This is the newest short story. Once again, 100% fiction situations! It contains a real issue that faces teenagers today though. Here you go... _______________________________________________________
It was a beautiful June afternoon and me (Jen, 21), my best friend (Nikki, 22) and Melissa (4) had just arrived at the *NSync concert in Orlando, not too far from where we lived. My best friend heard there was a radio station that would be broadcasting there and giving away meet and greets to some people who dressed and showed how much the loved *NSync. Of course she had to do it, but not to herself. She took Melissa and dressed her in blue jean shorts, an *NSync tank top and a white *NSync bandana she made that covered most of her head except for her 2 blonde pig tails peaking through each side. She also had her *NSync necklace from last year's tour that she placed around Melissa's neck.
We walked through the gates, and off to the right was the radio station with about 15 girls hanging around. Nikki took Melissa and went up in the line and the DJ commented on how cute she looked and asked her if she wanted to perform a little *NSync for the people. She agreed and he played "bye, bye, bye" and Melissa sang and danced around. The DJ stopped her and asked her if she wanted to meet *NSync and she said yes and he asked Nikki how many passes they needed and she got the 3 meet and greets and came back to where I was standing near by.
"Look what we got." Melissa said as she gave me the passes.
"That's great. All cause you're such a cutie." I smiled. "What time do we have to go?" I asked Nikki.
"Now, he said we should run because it starts in like 5 minutes. Let's go." Nikki replied as she took off with Melissa and I on her heels.
We sat there for awhile and then got into the line for the autographs, we were the last ones in line. Sitting first in the line was Justin. Melissa got all excited when he said 'Hi' to her. She told him she loved him and wanted to give him a hug. She did and we moved on down to Joey, Chris and JC. When we got to Lance, since there was no one left Justin walked over to Melissa to talk to her some more.
"Melissa." He said coming up from behind Lance to her. She decided to play games and run off.
"Dammit, Melissa." I said as I took off after her, leaving Nikki and the autographs behind.
I caught up with her while she was sitting in the corner.
"Melissa, don't you EVER do that again. Do you understand? This is no place for games." I yelled quietly.
"I'm sorry. I'll never do it again." She said looking at the ground.
"It's ok. Just be good the rest of the day. This is a very big girl thing I brought you too. You have to be on your best behavior." I said. She smiled and gave me a hug. I looked up and Justin was standing there.
"Hey Melissa. Why'd you run away from me?" Justin asked as he sat down on the curb where we were sitting.
"I'm sorry, I have to be good now because this is for big girls." She said. I laughed at her. They kept on talking and I just kept my eye on her.
"Excuse me." I heard a male voice say. I looked up and Lance was standing there.
"Hi." I said not knowing what to say.
"You took off and left this." He said as he handed me the autographs.
"Oh thanks. I'm Jen." I said as I stood up and shook his hand.
"Excuse us for a second. I have to go get my friend." I said as I took Mel's hand and we walked over to Nikki who was still busy flirting with Joey. Justin and Lance followed behind to rejoin the others.
"Nikki." I simply said.
"Jen, hey, Joey invited us back after the show and gave us the passes and how to get back wherever we're suppose to be. Is that ok or do you have to get Mel home at a certain time." She asked.
I looked at Mel. "As long as she acts like a big girl and behaves I don't see why we can't stay a little longer."
"Great."
Mel tapped my shoulder and whispered to me " I gotta go to the bathroom." I reached into my bag I brought with me that had the tickets in it and got one out and handed it to Nikki.
"Sorry to just leave but we've gotta take a little trip to the bathroom. It was nice meeting you all." I said excusing ourselves.
"We'll see you two later." Lance said. I smiled and walked away with Mel to find the bathroom. Then after waiting in the long line we made it to our 5th row seats( Courtesy of my long time best friend, Scott, who had some connections.) at 6:55 after grabbing a bite to eat. The opening acts were to start at 7:30. Nikki didn't come till 7:20.
"Gosh it took you long enough." I said to Nikki as she sat down.
"Well I was having a nice conversation." She smiled. "I would've been gone longer if wouldn't have been for the guards taking him to get ready."
