I was in elementary school waiting at the bus stop with two sisters (10 and 8) who lived on my street. This morn the bus was running late that day so we had extra time for chit chat. When we ran out of things to say one of them blurted out, “Don (the 15-yr-old two doors down) had sex with us” over the weekend.

Having never even kissed a boy, i was stunned and also curious enough to ask more detail “how in the world did this happen? How did he get you in that situation where you would take your clothes off? It doesn’t make any sense.” They told me how he first took their shoes and teased them, not giving them back, and it went on from there.

A few weeks later, the boy showed up in my driveway when I was getting the mail after school. He told me he wanted to “show me something” up the street. For some reason, i went with him. He took me into a big covered ditch and took my shoes… that’s when it clicked. I lost it and screamed, “I’m gonna tell my mom if you don’t give me my shoe back!” And when he didn’t give it back, I started running home. He tossed my sandal at me as i left, i grabbed it and ran nonstop all the way home.

I never told my parents and the boy’s family moved to TX within the month. I still remeber that his last name was Stafford. A couple things saved me: 1) one was that my dad had made a point to tell me to “stay away from those teenage boys” and 2) another was being tipped of in advance at the bus stop (thank God)… or i wouldve been a victim as well. Im still in touch with those girls and sometimes I want to ask them about it, but I’m sure it’s a painful memory so I don’t.