OBU. I ran into this guy I already knew, but I was seriously surprised to see him. I had no idea he was going to Henderson. He asked me out almost every day for six months before I said yes.” Norma pauses and looks down at her hands. When a tear lands on her peach skin, I nearly lose it. What happened to her? “It was really good for the first six months. I was almost happy with him. And I tried really hard to be happy with him. I played happy so well, that he started to slip up. Show me things I think he didn’t want me to see.”
When she stops again I try to keep my mouth shut but it’s really hard. It’s like that dream I have of her. When she is sitting there crying and I can’t get through that invisible wall. She is so close yet unreachable. “What happened Norma? And what does this have to do with Macy?”
Cassie glares over at me, “Shut up Chance. This is hard for her. Give it time.” When she grabs Norma’s hand and squeezes I shut my eyes. I know now what she is going to say. And I’m going to want to murder someone. “Go on Norma.” Cassie tells her softly.
“Okay so one day I showed up without calling first. I mean I’d been to his apartment before and I had been with the guy for half a year, I thought it was cool. Well it wasn’t.” She takes a deep breath and looks up at Cassie squeezing her hand. “He was in the middle of a drug deal. Apparently he had been selling them out of the apartment for months. And I’m not talking pot or something small like that. No I’m talking hardcore drugs, like ice and crack. I thought oh my God I’m done. I honestly thought it would be that easy. It never is.” The tears flowing out of her eyes now are way too much. I feel my knuckles turning white. And I think I stopped breathing a long time ago. “I told him I couldn’t be with him, if he was going to do that. I don’t agree with selling drugs or doing drugs. That’s the first time he hit me. Just smacked me across the face. In front of a lot of people. That’s something else he let me believe. That I had all the control. When actually I had none.
“What’s worse is I had no one to help me. My roommate is a chick and I refused to let her call the police. I was fucking scared. These guys had guns and they were scary. I didn’t want one of them to come after me for snitching. You’ve met my dad, what the hell was he going to do? So I stuck it out. He started getting really abusive. He would accuse me of cheating and lying to him, but really it was just an excuse to hit and kick me. He had his right hand man, David following me around everywhere I went, so he knew I wasn’t lying or cheating. I didn’t want to end up dead.
“I honestly think he got off on hurting me. He would get this look in his eyes that chilled me to the bone. They were bright and excited. Then he started forcing me to have sex with him. I would give in because I didn’t want to get hurt. He would throw these parties and make me have sex in front of people. I felt degraded and nasty. I got called a slut and a whore all the time by people who saw. I didn’t know what else to do. It got harder and harder to cover up the bruises. My professor and other staff were starting to ask me why I was limping or walking funny. I lied through my teeth but it’s not like they ever really tried to stop him. He’s a monster.
“Then about a month ago I found him fucking a girl in his car outside my dorm. I was so relieved you can’t even imagine how much so. I knocked on the window and he got out of the car and told me he was done with me. I played it off like I was upset and angry but really I was so happy to be out from under him. That girl though was stupid. She knew what he was, how he was. I feel