I hate school.

Well, I don't HATE school. I actually love school, but what I was told 30 minutes go, I wanted nothing more than to walk out of that building with my middle finger waving in the air. I didn't actually do that.

The reason for the urge to do that unholy gesture isn't even that big. Well to me, it's absolute hell. My photojournalism teacher thought it would be a perfect idea to assign us a semester-long project. It's only the second week.

Mrs. Johnson had personally assigned all her students to take pictures and write about a club, or a sport at our school. Don't get me wrong, I like sports. I would go to my brothers football and baseball games all the time. But, she just happened to assign me to the ONE sport I know nothing about.

Hockey.

Yeah, I've watched a game or two, but I've never been interested. My best friend, and roommate, Hailee has been trying to drag me to hockey games for the past 3 years. I never gave in. She only wanted to go so she could hook up with a player from the opposing team. My ex-boyfriend, Joshua, played hockey. I never went to his games, I always said I had homework or a family problem. Honestly, I never liked him and he never liked me. We were only together because everybody pressured us into dating because we had "jaw-dropping tension".

Joshua and I are still friends. Senior year, he started becoming more flirty with me. By flirty, I mean he would occasionally ask me if I wanted to hook up or go out on a date with him. I always declined.

It's not like I never thought he was attractive, because he's HOT. But I just never had the connection with him. Nonetheless, here I am, walking all the way to the Harvard hockey rink with Joshua at my side.

Yeah. He said he didn't want any of the players trying to get in my pants, so he thought he'd walk me there and drive me back to my dorm when I'm done. It was around 4 p.m, meaning they start practice in 45 minutes. Mrs. Johnson gave me their schedule, I'm not a stalker.

"I don't see why you can't try to switch with somebody else," Joshua muttered. I tilted my head up to him. His lips were in a perfectly straight line, and his jaw looked tense.

"Trust me, I tried. Mrs. Johnson said the more I don't want it, the more work she'll assign me," I replied. Joshua rolled his eyes scoffing, and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

It was around late October, so the weather wasn't terrible, but it wasn't scorching as it had been over the summer. I had on a simple navy blue tank top that was cropped so you could see a bit of my stomach. Paired with dark gray camo leggings and my favorite pair of Jordan's. To top it off, I had a black Nike pullover so I wouldn't be freezing my butt off in the ice rink.

"I swear, if any of these dickheads even look your way, I'll rip their heads of myself," Joshua said through gritted teeth. Yeah...did I forget to mention he's a little protected over me?

"Calm down Josh, no need to get your panties in a twist," I joked. I could tell he didn't take that as a joke because of the way he scoffed and sped up. I ran to catch up, pulling on his arm to stop. He turned to me and his expression softened a bit.

"I'm sorry Ari, it's just, I don't trust these guys okay? I don't trust anybody after what happened with Caleb," The mention of his name sent a shiver up my spine. Caleb Wells. Every girl wanted him and every guy wanted to be him. He played with Josh on the hockey team where he was captain. When Josh and I broke up, Caleb started talking to me in classes and the hallways. I thought he was being kind so when he asked me out on a date, I happily agreed.

That was the biggest mistake I ever made.

*

He took me to a small, local concert and was sweet for the whole night. Well, almost whole night. He offered to drop me off at home and I took him up on it. I let him in, offering him a snack before he would head home. As I walked into the kitchen, I felt him grab my body and push me against the wall. My eyes were clenched shut as I felt tears start to prick my eyes.

He had hissed at me.

The tears that had formed were now rolling down my cheeks as I tried to push him off of me. That made him even more angry as he took both my wrists and held them against the wall in one hand. His other hand came down and groped me under the skirt. I cried out as I felt my body stinging and burning with pain.

My entire body had grown tired after 10 minutes from all the pathetic attempts to push his body off. As I shut my eyes, the last thing I had seen was the image of Caleb zipping his pants down with an angry look on his face.

I had woken up the next morning with a dry throat and bruises all over my body. There was no sign that Caleb had ever been here. The house was perfectly clean and no clothes other than my black panties that laid on the ground were insight.

I couldn't even get up. I dragged my body over to my phone, which laid on the ground slightly cracked. I dialed Joshua's number, knowing my parents wouldn't care to come and my brother would still be asleep with his girlfriend.

Joshua had spoken into the phone. Hearing his voice was a relief.

I could barely choke out words as my throat was burning from the screams I had let out a few hours ago.

Was the last thing I heard before my body had collapsed, again, on the floor.

Caleb was never charged for rape because I never reported him. Josh was mad about that. I wanted to forget the moment. I didn't want to keep remembering it and how Caleb had tortured my body and ignored all my screams to stop.

*

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"We're here."

I looked up from my gaze that was on the ground, to the words that read BRIGHT-LANDRY HOCKEY CENTER.

Well, here goes nothing.

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Authors note:

i hope you enjoyed the first chapter :) feel free to comment critiques or anything that i could improve on