Sadistically Stupid

When James woke up after last night's party, the one he threw when his mother was out of town; It took him a moment to place the fact he was in his room. Turning over still getting his bearings James said “Morning, how’re you doing from last night?” as he found his girlfriend lying next to him. “Been better” Eden returned coldly without so much as a glance in his direction. “I’m just going to head home, don’t feel too good,” said Eden.

As James walked Eden out of the house and closed the door behind her, he could tell that something was wrong, unsure as to why, James started to go over last night's events. James could recall the party, he had flashes of Eden being downstairs at the party; He even had a memory of them going upstairs where Eden rejected him.

James paused and thought to himself “Was it because I was busy with other people last night?” but he knew it couldn’t be. One of the reasons James liked Eden was because she was the type of girl who liked to be seen but not heard, the type of girl who preferred to blend in and not talk despite the fact her beauty and personality wouldn’t allow it.

After returning home Eden went straight to her room to sleep off what felt like must surely be a bad dream. Memories from that night were sparse, but the parts that weren’t were strong. In the process of her head hitting the pillow tears began to soak into the fabric “It had to have been a bad dream, James is one of the good ones; he wouldn’t hurt me. not like that!” cried Eden.

Hours later Eden awoke with the urge to relieve herself, it was there and then in the bathroom with bedhead, puffy eyes, dim lighting, and physical pain so strong that Eden couldn’t deny it; that wasn’t a dream…

During the party, James led Eden upstairs into his` mother's room claiming he wanted to show her something. While upstairs James tried to charm Eden “I want you all to myself” said James as he leaned in with an attempt to make out. “James c’mon there are people downstairs, and this is weird,” said Eden. “Weird how!?” James replied sharply while blocking the exit. “Can't you see how gross and disgusting this is! We can’t disrespect your mom like this not in her house and especially not in her room!” shouted Eden. James blocking the exit with his` hands-on Eden insisted she kiss him before returning to the party, and back downstairs they went.

James was the type of guy that looked good on paper; he got good grades, was a star player on the lacrosse team, loved his mom, and was seemingly friendly to everyone.

A week later when James saw Eden exiting her last class of the day he stopped to ask why she hadn’t reached out to talk. “I`d rather just forget about that night okay?” said Eden. “If I did something to hurt or upset you I want to know so I can fix it,” said James. “there’s nothing to fix can we drop it?” asked Eden. James knew that Eden wasn’t sharing the whole story of what happened that night but he decided to let it go, he invited her over to study and hang out that night.

As Eden started to head home she began to reflect on the events that had transpired and weighed them against the man she believed him to be; she tried to give him the benefit of the doubt and decided the alcohol was the culprit from that night.

Later that day Eden found herself at James’ place, things were going okay until James put the moves on Eden and she began to cry. “We have to talk, what’s going on?” said James but as Eden got into the details of what happened she noticed a sickly smile across James' face as he listened and she felt a pit at the bottom of her stomach. Eden stopped talking and James grabbed her hand and placed it on his pants right by the zipper and motioned for Eden to unzip him.

“I love listening to you talk, I got distracted maybe you could help me out?” said James

unsure of what to do Eden sat there frozen until James took over and moved her hand in the direction he wanted and right as skin touched skin Eden jumped up and ran out the door.

Driving in the car blinded by tears her phone wouldn’t stop notifying her of texts, calls, video chats, etc. and she knew it was James but looked anyway which only made the tears worse. When Eden got home she ran to her room and wrote down everything that happened that night. How James took her upstairs, how when she rejected him he kept her in the room, how she had to keep reminding him that people were downstairs. How when they went back downstairs after James calmed down he contrived to have Eden consume more alcohol, even enlisting his buddy Pierre to help convince her. How after she could hardly stand she went to lay down in James` bed and some random guy barged in, how she yelled for him to get out.

How she wished her boyfriend would have left the room just as that random guy had. If only it were that simple…

The truth was there, that night James came into his room after the party had dissipated to find Eden asleep, and proceeded to wake her up so he could finish what he started.

“Babe, get up lets fool around,” said James

“James I`m drunk let's talk tomorrow,” said Eden

“Let's talk now, I didn’t see you much at the party I want to see you now,” said James

“James, our first time isn’t me so drunk I can barely keep my eyes open, please let`s just go to sleep” and that’s just what Eden did she turned over and went to sleep. What felt like hours later but was probably closer to 2 minutes began as Eden awoke to a sharp pang of pain; mustering up the strength to open her eyes she was greeted by James` face and before Eden could breathe or form a word she was out just like a light.

Several months went by before Eden felt as though the brunt of that night's events were behind her, and in that period of time, she had not only broken up with James but also left that town behind, changed her hair, switched jobs twice, deciding she was worth a permanent fresh start.

Eden was no stranger to therapy, she started going when her parents were getting divorced. There was a pivotal moment for her one session when Eden gathered that she wasn’t angry at James, no; In fact, she felt sorry for him because he was either too drunk to remember or too stupid to care about the harm he inflicted. Now there were a few things Eden knew for certain; One is that that night would claim prisoners. Two being she didn’t look good in orange and she didn’t wear stripes. Running from your past can be tiring, but embracing your past no matter how dark and riddled with pain it may be is the only way to free ones` self from their own version of Devil's Snare and with that Eden sighed a deep breath of relief and closed the book for good, as perhaps it had been a dream all along.