Falling with Every Step

Mary Jane got up off the couch to answer the door the next morning. She hadn’t slept well at all the night before. She kept waking up to nightmares about Chris. After waking up for the fourth time, she had given on trying to sleep and decided to get up.

“Hey,” Pete said when Mary Jane opened the door. “We all need to talk.” Mary Jane opened the door wider and saw that Gabe was standing behind Pete.

Vicky came out of the bedroom, and it was apparent that she had just woken up. “Sleeping in today?” Gabe joked with her.

“Hey, leave me alone. I didn’t sleep well last night. I woke up every time MJ would scream,” Vicky argued.

“I am so sorry, Vicky,” Mary Jane said.

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Wait, you said every time? How many times did she scream?” Gabe asked concerned for Mary Jane.

“I don’t know exactly. Probably about four or five times.”

“Nightmares?” Pete asked Mary Jane.

“Yeah. I gave up trying to go to sleep after a while. If I would have known that I was waking Vicky up too, I would have given up long before that,” Mary Jane said sitting down on the couch.

“It’s fine, MJ. Besides, you need your sleep, too.”

“Well, what I came here for is to figure out how we’re going to tell everyone else and how much we’re going to tell them,” Pete said. “We have to tell them something.”

“I know,” Mary Jane said. “It’s just I don’t want them to know everything that happened. I understand that they need to know that Chris raped me, but I don’t want them to know all the gory details.”

“So what should we tell them?” Gabe asked.

“I say we tell them the truth. We tell them that Chris raped MJ and he’s going to get charged for it. We don’t want him anywhere near her. You know they’re all going to understand,” Pete said.

“They’re also going to want to know details,” Vicky pointed out.

“We’re not going to tell them,” Pete said simply. “They don’t need to know.”

“How much did you tell Brendon?” Mary Jane asked Vicky.

“I just told him that Chris had raped you and that Gabe, Pete, and I found you. I didn’t go into too many details. He seemed fine with that.”

“I say we tell everyone that then,” Mary Jane said. “Who’s going to tell them?”

“I say we hold a group meeting of sorts. And it’s up to you MJ if you want to tell them yourself or have one of us tell them,” Pete said.

“I don’t think I can tell them without crying.”

“I can tell them,” Pete said.

“Thanks,” Mary Jane said smiling at him.

“Well, I’m going to go, but I’ll see you later,” Pete told Mary Jane.

“Okay, bye,” she replied.

“I’m going to go see Brendon, if that’s okay with you,” Vicky said turning to Mary Jane.

“Yes, go find your boyfriend,” Mary Jane said smiling.

“Boyfriend?” Gabe asked.

“Not yet,” Vicky said. “I’ll see you later, okay?”

“Bye,” Mary Jane said as Vicky left, leaving Gabe and Mary Jane by themselves.

“We need to talk,” Gabe said sitting down on the couch next to her.

“Okay, what’s up?” Mary Jane asked.

“I was an idiot,” Gabe said. “I broke up with you because of Chris. If I hadn’t, none of this would have happened.”

“Gabe, you don’t know that. This isn’t your fault,” Mary Jane told him.

“What I’m getting at is I never should have broken up with you, MJ. I want to get back together.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Mary Jane said.

“What?” Gabe asked sadly.

“Gabe, I was just raped. I don’t want anyone even touching me right now, let alone be intimate with anyone. That wouldn’t be fair to you,” Mary Jane tried explaining.

“I’m not asking you to have sex with me. I just want to be back together,” Gabe said.

“Gabe, I don’t know if I’m ever going to want to have sex. He took that from me,” she said as she began crying.

“What?” Gabe asked. He wanted to reach out and hold her, but he knew she wouldn’t be comfortable with that.

“Gabe, I was a virgin before Chris,” she said, embarrassed at admitting that fact.

“Oh.”

“That’s all you have to say?”

“I don’t know what you want me to say. I’m sorry he did this to you.”

“You have nothing to say about the fact that I was a virgin beforehand?”

“No, should I? It’s not something you should be embarrassed about. And like I already told you, I don’t want to have sex with you right now. I just want to go back to being your boyfriend.”

“And what happens a couple of months from now when you’re ready to have sex and I’m not? Then you break up with me? Or do you cheat on me?” Mary Jane asked, her voice rising.

“Neither,” Gabe said simply. “I wait until you’re ready.”

“And what if I’m never ready?”

“I’ll keep waiting.”

“That’s not fair to you, Gabe.”

“But it’s what I want. I want to wait for you, MJ. What do you say? Will you be my girlfriend again?”