Your UnSlut Project

Submitted by @RoseMaeWrites

Being only 8, I didn’t understand why people would bully me the way they did. But it wasn’t just me who was getting bullied, it was my older sister as well, who was 12 back in 2009. My sister is in Special Needs and people would always tease her about that as well as her weight. During grade 3, I had to listen to insults from people who I thought were my friends and actually were at the beginning.

The name-calling and constant bullying eventually got too much for my sister and I that once I finished grade 3 and she finished grade 7, we moved to a new house and school.

Now, I live in Australia so the schools are different from those in other countries. Almost every school had their own uniform that students had to wear every day. We also had Primary Schools, which would be like middle school except it's Prep to Year 7, and high school is Year 8 to Year 12. Years went on and the bullying stopped for my sister as she went through high school. I met new friends and so did my sister. I was getting good grades and my family was happy for a while.

This year, 2014, my best friend (let's call her Kasey) and I went to a disco for ages 18 and below. It was the first disco, organised by the police, that we’d both been to and we just wanted to have fun.

We had been with lots of our other friends there and were just dancing and playing games in the hall.

Kasey and I were tired and thirsty so we went out and got a drink, all fine and dandy. As we walked back into the hall, I saw a tall guy on his phone against the wall with no one around him. (Keep in mind I didn’t mean for anything else to happen.) So I walked over with my friend, looked down at his phone and simply said, "Nice phone." He said thanks and we walked off, continuing to dance with our friends.

Later on, one of our friends had a makeup problem so we walked out of the hall and went into the bathrooms. The organisers had put three seats next to the toilets and sitting there was the guy with the phone and two of his friends.

I didn’t say anything and didn’t even give them a second thought as we rushed into the bathrooms. Just as I was about to close the door behind me and my friends, I heard one of the phone guy's friends call out, "Do you like my friend?"

I really hoped he wasn’t talking to me because I didn’t and he looked like a 16-17 year old. I wanted nothing to do with him and thought if I just ignored him then we’d be fine. I wasn’t sure what he could have seen in me, either. But I am tall and can sometimes be mistaken for a 15 year old, so that might have been it.

The night continued and I saw the phone guy and his friends sitting down the in corner of the hall just watching people. Creepy, I know.

Kasey then thought it’d be an awesome idea to go and tell him I like him, which I was against. She went anyway and came back to tell me that he thought I was 16 not 12… More stuff went on and soon enough, our ‘friends’ got us to hug. Although it was more me being pushed into him with my head and arms down and not wanting to do anything more than just kill my best friend.

When the night was over and my mum came to pick Kasey and me up, I was relieved. I wanted nothing to do with him in the first place and it was my fault for even looking at him.

It is now September and this all happened in July. Phone guy's friend is in high school with my older sister and has come up to her 3-5 times saying that he and phone guy wanted to do… stuff… to me. I didn’t know about it straight away till my sister told my mum in 'private', with me listening through my bedroom door.

I heard the name of phone guy and what he wanted to do and I was struck frozen. I couldn’t move and I was terrified. The first thing that came to my mind was to go on Skype and tell Kasey.

I didn’t know what to do and at that point I thought my life was over. It’s not what my parents were going to say, it was what he said he wanted to do with me. I told Kasey and my other friend and they were scared but not for themselves, for me.

The next day rolled on and it was a Monday, time to go to school. My house is right across from the school I go to and I was scared that just walking 30 seconds, phone guy could capture me.

I got to school in one piece and during lunch time, I told Kasey and my other friend Amber about the whole conversation my mum and sister had.

That night I thought about it and wondered what I can do to avoid it but nothing came to mind that would actually work. Then, I remembered something phone guy had said: “Do you live around here?” and I had hesitated and said “… yeah?” I was scared, worried, and I haven’t been the same since this whole situation. It’s still going on as well.

This has made me become anxious and self-conscious of what I look like when I leave the house. If I don’t have a jumper on, I won’t leave. I now have social anxiety and have become depressed over the months.

In August, my sister then told my mum that phone guy's friend wanted to do stuff to Kasey as well, and once I told her that she was involved, she was as terrified as was I. We talked about it and my parents soon told me what was said.

I already knew but I didn’t want to say anything.

The high school, teachers, phone guy's parents, and his friend’s parents are all involved now.

It’s towards the end of September and this is still going on.