ARMONI POV:
"Whatever you say Armoni. You thick for no reason baby girl, with hips and ass like that I'm damn sure you ain't a virgin." He smirked before smacking my ass. And with that I walked out of the room without another word. I'm positive he doesn't know about the rape but damn that hurt. I wiped my tears and was looking for my phone when I heard a knock on my door.
"Yeah?" I asked hesitantly, not wanting to have to explain the way I reacted the way I did. I was embarrassed and ashamed about what happened to me. It made me feel dirty and damaged. I didn't want to have to explain that to him. Things were going so good between us, although we were just getting to know each other, I felt like we had a connection.
"Can I come in?" He asked, sounding nervous.
"Yeah, hold on." I say getting up from my bed and running over to my dresser. I looked in the mirror to see my face a mess. My makeup was ruined and I had mascara running. I quickly tried to wipe the mascara and eyeliner off my cheeks and tried to think up an excuse so I wouldn't have to tell him the truth. I would tell him but I don't want him to think differently of me, or worse, pity me.
"Sorry I acted like that." I said opening the door and letting him into my room.
"No, I shouldn't have said that. I was wrong, I apologize." He said sincerely.
"It's okay." I said smiling softly at him and sitting on my bed.
"Is it anything you want to talk about, you know I'm here if you need anything right?" He asked sitting on the bed beside me and turning to face me. I shook my head quickly, not wanting to have this discussion.
"Nope, I'm fine." I said trying to convince him and myself.
"You sure?" He asked, giving me a face.
"Yeah, I'm fine." I said flashing him a forced smile.
"You know I know your lying right?" He said smirking at me.
"No I'm not." I said trying to look away from him. It was like he was reading me like I was a book and I didn't like it at all.
"I can tell when you're lying Armoni, so just tell me what's up. I don't know why you want to hide from me." He prodded.
"I just had a bad experience, but it's over now." I told him, being as vague as possible.
"What, with sex or a relationship?" He asked.
"Sex." I replied, looking away from him.
"Who is he?" Jerome said angrily clenching his jaw causing that vein in his forehead to bulge again.
"Trust me you don't know him, and he's in prison so you don't have to worry about beating nobody's ass." I said forcing out a laugh.
"So he took advantage of you or something?" He asked, wiping my tears with the pads of his thumbs and pulling me into his side. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in closer as my tears started falling faster and harder.
"Yeah." I mumbled.
"Armoni who is he?" He asked again.
"You don't know him." I replied.
"Armoni." Jerome said sternly.
"Don't worry about it Jerome." I sighed.
"If it concerns you I have a right to be worried." He said.
"I don't want to talk about it." I told him.
"Armoni, you can trust me baby." He said lifting my chin to meet his gaze, causing more tears to spill out the corners of my eyes. "I promise baby, you can trust me. I won't judge you, I swear."
"My uncle." I said breaking free from his arms and pulling my knees to my chest and sobbing into my arms as all the memories came flooding back. After years of suppressing what happened to me, it all came back instantly. I forgot Jerome was in the room with me until I felt his arms around me a lifting me off the bed and sinking to the floor against the bed while cradling me in his arms.
"I got you." I heard Jerome whisper in my ear as I continued to cry. He held me as I cried into his chest, drenching his shirt and mine. Once the tears stopped and my uneasy breathing ceased, he slowly pulled me away from his chest to look at me. I wanted to hide from him but he wouldn't allow me to.
"I'm sorry that happened to you." He told me before kissing my forehead. I nodded my head, not trusting that my voice would be strong enough to be heard from all the crying I just did. "You wanna talk about it?" He asked. I shook my head quickly, making him chuckle softly.
"It's not good to bottle things in, but I can't force you to talk to me. Just know I'm always here for you. Whatever it is." He told me before placing his hand under my chin and forcing me to look at him. He kissed my forehead, both of my eyelids, and then my nose, making me smile a little.
