I was good friends with a boy in 8th grade.
He confessed to liking me in December and I was so excited because I thought I was disgusting.
To have someone tell me they liked me was crazy to me (even tho I had plenty friends).
I told him I liked him back.
From that point on we were a “thing.”
We couldn’t be officially dating because we were Mormon.
We went to the temple together most Fridays with a group of friends. This is where he started to get a bit touchy feely.
At first it was just brushing my leg or something but then he started getting worse.
The first time he sexually assaulted me was at his birthday party.
The next was in school.
I was so so confused and began to look back on everything.
I must’ve given him some sort of sign…but we hadn’t even kissed yet.
At the end of the school year I began to distance myself from him.
But we went back to school for our freshman year and he began lovebombing me again to get me back.
When I didn’t respond to it, he became more and more desperate.
I was scared so I confessed to my bishop.
He told me I did nothing wrong and contacted the church hotline.
They told the bishop to tell my parents, not the police.
And in their infinite wisdom suggested that everyone gets together and have a little meeting.
Parents, kids, and bishops.
We declined.
All this time, this kid was staying at the school (his mom was the vice principal).
Anyway, I won’t get into the nitty gritty details but I will say this.
My bishop asked me VERY specific questions about the abuse.
I to this day hope he was just following orders and not being creepy.
A 40 something year old man should not be able to ask a 14 year old sexual abuse survivor to describe, in detail, her assault.
Especially not alone in a locked room.
Oh!
And the kick of the story is…
that kid is serving a mission right now.