this i believe

I believe in many things. I believe in self-worth; in respect; in standing up for what you believe in; and in standing up for yourself in general. But I mostly believe in angels. No, not the kind that floats around you with silvery wings and glittering halos while singing soft praises. My angels, or angel, is one that is just a normal person with something unique about them- they’ll stay by you no matter what happens to them.
My eighth grade year, I began to be sexually harassed by my “boyfriend” at the time. I was so lost. When that happens, it scares you and confuses you at the same time. It’s as if you’re walking in a permanent fog with no where to go and no map with no privacy, making it feel as if thousands of people are watching you and you can’t do anything about it at all.
It went on for three months, on and off because I didn’t know how to get away. I had been with “the boyfriend” for a while, which made it harder to let go. I started accusing myself and separating myself from my friends, thinking they couldn’t help me at all with my problem because they’d never gone through with it. So I turned away from everyone and became lost in myself. Then Ben broke through and demanded an answer.
Ben and I had been best friends ever since he had moved into my classroom in 6th grade. We talked bout everything from his love life and mine to what happened in class. We were like brother and sister, but the type that got along most of the time and stood up for each other all of the time.
Ben started getting worried about me because I started not talking as much to him as I had before. I didn’t want to let him know because I knew something bad would happen, or so I thought. One night, after Ben had fruitlessly tried to talk about it at school, I called him and spilled everything to him. He suddenly went from my best friend to my life support. He pulled me away from the fog and pushed me to find myself again. He stood by me when I was confused and he stopped me when I became too afraid because it got too hard.
The struggle was unbearable. No one wanted to help me once they knew. They didn’t understand it and most of my friends had already left me because they thought “the boyfriend” was too weird to begin with. So I was alone and only had a small handful of people to hold on to for dear life. Ben was my angel. He stayed with me no matter what others said. So I went from being invisible to even myself to being a functional person again because of him and how he didn’t give up on me at all. He is forever my angel.