He skipped my lips and kissed my chin and then both of my cheeks. "May I?" He asked as his lips hovered over mine. I stared into his brown eyes momentarily before glancing down at his lips and then closing the gap between us. He gave my lips soft, gentle pecks before he bit down on my bottom lip, causing me to gasp. I felt him cup the side of my face and his thumb stroking my face as we kissed.
"Thank you." I told him with a small smile, once we broke apart.
"You're welcome baby girl. I'll always be here for you, no matter what. You can trust me. Remember that." He told me before giving me one last kiss on my forehead. He got up and headed for the door, just as he was about to leave the room, I had a sudden change of heart.
"Jerome ..." I called to him. He stopped in his tracks and slowly turned around to face me. "I-I changed my mind."
"About what baby girl?" He asked.
"I do wanna talk about it." I told him. He didn't say anything, he just came back to the bed and sat beside me. He faced me to let me know I had his attention, I took a deep breath before closing my eyes. I felt him grab both of my hands, holding them.
"Um, it started when I was twelve, two weeks before my birthday. My Uncle Charles, he was my aunt's husband on my mom's side. He was always nice to me when I was younger, he was at all the family functions, always bought me birthday and Christmas gifts, he never made me feel uncomfortable around him. I would've never thought that he was the sick bastard he was."
"My parents were out of town for a wedding so we were staying with my Aunt Deborah and Uncle Charles. My siblings went out for pizza and ice cream with my Aunt Deborah before going to the movies, but I stayed home because I wasn't feeling good. Uncle Charles offered to stay home with me, he said we'd order pizza and watch movies together at home, so I agreed. He kept his word, we ordered pizza and watched a movie. But when I told him I was going to bed, he followed me. I didn't think anything of it because their bedroom was also upstairs. I just figured he was going to bed too."
"I went to take my shower before bed and when I came back to my room, he was seated on the bed. I could look in his eyes and tell something wasn't right. I tried to run out of the room but he grabbed me by my hair and drug me back to the bed." I told him as tears started to build up behind my lids. I felt Jerome rub his thumb across my hand in a soothing manner.
"Even though nobody was home, I just started screaming and crying because I'd realized what he was about to do to me. To shut me up he punched me in the mouth and then threatened to kill me if I made another noise." I stopped talking briefly, just to collect myself so I wouldn't bust into tears.
"For a full fucking hour, he raped me. It hurt like hell but I didn't make not one sound. I was so scared he was going to kill me, I just laid there and cried silently. After he finished, he apologized and told me he'd never do it again. He ran me a bath and cleaned me up, he even changed my bloody sheets, had the nerve to tuck me into bed, and then acted like nothing even happened." I sighed as I opened my eyes to see him looking down at our hands.
"I wanted to tell but I was so scared. So many things were running through my head. I was scared he was going to kill me, I was worried that no one would believe me if I told, I was scared of what people would think of me, I was scared that my family would hate me for what he did. I was just scared. He told me he would never do it again and I was naive enough to believe him. So I didn't say anything, I didn't tell anybody what he did to me." I mumbled. To this day I feel so fucking stupid for not telling my parents or anyone else what happened, sooner.
"A year later, we had a birthday party for my brother, Emanuel. My mom sent me with Uncle Charles to go pick up the cake. I didn't want to go because I was scared but I went anyway because I didn't want to draw attention to myself. He raped me twice that day."
"About six months after that, I was at school and we had a presentation about sexual abuse. Seeing the presentation made me feel so stupid for not telling anybody what was happening to me. I made up in my mind that I was going to tell my mom everything when I got home from school that day." I shrugged.
"Uncle Charles picked me up from school that day because both of my parents were stuck at work. There was a bad storm and the whole city was under tornado watch. He worked right down the street from my school so he volunteered to pick me up and take me home. At first I refused to get into the car with him but then he convinced my dumb ass he'd never hurt me again. I believed him." I said shaking my head as I sucked in a deep breath.
"It's okay, take your time." He told me as he continued to stroke my hand with his thumb. I nodded my head before continuing the story.
