Sometimes I hate reflecting back on the story I’m about to tell. It makes me have to remember a part of my life that I’d rather forget. The story is about the time I was almost raped by a young man in my neighborhood that I’d grown up with. His name was Jerome Fletcher. Jerome was six feet tall, a honey nut-brown shade and had the sexiest eyes. Over the years, with the strong help of puberty Jerome had gotten muscular and had nice mustache with a prospering beard.

I usually saw him when I would come home from school, leaving the bus stop. I was a freshman at the time and had most of the guys in my neighborhood after me because of my hips and plump behind. But Jerome was the only one I’d ever give any play to because he was the finest of them all. He was a few years older than me and stayed in and out of jail for various things. He got his GED while he was locked up and had nothing to do during the day but continue to sell drugs while his mother was at work. When I saw him after school he would always say flirtatious things to me. I would suck it up and keep on trucking down the street like I wasn’t even phased by it. Even though he was the finest cat in my hood didn’t mean I was going to let him get at me that easy.

One Friday night after I gotten home from sexing with this guy name Mark, my cousins Keisha and Angie surprisingly came over and wanted me to go to this club with them. It was around ten P. M. when they came over, I knew that my mom got off work at 12:30 from Nabisco Cookie Factory so I high tailed it up to my room then quickly showered the cum that had been stuck to my thighs after Mark ate my pussy and boned me on his mama’s kitchen floor. I put on my tightest black Levi jeans, black turtleneck that showed off my 36C’s and my all black K-Swiss gym shoes.

Club Firestorm wasn’t that packed that night. Usually you had to be eighteen to get in but Keisha was cool with the doorman and seeing how good we looked that night, he was more than eager to let us underage girls in. We had only been in the club for a hot minute or so when I spotted Jerome and a few more guys from the neighborhood. They were sitting at a table drinking beer they knew they weren’t old enough to be drinking.

‘Nothing But A G-Thang’ was pumping through the speakers. As Dr. Dre and Snoopy Doggy Dogg rapped to the beat of the music, I made my way to the dance floor with Keisha and Angie behind me. We danced through a few songs then sashayed our way around to see what we could see. Most of the fellas in the club were guys we already knew from either school or the neighborhood. We made our way back towards where Jerome and his friends were sitting.

Keisha and I stood closer to the table while Angie was a few feet over talking to someone. Suddenly Jerome looks up at me as if he was seeing me for the first time in his life. I waved and smiled at him. He takes my hand and motions for me to sit next to him. “What’s up cutie pie?” He says to me over the loud rap music. “You sure looking good with them tight ass jeans on. Every time I see you sportin’ some tight ass jeans.”

I scoot a little closer to him to make sure he hears me when I speak. “Tight jeans are my trademark baby.”

“I can tell.” He said to me smiling. I glance around the table. Everyone was rocking in their seats to the beat of L.L. Cool J.’s ‘Jingling Baby’. Jerome sits closer to me. “What y’all doin’ when y’all leave here?”

“Not much,” I say. “I’m not staying that long you know my mama would have a fit if she caught my ass up in here.” We both laugh.

“Yeah I hear you. After you get home you plan on going to bed?”

“I’m a night owl. Why do you ask?”

“If you plan on being up, call me tonight. I would call you but Ms. Moore ain’t cussing me out. You gotta a ink pen?” Did I? Did chitterlings smell like twenty-five pounds of shit? Hell yeah I had an ink pen and I wrote Jerome’s phone number down without haste.

Naturally I was hesitant about calling him that night. I made sure two hours had passed before I did. Didn’t want to look anxious. The telephone rung twice before Jerome answered it. “Hello.”

“Hey Jerome, where you sleep?”

“Wide awake cutie pie. Took you long enough to call. I’ve been waiting for you.”

“I take it by your comment that you know this is Ashley Moore from down the street.”

“Of course. I don’t give my home number to just anybody. Most girls only get my beeper number or nothing at all.”

I smiled at that. “What makes me so special?”

“I been knowing you since you were riding that Strawberry Shortcake Big Wheel up and down the street.” We both burst out in laughter. I tried to lower my voice so my mama wouldn’t hear me.

“Damn I can’t believe you remember that.”

“Yeah I remember.” He paused to chuckle. “Things like that you just don’t forget. But enough about the past. Let’s talk about the present and possibly the future. How old are you now?”

“Fifteen.” I answered proudly.

“You know I’m nineteen right?”

“Yeah I know.” I could hear my mother stirring around the house. I turned my radio on to drown out my conversation with Jerome. After long I didn’t hear her and knew she was asleep. Jerome and I talked for several hours. The last time I looked at my clock it was going on four am.

