Rise Above This
Twentieth letter
Dear Cass,
At the start of 2005, you join a chat site; you meet a boy from there, Jarrod. you start to date, you dated for 9 months. That’s when it all started.
In October 2005 you’re going to sign up to another chat site, you think its harmless fun, flirting with people on the side of the country. It’s not a place you should have joined, because of that the next two years of your life are going to be a nightmare. You trusted Andrew. You really shouldn’t have, you were only 14, and you didn’t know any better at the time. He was 18 turning 19, shouldn’t it have been then that you realised that it was morally wrong? But no you didn’t you were young and too naive. You made a mistake, you had a long distance relationship with someone you never met, was never going to meet.
You dated till around august 2006, that’s just after you met that boy at school, Mathew had been in your classes all year but you never associated with him till august. It started in a harmless science class while fighting over a pen, you two had never even spoken before but you were sitting with his friend so that day he sat across from you. It led from that to a constant month of flirting in every class that was until Mathew found out about Andrew and you so you had to choose, you chose Mathew. You two dated for a month. You guys would have lasted longer if you stopped being Andrews friends, but you loved him or so you thought you did, he persuaded you to dump Mathew, he took advantage of your love for him, you hurt yourself and Mathew just to please the one person who ends up hurting you the most.
You dated Andrew again but nothing was ever the same, he didn’t trust you, he kept on promising to come see you but he never did, at this point he was 20 and going nowhere in life. Cass, what did you see in him? Why did you continue to believe him? You thought it was love, but honey it wasn’t, just deceit.
You open yourself up to him so much. You showed him parts of you that no one has even seen before. You’re going to make your biggest regret trying to win his heart back. He is going to threaten you that if you don’t send him nude photos he is never going to talk to you again. You know it’s a lie, he always talked to you no matter what, but you do it anyway. He does this numerous times and you give him what he wants every time. At that point he had photos and videos of you, plenty enough. He literally has your life in his hands.
November 2008. Andrew hurts you the most. You become friends with a boy from the UK in that august before, Andrew doesn’t trust you and starts to get jealous so he starts to hurt you he becomes friends with a girl, but that becomes his worst mistake, you and her become best friends. She tells you everything that Andrew says to her. It takes you months to stand up to what he has been doing to you, trying to lead you on while he tells your friend he loves her. So that November when you stand up to him. He throws in all back in your face, all those pictures he has of you he threatens to see them to everyone on that chat site, to your parents and to the chat site bully who can do even more damage that Andrew ever could. Andrews 20 at the time and your only 16, so you do what you only can, threaten him back, he has porn of a girl barely of legal age, but it works and you don’t speak to him since.
It’s now 2009, and you don’t go on any chat sites, and you don’t get yourself into those situations any more. Your reminded everyday of what happen when you have a shower you see them four letters “ A N D Y” that are scarred on your high upper thigh that you did two years ago. This stops everything you do you wonder if it will ever go away but, you learnt your lesson. Not a cut since then.
You still wonder if Andrew still has those pictures, if he ever showed anyone, or even if he posted them on the internet. But you let it go, you were young and if it’s ever going to bite you in the butt you’re going to deal with it when it happens, but you doubt it ever will.
You are now 17. And live to tell the tale, you rose above what happened and that is why I’m proud of you.
Yours truly,
Cassandra. xo
At the start of 2005, you join a chat site; you meet a boy from there, Jarrod. you start to date, you dated for 9 months. That’s when it all started.
In October 2005 you’re going to sign up to another chat site, you think its harmless fun, flirting with people on the side of the country. It’s not a place you should have joined, because of that the next two years of your life are going to be a nightmare. You trusted Andrew. You really shouldn’t have, you were only 14, and you didn’t know any better at the time. He was 18 turning 19, shouldn’t it have been then that you realised that it was morally wrong? But no you didn’t you were young and too naive. You made a mistake, you had a long distance relationship with someone you never met, was never going to meet.
You dated till around august 2006, that’s just after you met that boy at school, Mathew had been in your classes all year but you never associated with him till august. It started in a harmless science class while fighting over a pen, you two had never even spoken before but you were sitting with his friend so that day he sat across from you. It led from that to a constant month of flirting in every class that was until Mathew found out about Andrew and you so you had to choose, you chose Mathew. You two dated for a month. You guys would have lasted longer if you stopped being Andrews friends, but you loved him or so you thought you did, he persuaded you to dump Mathew, he took advantage of your love for him, you hurt yourself and Mathew just to please the one person who ends up hurting you the most.
You dated Andrew again but nothing was ever the same, he didn’t trust you, he kept on promising to come see you but he never did, at this point he was 20 and going nowhere in life. Cass, what did you see in him? Why did you continue to believe him? You thought it was love, but honey it wasn’t, just deceit.
You open yourself up to him so much. You showed him parts of you that no one has even seen before. You’re going to make your biggest regret trying to win his heart back. He is going to threaten you that if you don’t send him nude photos he is never going to talk to you again. You know it’s a lie, he always talked to you no matter what, but you do it anyway. He does this numerous times and you give him what he wants every time. At that point he had photos and videos of you, plenty enough. He literally has your life in his hands.
November 2008. Andrew hurts you the most. You become friends with a boy from the UK in that august before, Andrew doesn’t trust you and starts to get jealous so he starts to hurt you he becomes friends with a girl, but that becomes his worst mistake, you and her become best friends. She tells you everything that Andrew says to her. It takes you months to stand up to what he has been doing to you, trying to lead you on while he tells your friend he loves her. So that November when you stand up to him. He throws in all back in your face, all those pictures he has of you he threatens to see them to everyone on that chat site, to your parents and to the chat site bully who can do even more damage that Andrew ever could. Andrews 20 at the time and your only 16, so you do what you only can, threaten him back, he has porn of a girl barely of legal age, but it works and you don’t speak to him since.
It’s now 2009, and you don’t go on any chat sites, and you don’t get yourself into those situations any more. Your reminded everyday of what happen when you have a shower you see them four letters “ A N D Y” that are scarred on your high upper thigh that you did two years ago. This stops everything you do you wonder if it will ever go away but, you learnt your lesson. Not a cut since then.
You still wonder if Andrew still has those pictures, if he ever showed anyone, or even if he posted them on the internet. But you let it go, you were young and if it’s ever going to bite you in the butt you’re going to deal with it when it happens, but you doubt it ever will.
You are now 17. And live to tell the tale, you rose above what happened and that is why I’m proud of you.
Yours truly,
Cassandra. xo