Stolen Innocence

3- The torture continues

Getting off the bus, I immediately noticed Ruben and Jesse standing with their group outside the front doors of the school. I could feel my body trembling, and I felt my heart starting to race as I realized there was really no way around them. Unless I wanted to take the long way to my locker and take the side door. They were blocking my path, probably on purpose too, particularly considering what happened last night. I swallow air as I force my body to start walking toward the doors, toward them...

"Hey Makena, what are you doing? Come over here!" I stop and turn towards the parking lot, spotting Suri climbing out of Jake's bright yellow blazer. I smiled at her, feeling a sense of relief. I took a deep breath in, trying to calm my heartbeat down. I take a deep breath as I approach her, watching Jake pull away to park the car. I smile and then tell her everything that happened the night before, and laugh as she looks over and stares daggers at him.

Suri hugs me and Jake approaches us cautiously. She tells me to tell Jake as well, or she will do it for me. So I also relay all of the information I just told her to him. As I told him about how his knocking scared me, he decided he'd start walking me to all of my classes. He wanted to make sure nothing happened. "No one will touch you today. Not while I'm here. That Jerk ought to be locked up or something. Jeesh, what is his problem anyway?"

We walked together through the doors, so I didn't have to walk the long way around. Jake very carefully put himself between Jesse and I. I was extremely grateful for him, I knew he was only doing it to impress Suri, but I would be an i***t not to accept his help. Jake liked Suri, and Suri liked Jake. But neither would make a move. If nothing changes soon I may have to take matters into my own hands.

Jake was true to his word, ensuring I got safely to and from all my classes. He was either waiting for me, or a guy from our group took me through the day after he told them an edited version of what happened. After the last bell rang, I was exhausted and was leaving the gym. My last class was dance; I enjoyed dance so much that it was a great alternative to getting my PE credit. Jake wasn't waiting for me, and I didn't see anyone else there either. Jesse would be heading this way for football practice and I needed to get to my bus. As I rounded a corner I felt myself run into a hard chest and almost fell backward onto my butt. I felt a hand grab my arm, keeping me upright. Upon looking up to see who I had run into, my breath caught as I realized I had run into Jesse, the very guy I had been avoiding all day.

"I'm so sorry." I quickly say, and then try to run away in the opposite direction. As I attempt to pull my hand away, he tightens his grip, holding me in place. My heart pounded, as I wiggled my arm trying to break free from his grip. But that only caused him to tighten his grip even more than before, and I glance up and see a devilish smile on his face.

"Look who I have here." I gasp for air, as I study his face. I don't want to be here with him at all.

"Jesse, please let me go. I can't miss my bus!" I pleaded with him in a whisper. I didn't know what he would do after what happened last night.

"Of course, we do not want you missing your bus, do we? Nope, that's not really a big concern for me after all!" He growls out, his friends who were standing around us started laughing. He tightened his grip, even more, when I did my best to wiggle free. He was hurting my arm, and if he kept on like this, there would be a bruise on it in an hour or so.

"Let me go, Jesse" I demand, grabbing at his hand with the other of my hands to get him off my arm. He grabs my wrist and tugs it away with his other hand. He shoves me against the wall, pressing me down with his muscular body and both of his hands. "Aaargh!" I scream out.

" Shut up, Makena!" he growls as he watches tears fall down my cheeks. He lets out a laugh at them. "Oh my, am I scaring you, Love?" Looking into his eyes and seeing his smile, I realized that he was enjoying this. I look around and see everyone just walking by, ignoring what was happening.

"No!" I lie to him, biting my lip against the urge to say more.

"Then tell me why you are crying?" he said sarcastically. "After all, I can't harm you. Your little cop friend will arrest me if I hurt you," he said playfully. "Thanks for that, by the way. I really enjoyed having an officer tell me what I can or cannot do around you. Particularly since I only went to your house to apologize."

"Go ahead, say it right now, I'm right here in front of you after all!" I spit out at him, feeling a bit brave.

He gazes down at me, and I watch as his lips curl slightly. "You know what, no. I'm not going to apologize not after that. But I'm going to tell you right here, right now Makena. I will do whatever I want when I want to and there is nothing that you can do about it. If you ever press charges, I'm telling you now they will not stick. If you ever get me sent to jail, then when I'm out I will come after you. Do I make myself clear?" He releases a hand, slamming his fist against the wall next to me in frustration. I flinch away, it was an impulse move.

"What are you doing? Let her go, right now." Jake stomps up to Jesse and forces him to release me. Jake wraps an arm around my shoulders as he leads me away from him.