"So you 2 had a nice little flirt fest huh?" I joked.
"You could say that. What about you, you flirted too." She commented.
"What? Where was I when that happened?" I asked.
"I saw that little smile you gave Lance when you were ready to leave. And not to mention his eyes followed you out the door."
"Yea, whatever. I was so not flirting." I paused. "So he was watching me leave?"
"Yes until the moment you were out of sight. But what does that matter. It's not like you have any interest in him."
"I never said.. Nevermind."
"Ok" She laughed. "Well it looks like Mel made herself a little friend back there. Justin was following you all over." Nikki said with a childish grin.
"I like him. I want to marry him." Melissa said.
"He's a little too old for you sweety." I said. Then the music started and Melissa started jumping and screaming. I thought for sure the loud noise would hurt her ears but she stood on her chair and was singing and dancing to the opening acts, Innosense and Pink. After we waited at least half an hour it was time for the big show as all the lights went out and everyone started screaming. We all screamed our lungs out and came out with sore throats.
"That was awesome." Mel said.
"Yea it was. Now it's time to go backstage." Nikki said.
"Ok." I said not too excited, but all the way nervous.
After 15 minutes of wondering around we found a guard and got ourselves backstage. The guy said they would be out in 10 minutes that they were still in the process of changing. We took a seat on some couches that were in a semi open area and just started talking. Within only 5 minutes everyone excluding JC came out to greet us.
"Hey guys. JC wanted to shower, make some phone calls and then get to bed, he's not feeling too hot." Chris said.
"Oh ok that's fine. Tell him we hope he gets better." Nikki said.
"So Nikki let's go for a walk and talk for awhile." Joey suggested. Nikki agreed and got up and left.
"Are you gonna go hang with the kids at the court?" Chris asked Justin.
"Yea. Jen, would you mind if I took Melissa with us down to the court. My little bro and some of our cousins and stuff are hanging down there and Chris and I are gonna work with them on shooting some hoops."
"It's fine with me. Do you wanna go with Chris and Justin, Mel?"
"YAY!" She said jumping up from the couch and running over to Justin and Chris.
"We won't be too long." Justin said as they took off leaving Lance and I sitting there on the couch.
"So how long do you think they'll be?" I asked not knowing what to say first.
"Probably 45 minutes, an hour, somewhere along those lines."
"Ok that's good, I hope Mel uses up some of her energy she got out there so she'll sleep good tonight."
"They'll wear her out. So how do you know Mel is she a cousin, sister, what?" He asked.
"Oh yea, she's my little sister. We're really tight."
"That's sweet. Listen there are a lot of people around here. You wanna go somewhere quieter?"
"Sure." We got up and walked to some place out back where it was really quiet and beautiful and the sky was lit up with the stars shining so bright.
We sat out there what seemed forever. Once we got the conversations started we had no problem talking about everything from general information about ourselves, to our families, hobbies, past relationships, life goals and everything.
Things went by so quickly I had no idea what time it was and wasn't even paying attention. This was one of the most carefree moments I had in a long time. During our conversation Nikki and Joey came out back looking for me and they found Lance and I sitting there laughing.
"Jen, do you have any clue what time it is?" Nikki shouted, scaring the crap out of me.
"It can't be that late." I looked at my watch "Girl are you serious? My watch cannot be right! It is not 2 in the morning!" I got up and brushed off my pants.
"Yea it is. I just wanted to let you know."
"Where is Mel?" I asked.
"She's out with Justin and his brother watching The Lion King. They ended up giving up on the basketball pretty quick" Joey said.
"Well I guess I'm ready. Let's go." I said.
"You don't have to go yet. There is at least a half an hour left in the movie and Justin doesn't mind watching it till it's over. So we'll come back and get you when it's over."
"Oh ok. Then we have to go." I said as they headed back to the door and I just sat back on the ground.
"I can't believe it's 2 am already. It's really been a nice evening." I said to Lance.
"Yea, It has. Maybe we could get together again sometime."