The next day Mark had called saying he wanted to see me again. He wanted another taste of my pussy and told me that of I was really good to him, he’d show me some other tricks he could do with his tongue. I was definitely intrigued but I already had plans with this guy named Steve. I met Steve through a mutual friend two weeks before and had been talking to him on the phone. He invited me to the movies that evening. I agreed to go but regretted it like hell. It was my first time meeting him in person and he was so damn boring. Plus he was sort of rundown for my taste. I liked my men well dressed. Or at least have the latest tennis shoes. The only thing that held him in my good graces was the fact that he was cute.

After we got back to my house, I was so bored that I absentmindedly fell asleep on poor Steve. Maybe subconsciously I was giving him a hint to get lost. The ringing of the telephone woke me up; it was Jerome, he wanted to see me and said that he enjoyed our conversation the night before. Then right after he called, Mark called giving me his best game. He claimed he just had to see me. I figured since Steve’s lame ass wasn’t doing anything for me, I might as well spend my quality time with someone who would make it worthwhile.

I snuck in the kitchen and called Keisha and had her call me back. I then pretended to have a conversation with her about going somewhere. Steve looked at me disappointed when I told him our night together would be cut short. Once his ass was good and gone I freshened myself up and changed my panties.

Once Mark came over I made sure that my pussy wasn’t the only thing he licked good that night.

******

Spring Break had finally arrived for me during my eventful freshmen year of high school. My short-lived relationship with Mark ended when I busted him with his daughter’s mother. The one he claimed he had no relationship with. And of course by this time I had kicked Steve’s boring ass to the curb. That left me kicking it with Jerome. Mostly we would talk on the phone at night and sit on the porch when my mama’s was home.

Spring Break was always my favorite part of the year. It gave me a sense of relief from school and I could go back with new clothes my mom bought with her income tax check. But that particular Spring Break would change my life and make me view men in a whole new kind of light.

While mom was chilling watching The Price Is Right, I got a call from Jerome asking me to come down and chill with him for a while. I threw on some purple sweats and my pink and purple Nikes. I walked down to his house in three minutes or so. He was wearing a white T-shirt and grey drawstring gym shorts. I sat on the couch and made myself comfortable.

I hadn’t been there a good two minutes before he had his big goofy hands all over me. He sat extremely close and put his arm around my shoulders. I removed his arm mad moved away. “Come on Jerome. Chill with that shit.” I said in a serious tone, but smiling at the same time to let him know that I wasn’t mad.

“What’s the problem?” He asked. “Oh you wanna play hard to get? Never figured you for one of them types.”

“I’m not playing hard to get.”

“Yeah right. Come here.” He said as he continued to rub all over me. “Jerome stop feeling on my tittties.” I spoke a notch above yelling.

“But they’re so soft. Mmm…I can’t wait to put one of them muthafuckas in my mouth.”

“Well that’s something you won’t be doing.” I jumped off the couch and headed to the front door. He was on my tail. Soon as I unlocked and pulled the door open he immediately shut it and locked it back. I turned around to face him.

“Look Jerome I didn’t come down here to fuck. I just came to chill. I thought we was cool like that, but I see I was wrong. So I’m just gonna go back down to my crib alright?” I turned back towards the door.

“You ain’t leavin’ til you give me some pussy.”

“What?” I asked in fear.

Now I already know what you’re probably thinking. Why didn’t she give it up? It’s true that I was by no means a virgin. Matter of fact I had slept with several guys in that school year. The point is I didn’t want to sleep with him at that particular time. He might have had a chance with me if he hadn’t been so damn pushy and aggressive. As fine as Jerome was I didn’t see how a cat like him should have to take some pussy when I knew plenty of females who would loved to give it to him willingly. One of those females could have very well been me. But not after the way he treated me that day.

Maybe Jerome had heard something from someone I had sex and I was getting a reputation without knowing it. I’m sure guys talk about their little “conquests” as much as women spread the word to their friends about who their dating. It could have been the whole reason why Jerome wanted to talk to me in the first place. Which meant that his entire nice guy act was all bullshit just to get some pussy from me.

Even though I knew Jerome since we both were kids, I was completely afraid of him and what he might do to me. The barbaric look in his eyes combined with his determination to get sex from me made me view him as a total stranger.

I moved away from the front door. I had the kitchen in my sights and figured I could talk a little shit to him as I made my way to the backdoor. He was on me too damn close for me to move let alone think of the perfect strategy to get out my ass out of the situation without either one of us getting hurt in the process. I couldn’t believe his behavior. Especially after he called me a “tease” when all I did was sit on his mama’s raggedy ass couch! He got a hold to my arm and sat on the couch pulling me down on his lap.

“Jerome please let me go.” I pleaded.

“This hard to get shit is sort of fun.”

“Not to me it isn’t. Look I ain’t mad at you so this could be between us if you just let me go.”

“You really wanna go Ashley? Alright go ahead.” He released the bear hug he had me in. When I leaped from his lap he pulled my purple sweats all the way down to my ankles along with my panties. I was literally ASS out!

