after we finished eating, we just lay on the couch until we fell asleep with the sound of recorded laughter from people who probably already died of old age in the background.