"That would be great. Here..." I got the notebook out of my bookbag and wrote my number, e-mail, and everything so he could keep in touch however. I handed him the piece of paper.
For the next half an hour we continued to talk about random subjects until Nikki and Joey came back to get me. Lance and I went inside with them to where Melissa was laying on the couch asleep on one side of Justin and his brother asleep on the other.
"Awe, they look so cute. Too bad I have to wake her to get her in the car."
"I'll carry her out for you." Justin offered
"Thank you so much. You've really been going all out for her today."
"She's so sweet and I love kids. It's been fun."
"Well then follow me out to the car." I said. Justin, Joey, Lance, Nikki, Melissa, and myself walked outside to the parking lot entrance and saw my car all the way at the back of the lot by itself. "Can you tell we got here kinda late." I commented at the position of the car.
We finally reached the car and Justin buckled Melissa in the back and Joey was saying 'good bye' to Nikki on the passengers side.
"I'll give you a call soon." Lance said.
"Ok. I'll talk to you later." I said and I gave him a friendly hug and a smile. We got into the car, waved and finally pulled out of the lot at 2:45 am.
"So.. How did things go, Obviously well." Nikki said.
"They went really well. We just kept on talking and talking. He's really an interesting person to get to know." I said as I paid attention to the road.
"He said he'd give you a call, so would you ever get involved with him or is this going to be like everything else has been for the past 5 years where you isolate yourself from men?"
"Listen Nikki. You've seen what happened to me and my life since then. Don't you think I have reason to be afraid? And well I think this might be an exception, as long as I take it slow."
At 3:09 am we pulled into my driveway. I picked Melissa up and carried her inside and up to her room. Nikki stayed over that night and we got up unwillingly at 10:30 and went downstairs to the living room where my mom and dad were at.
"Why did you all get home so late last night?" My mom asked.
"It' s a long story but we were just hanging out with some of the guys of *NSync after the show." Nikki explained.
"That's great. Did Melissa have a good time?"
"Boy did she ever. She was playing and hanging out with Justin all night after the concert. She made herself a nice little friend." I said.
"Well so did you." Nikki said.
"Yea I did." I smiled.
"Tell me about it." My dad said.
"Well we went backstage after the show and everyone left and I sat and was talking with Lance and we talked forever and I just felt so comfortable talking to him. I told him everything and he told me everything and I gave him my number so he said he'd stay in touch."
"You told him everything?" My mom asked.
"Well not exactly. But don't worry I'll tell him if this gets serious." I said. Not too long after the phone rang.
"Hello?" I answered.
"Hi, Jen?"
"Yes."
"Hey, it's Lance. I was just wondering if you wanted to go out and do something today since I we have an off day today."
"I'd love to. What time?"
"12:30"
"That's perfect. Ill talk to ya then. Bye"
"Bye."
"Well that's a start." I said. "You're sure you can watch Mel today right?"
"Yea. Your father and I are going to take her to the circus they're having. So we'll be home around 10. You just have yourself a good time. You really need to get out there and start seriously dating again Jen."
"I know. It's just so hard. Especially hiding something like this because no guy wants to be tied up with the real me. Listen I don't want to talk about this right now. I'm going to get ready." I left the room and went up to my own bedroom where I skimmed through my closet looking for an outfit to wear. Once I picked it out I got my shower, got dressed, did my hair and make up and was ready to go.
The doorbell rang and I ran to the bathroom to do a quick hair check and then ran downstairs to where my mom was just opening the door with my dad behind her steps.
"Hi." He said with a smile.
"Mom, Dad, this is Lance. Lance, these are my parents."
"Nice to meet you." He said.
"Well we better be going. I'll see you later." I said to my parents as I ran out the door.
Lance and I did just the simple things, bowling, a walk around the lake, dinner, and we rented a movie and went back to his pace to watch it. We also spent more and more time talking and discovering things about one another. At 9 p.m. he drove me home and walked me to the door.
"I had a great day. Thanks so much." I said, meaning every word of it.
"I had a good time too. We definitely have to go out on dates more."