“Oh no!” I yelled as I tried to pull them back up. Me bending over was all that fool needed. He still had on his shorts but I could feel the tip of his hard dick poking me through the cotton material. Somehow I got my clothes together and tried to move away again but he pulled me back on his lap.

“Ashley you just don’t know how long I’ve been wanting to get up in that ass. Remember when we played hide-and-go-get-it in that abandoned house next to Poochie’s? You let me rub my dick all up in and around that booty in that closet. Remember that Ashley?”

“Yeah I do but come on Jerome we were kids and didn’t know what we were doing. At least I didn’t. I was new to the neighborhood and just wanted y’all to like me.”

“Oh I liked you alright and been wanting to fuck you ever since.”

He was becoming more barbaric. I had to get my ass out of there quick, fast and in a hurry. Jerome was trying to pin me down on the living room floor but I quickly crawled away into the dining room. I was trying my best to make it to that back door. With my ass up in the air from me scrambling away, he squeezed one of my cheeks so hard that it hurt. This fool was definitely a damn lunatic. “Jerome please let me go home.” I abruptly got to my feet and faced him again.

“Why you actin’ all stuck up?”

“I’m not Jerome. I just don’t want to have sex with you. Just let me go and we both can forget this whole stupid mess.”

“I told you cutie pie, you ain’t leavin’ here til you give me some of that good shit you stuff in them tight ass jeans you always wearin’.”

I was so damn scared I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what my next move should be. I simply stood still wondering how I let myself get in a predicament like this. Inside my head plotting another method of evasion all the while.

“Jerome please” I started. He lunged forward and toppled over on to me. “Jerome don’t do this!” He still desperately tried to spread my legs with his knees while his hands held me down on the hard carpeted floor.

I struggled with Jerome the best I could. As hard as I could. As much as I could. By being on the bottom I didn’t have much of the upper hand and was basically no match for his physical strength. In between my attempts to break free I loudly pleaded for him to let me go. He ignored every one and was steady trying to pull my pants and underwear down.

And that’s when I saw it. An empty candy dish sitting on the oak coffee table. I reached for it and socked him with every ounce of energy I had in me. I’m not even sure where I hit him because it happened so face. Wherever it was it was enough to weaken him so that I could bolt up from the floor and make my way out that door, down the street and back to the safety of my own house. Luckily without a scratch.

You would think that being in such a predicament with Jerome Fletcher I would be more cautious of the guys I got involved with. But just the opposite happened. My trust for men completely went out the window and I became more promiscuous than ever. I didn’t even care if the fool had a girlfriend or not. If she did, he was her problem not mine. I didn’t even care if I was taken to the movies, or if my books were carried to class. If I felt that a cat was possibly a good fuck I was down for it. Hell I even partook in a few orgies. Not the kind with females and males all screwing each other; it would just be about three to four guys and me. Fucking til our little hearts content. A few of the times I enjoyed it. Other times it just gave me something to do.

By the time my senior year came along the number of guys I had fucked sky rocketed. I even had a few from my church. Looking back now I guess I used my sexuality in that manner because I felt I was maintaining control that way. It was my mindset that men weren’t about shit after what Jerome tried to do to me. It seemed that all they wanted was pussy anyway. So if I was going to give my good shit up it was going to be on my terms. A few of those fools I fucked them and simply left them laying in the wet spot. Without so much as a goodbye. I never caught any STDs or had any accidental pregnancies. The only things I suffered from was the lost of my self-esteem as well as a lot of integrity.

Nine years after the warm spring day of my freshmen year of high school that I spent trying to fight for my dignity I stood as a woman of celibacy. With a little forcefulness from my mother I attended church regularly and soon found the Lord. And had long since kept my legs shut.

One day I was at a gospel play in the hallway at intermission. While I waited for a friend of mine Jerome Fletcher walked directly up to me looking just as handsome as he always had. He was decked out in a dark blue suit and smelled like Cool Water Cologne. “Hey girl, long time no see!” He said to me excitedly.

“Hello Jerome.”

“How you doing Ashley?”

“Blessed as can be,” I replied.

“Good glad to hear that. You look good. Nice to know the Lord is still in the blessing business.” I was surprised by his comments about God. Even though I know God can change any sinner’s heart, I never thought of Jerome Fletcher to be a Christian.

“Indeed He is. I better find my friend and get back to my seat Jerome.”

“Yeah I better find my wife too. It was really good to see you Ashley.”

“Good to see you too Jerome. Take care.”

As I sat back in my seat I marveled the fact that even though Jerome never formally apologized for what he ALMOST did to me, I was thankful to the Lord that it didn’t happened and that he changed my ways and my life. I had forgiven Jerome and myself as well, long before we shared that enduring embrace.