"He took me to my house and I thought everything was fine. He was acting like his old self, I made the mistake of letting my guard down and getting too comfortable. I'm always trying to give everybody the benefit of the doubt. It was no different with him. I figured he'd realized that he was wrong and he was sincerely sorry for what he did to me. He knew I was afraid of storms so he made me hot chocolate and helped me with my homework before making my favorite dinner at the time." I said as I shook my head. To this day I still feel so stupid and naive.
"Everything was fine until he followed me up to my bedroom. When I noticed he was following me, I realized it was about to happen again. I tried to run up the stairs to lock myself in the main bathroom, it was the only room with a lock on it. But he was way too fast so when he caught me, I tried to fight him off. I even hit him in the head with a lamp, he was so fucking determined nothing phased him. Not even when I stabbed him with the knife I kept in my room, under my pillow. I kicked him in his balls and everything. It was like he was possessed or something."
"He beat me so bad that I was drifting in and out of consciousness." I struggled to say as I felt myself being overcome with emotion. I felt Jerome place a kiss to my forehead as I let tears slip passed my closed eyelids.
"In the midst of him raping me, my brother must've come home because the next thing I know, him and Uncle Charles are fighting. I was in such pain and shock, I couldn't do anything but lay there. I could hear Emanuel yelling my name before I blacked out. That's really all I remember from that night."
"I guess Emanuel called my parents and the police. I woke up three days later in ICU. A few days later the police came in and questioned me although they already arrested Uncle Charles. I told them everything. Six weeks later, I found out that I was pregnant. I felt so sick and disgusted, I was pregnant with my Uncle's baby." I sighed.
"I went to go live with my grandma out in South Carolina after I found out. My Mama's mom. She's the one who really got me through everything. My parents did all they could for me but I just needed to get away from Texas, so my grandmother offered to take me in." I said with a small smile. "M-my Granny is my everything, she means so much to me and in reality, I owe my sanity to her. If it wasn't for her love and God, I would've lost my mind. Literally."
"I decided to keep the baby, although it was a product of rape, it was still my baby and it was innocent. I didn't want my baby to be killed because a fucked up person raped their niece. I wouldn't be able to live with myself knowing that I killed an innocent baby. Although it was tough, my family gave me their full support. Since Emanuel had already graduated, he came and stayed with me in South Carolina. He came with me to every appointment, he held me when I cried and had nightmares, he made late night food runs for me when I was craving weird stuff. That's when we really got close and we've been inseparable since."
"I carried the baby full term but due to stress, I ended up having a stillborn. I named her Promise Rose Jones. I was only fourteen so back then the name made sense to me. Now, not so much." I laughed uneasily. There was silence between us for a long ass time, I was actually worried that I'd scared him off. I finally opened my eyes. He just sat there staring at me with an unreadable expression on his face.
He was really making me nervous. I knew I should've just kept my fucking mouth shut. I've only told the full story of my rape twice, to the police and to my parents. By the look on his face, I could tell I'd made a mistake by telling him. I looked away from him and tried to get off of the bed but he stopped me. His hand came up to cup the side of my face as his hand stroked my cheek.
"You've been through a lot. I admire your strength. You're really strong." Jerome finally said with a small smile on his face.
"Thank you." I smiled.
"I wish I was as strong as you." He mumbled before sighing.
"What do you mean?" I asked raising my eyebrow.
"Nothing, don't worry about it baby girl." He told me. "Let's go get some ice cream." He said grabbing my hand and helping me up from the bed. I slipped my feet into my red Converse and grabbed my purse before following him out the door.
"Go put your shoes on Princess." Jerome called to Aaliyah. We were waiting by the front door for Aaliyah to come back with her shoes.
"Jerome, thank you for listening to me." I told him.
"Anytime baby girl, I meant what I said. I'm always here, whatever you need. Just let me know, you can trust me not to hurt you." He said making me nod.
"I trust you."