"Sounds good. Well I guess this is good night." I made the first move and moved in closer for a kiss. It wasn't just an average good night quick kiss, it was a nice long kiss. When we pulled apart neither of us knew what to say. We just smiled and said 'goodnight' again.
Our relationship was going strong. For 2 weeks after our kiss Lance and the rest of *NSync were out finishing up their tour but we still kept in touch. From the moment he came back there wasn't a day we didn't see each other. We'd always either go out or hang out at his house or mine and a lot of the times he wanted to bring Mel along since he knew we had such a strong sisterly bond. We had now officially been dating for 2 months and things were going so well. One night at around 9:30 it all hit me. I was in love with Lance but he wasn't in love with me. I mean he was but I had been hiding a very large portion of my past and current life and he needed to know. So all I knew to do was just pick up the phone and call him that very moment.
"Hey Lance we really have to talk. I have something I really need to tell you." I blurted out.
"What is it?" He asked.
"It would be better if I told you face to face."
"Ok, I'll be by in 15 minutes and we can go somewhere and talk."
"Thanks."
___
We arrived at the park 30 minutes after I called him and walked to the center and sat on a bench facing the beautiful fountain lit by colored lights.
"So what did you need to tell me?" He asked.
"I need to be completely honest with you and I haven't been from day one. I hope what I'm about to tell you will still allow us to be friends because you've become one of my best friends these past months as well."
"We'll always be friends, now what is it?" He said holding my hand.
"Ok, well you know my sister, Mel, right?"
"Yea, she's such a sweetheart. What about her?"
I took a deep breath, for once I was going to come out and tell the truth to a guy.
"She's...she's.. Not my sister. She's my daughter." A giant relief flew off of me and then a sharp pain went in my heart when I saw Lance's reaction, he was stunned.
"Why did you lie to me for so long?"
"It's a long story. Let's walk around and I'll tell you it all. You just let me talk and you just listen. Will you at least listen to me?" I asked.
"Of course." We got up and started walking. Once again I took a deep breath.
"Ok, you've met one of my best friends, Scott. Well back when I was 16, we're talking junior year of high school, Scott's older brother who went to college about 30 minutes away from our neighborhood, invited Scott to a huge party going on at his fraternity so he invited me to go. I told my parents I was going to a party with Scott I just failed to mention it was at a frat house cause I know I wouldn't have been allowed to go. Well I was always a goody goody and I went and didn't drink the alcohol because at the time I thought it tasted like crap. So I had a soda and I was talking with some people and put my drink down for a minute. That was the biggest mistake of my life. Someone put roofies in my drink and since it doesn't have a taste or odor I had no idea anything had happened to my drink. So I picked up my drink and drank it and then all I know is I was raped and they have no clue who did it to me. And thanks to that pill I can't remember anything that happened that night." I began to cry. "Not only was I raped and left with emotional pain and scars but it turned out I got pregnant from the rape. I know what you're thinking about now, why didn't you have an abortion or put the baby up for adoption. Well I wasn't a big fan or abortion because of all the guilt trip commercials I had seen in heard about how you carry huge amounts of guilt forever and I just couldn't do that. Then with adoption it would've been hard. I went through 9 months of carrying and taking care of this baby and this is going to sound so off the wall but I didn't want to leave a kid out there searching for me one day wanting to know why I left them. I've watched too much Sally and Montel in my life. Now to why I didn't tell you the truth. Face it, no guy around my age wants to hear that I'm 21 and have a 4 year old daughter it's a major turn off. You have been the first guy I had an instant attraction to and I knew if I told you about Melissa I wouldn't have a chance. And now it looks like I lost what I had. That's really all I have to say I guess." The tears fell more and I couldn't handle it and broke down.
"Jen, I'm sorry about everything that has happened to you. You've been through so much and you're so young. You didn't scare me away. I'm still here and we're still where we were half an hour ago in our relationship. Just don't feel like you have to hide things from me." He said as he held me tight.
"You're unbelievable, thank you."
Around 11 p.m. he dropped me off at my house and I went inside where my mom was still awake.
"Hey, where did you take off so quickly to?" She asked
"It all just hit me while I was sitting in my room and I just got back from being with Lance. I told him, I told him everything."