I felt so relieved when he arrived, I wondered what would have happened if he hadn't gotten there to break it up. When we are out of eyeshot, I lose it. I start crying, and I cannot stop the tears from flowing. Jake tugged me closer and whispered to me... "Everything will be all right, I'm never going to let that happen again. I seriously thought tiny was grabbing you at the gym, but when I didn't see you I came looking. I'm glad I did."

When Suri approached us, I heard him tell her what had happened. After squeezing me into a tight hug, she demanded that I explain every single detail of what he did. I told her everything, trying hard not to cry even more.

"It's not right Kena, he shouldn't get away with so much!" She declares, trying to convince me to press charges against him. When we reach the bus lanes, we realize that the bus left without me. Jake offers to take me home safely, so I take him up on his offer.

***************

Several months went by. It was summertime now. The summer before my senior year of high school, Jesse had left me alone pretty much after that. I had only had a few minor altercations with him after that. He still got to me, but with the help of my friends, it wasn't as bad as before that last time. He had left a couple of bruises on my wrists that day, and I just covered them up. I figured it could have been a lot worse if it wasn't for Jake. I mostly tried to avoid him and ignored him when I couldn't.

Suri and I were walking home from church, and the way to her house led past Ruben's house. But I didn't care because I was glad I wasn't walking with Trinity right now. Every time she walked past his home, she would be very loud, demanding to be noticed. It was actually part of what led me to stop spending so much time with her and start spending more time with Suri. As we were walking by, I was surprised to see Ruben's sister walking towards us. She mumbled something to us, but I did not understand it and asked her to repeat it.

"I've seen you around here, what are your names?" She asked as she came to a halt right in front of us.

"I'm Makena, and this is Suri!" I admit.

"Oh, so you're Makena!" She glares at me. "Well, he's not home right now, he's over at Jesse's house. But please come by anyway. Tell me something... Do you enjoy stalking my brother and his friends?" That question infuriated me, how dare she!

"Excuse me? I do not stalk your brother! I don't even like the guy, it's my other friend that likes him. She's practically obsessed, but I stopped hanging out with her because of it all. Right now I am doing nothing other than walking my best friend here home, and she just so happens to live up past your house! So please, just mind your own business!" With that being said, I walk away up the hill towards Suri's house.

Ignoring anything she yelled back at me, hoping Suri followed suit. I wondered if she would tell her brother, maybe even Jesse, about our little encounter? Probably, but I didn't have to worry about that. The only thing about the whole thing that struck me as weird was the whole "So your Makena" thing.

She catches up to me and asks, "What was all that about?"

"I don't know, and I really don't care about it. Really, I could care less Suri, that was Ruben's little sister!" I whispered out and walked up to her driveway to the front walk. I give her a hug and walk back the long way. I didn't really want to pass his home again in case he was there. Plus, I didn't want to be viewed as a stalker.

I was walking with my head down, staring at the sidewalk deep in thought. I heard a car pass by but didn't notice it until it had parked on the side of the road right in front of me. I see Jesse climbing out of the driver's seat and pause with wide eyes as he approaches me. I wasn't sure what he wanted, and I was afraid that he might hurt me again.

"So, I just heard a very interesting little tale. Ruben's little sister just told me that you claim not to like Ruben at all. So do tell me, why do you constantly walk by his home? Which one is it Makena? Do you have a crush on Ruben or not?" His smile was sinister, I look over at the car only to realize that it was the very same one he drove over to my house a year ago. This car belonged to him. I wonder silently if the gun is still in the trunk.

"I don't have a crush on Ruben!" I declare staring at him, ready to run away in the opposite direction should I need to. "You know very well that Trinity likes him. Why do you even care whether I like him or not, Jesse? " I squinted my eyes at him. I felt a bit brave standing up to him, knowing he could harm me at any time.

He took a step towards me, and I stepped back a few steps. By the look on his face, I could tell that had upset him. But I could care less about how he felt; all I wanted to know was why he continued to torture me. "Why are you doing that? Do you really think I'm going to hurt you or do something to you?" He asks, getting even closer to me.

"I know you're extremely capable of hurting me! What do you want, Jesse? I need to get home-my mom's expecting me soon!" I mumble as I take a few steps backward. "You're very dangerous!" I declare. I tried to maintain the distance between us, but as I backed up I stepped into a hard chest. Before I realize what is happening, a pair of hands come down onto my arms and hold me in place.

Afterward, I hear a deep voice whispering in my ear. "Let him talk!" as I stared up into Jesse's brown eyes. "You let him talk to you!" he replied. Now that I was being held in place, my mind was on edge. I wanted to get away, so I pulled away from his grasp, stomping my foot against his. He releases his hold in surprise and I take off running away from him. I could hear their pounding footsteps behind me, and as I tried to get away, my foot caught on something causing me to fall to the ground. As soon as I saw a hand in front of my face, I knew they had caught up.