"And..."
"He doesn't care. It didn't hurt anything at all."
"Then you've found yourself a good guy."
"Yea, there is just one more thing I wish I could find"
"What's that?"
"The person who took away my life and so much more." I sighed.
____
Two weeks later Scott's parents and him were having a party at his house and his parents invited mine and Nikki's and Scott invited Nikki and I along with anyone we wanted to bring along. So of course Nikki and I brought along Lance and Joey. We would've invited the others but they were all out of town visiting their families on vacation while they had some time off. Since the majority of the people were over 40 it was basically, me, Scott, Lance, Melissa, Joey, and Nikki hanging out in the backyard while the older people were all socializing inside.
"Hey Mel, why don't you go swing for awhile." Scott suggested and she ran off to the swings.
"You're never going to outgrow those swings are you?" I joked.
"Hey, they have sentimental value. How many late night talks did we have out there when either one of us was upset? And besides you never outgrow a swing." He said as dramatic as possible.
"You're right Scott. And that was so moving that I think I'm going to go and hop on the swing next to Mel." I laughed and walked over to the swing. Scott watched and smiled and then looked to Nikki.
"Everyday I want to come out and tell her the truth, but you know I never can get myself to do it." He said to Nikki.
"I think you owe it to her Scott." Nikki replied.
"What are you guys talking about?" Joey asked lost in the conversation.
"You can't tell her, I have to do it, someday. I'm Melissa's father." He said. Lance and Joey's face's fell in shock as they looked at one another. Lance couldn't help but speak up.
"Jen is going through all this pain about what happened to her and you are the one who did this to her? You raped your best friend? How could you do such a thing and let her go on never knowing what happened to her. And worse, not letting Melissa know who her father is."
"Listen, I understand where you're coming from but there is more to it. I got extremely drunk that night and was hanging around college guys and they thought it would be a good idea to slip the roofies into her drink and I didn't even know what they did. Yes I did rape her I'll admit it but that wasn't me that night that was me so incredibly wasted. And I never told her because I was her best friend and I didn't want to lose our friendship."
"There is no excuse for it. And Nikki did you know about this the whole time?"
"Well yea kinda." She said looking around to avoid eye contact.
"You 2 are suppose to be her best friends and instead you're partners in crime. You realize once you tell her she'll probably never want to have anything to do with either of you again."
"Yea, you're right I'm just not going to say a word." Scott said.
Lance couldn't take it anymore so he got up, "Joey come with me for a minute." Joey got up and followed him out of the backyard and into the front yard. I noticed both of them walking away and waited a moment before leaving Melissa to swing so I could follow them and say 'hi'.
Joey and Lance sat on the front porch both staring ahead of them.
"Can you believe that guy?" Lance asked.
"No, and I can't believe Nikki had a part in this as well."
"I know, Jen's 2 best friends deceiving her." There was a brief moment of silence and I had made my way to the side of the house where I could see and hear them.
I sat there listening in to Joey and Lance talk.
"So what am I suppose to do? I mean I have to tell Jen don't I? She needs to know." Lance said.
"Exactly but she won't take it to well. I'm sure of that."
"Hey guys." I said walking around the corner. "Joey, could I have a minute with Lance?"
"Sure. I better go back to Nikki any ways." Joey walked around the corner and I looked at Lance.
"What do you have to tell me? I overheard you and Joey when I was coming around the corner."
"It's too hard to tell you. You're going to hurt very much when I tell you."
"I'm a big girl, I can handle it. But just in case hold my hand" I said joking as he held my hand.
"This isn't a joke. Are you sure you can handle this?"
"Positive, now hit me."
"Ok, well when you went swinging with Mel, Scott made some comments and you need to know. He said he wished he could tell you everyday but can't do it. Then Nikki jumped in the conversation. We got them to tell us what they were referring to and Jen… Scott told us he's Mel's father and Nikki has known about this as well."
"Lance, this isn't funny." I began to tear up.
"I'm not lying to you. I wouldn't do that. Scott was the one who raped you." I was at a loss of words. I knew he wouldn't lie to me but this was so unbelievable. My best friend raped me what was I suppose to say?
"I…I…" I couldn't say anything. Instead I ran to the back yard and saw Scott laughing at a joke that smile wouldn't be on his face for long.
"You bastard." I said as I smacked him across the face and started punching him as hard as I could and I kept exerting all my energy to hurt him. "I know, I know it all. Why the fuck did you do it! WHY??? Look what you did to my life. Look what you did to Melissa's life. I hate you Scott. I hope you fucking burn in the fiery pits of hell and party with the devil." I screamed as Lance came running around the house and Joey and Nikki tried to pull me off.
"Get off of me Nikki." I yelled pushing her off. "You knew and you never told me. I waited 5 years to find out. Five rough years not knowing who raped me and not knowing what to tell Melissa about who her father is. You both are scum and I hate you." The screams finally reached to the ears of the parents and friends who sat within the house. Lance grabbed me and we walked away and he held me tight as I cried more than I ever had in my life.
"What's going on ?" Sally, Scott's mom yelled from the sliding door.
"It's nothing mom, just go back inside." Scott said calmly.
"It's nothing? It's nothing? Sally, your son is the biggest asshole to roam this planet! I can not believe him." I darted back over to Scott and hit him some more. "You raped me you asshole, how could you!!!!!! You took everything from me." I screamed as I broke down again and just fell to the ground sobbing into my hands.
"Jen, what are you talking about, he raped you?" Sally said coming over to me and kneeling beside me as my parents and Bret, Scott's dad, along with Nikki's parents came out into the lawn.
"He raped me, he's the one who did it to me 5 years ago. He's Melissa's father." I cried.
"Honey, I don't think Scott did that to you, You two have been the best of friends now why would he.."
"Mom." Scott interrupted, "I took her to a frat party back when we were 16 and I was really really drunk and some of the guys at the frat house saw Jen being the goody goody drinking a soda so they told me to put this pill in her drink and it would make her party a little more. So after I put the pill in her drink slyly I had a lot more to drink and then I had sex with her. I'm not going to deny it. I know what I did."
"Oh my god." She whispered as softly as she could. All the parents sat there with their mouths practically hanging on the floor not knowing what to say. My mom and dad saw the state I was in and came to my aid. Scott walked over to me.
"Jen, I'm sorry about everything. Sorry about what I did. Sorry about not telling you. Just downright sorry. Is there anyway you can forgive me?" He asked sincerely as Nikki approached too.
"Same for me too Jen. I never meant to hold this back from you but you know, I mean, nevermind..." Nikki trailed off.
"Right now I don't want to talk to either of you. Try again later. Bye." I said as I slowly made my way out front to the car with my parents, Melissa, and Lance.
"Honey, do you wanna take him to court for rape? Because we'll get you a lawyer and help you." My dad offered.
"Thanks, but aside from what I just found out Scott has been my best friend since we were in diapers. We're talking 20 years here, he made some mistakes and he knows. But he's going to pay now. He's going to be a father to Melissa."
"Jen, you're taking this too lightly. This is a crime what he did. Are you positive?" My mother said.
"Listen, I'll never be able to talk to him like I did before but I can't throw him in jail to do time."
"Ok sweety as long as you say so."
The weeks and months had gone by and legal action was taken. But not against Scott. We were able to talk and he's now required to pay child support and has his visitation rights to Melissa. It took awhile for us to get it across to Melissa that Scott was her dad. She didn't like calling him dad after calling him Scott for so long so Scott he stayed. Nikki and I were able to reconcile over what happened and are closer than ever. I understood how hard it was for her to keep the secret from me since her, Scott and myself were the 3 musketeers practically and she was best friends with both Scott and I. Now as for Lance and I, we were still together all the time. Him, Mel, and myself were like our own little family and we planned to finalize that not too far down the road. Mel wanted to be the flower girl when we did get married and looked forward to calling Lance her daddy even though Scott was her biological father. She also prayed for a little brother or sister someday soon, but we were just taking things one step at a time.