There were a group of girls in high school who met two years before. There were four girls in this group of friends namely Katli, Jessica, Pretty, and Hlogi. They were all in grade 11 and were in the same class, but they came from different places. Katli, Pretty and Hlogi were living with their grandparents and Jessica was staying with her single mother who raised her from birth.

Jessica was the down to earth beautiful girl who never got involved in relationships nor went clubbing while the rest of her friends were very experienced when it came to the dating and clubbing kind of a life. Jessica was always hitting the number one spot when it came to academic records, and her friends were always failing due to not attending classes and bunking school.

Katli was the type of a girl who only dated older and rich men, she would sometimes come to school with a lot of money and beautiful pieces of jewellery.

There was going to be a party during school hours and the girls were planning on attending.

“Hey Jessica, you gonna join the party?” asked Katli.

“I think I’ll sit this one out,” said Jessica a bit unsure of herself.

“As expected,” said Pretty rolling her eyes in annoyance.

Jessica decided to go to the party. She didn’t want not to be seen as a boring person to her friends.

Her friends were so pleased to see Jessica coming with them and they planned to get Jessica drunk so she could lose her virginity.

The table at the party was filled with alcohol, weed, and drugs. People were smoking things that Jessica hadn’t seen before. She was so shocked to see her friends using drugs and drinking so much alcohol. She wanted to run away, but she knew her friends would say she was an alarmist.

“Here, try some; it’ll make you feel good,” prompted Pretty.

Jessica accepted; she smoked drugs and drank a lot of alcohol. After a few minutes she passed out; she didn’t even feel her body.

There was a certain boy at the party who was also part of the plan. He was staring at Jessica all the time and he immediately took advantage of her.

They went to a bedroom and started kissing. He slept with Jessica whilst Jessica didn’t know anything, and that’s when she lost her virginity. Her friends were so excited that their plan was successful and Jessica was no longer the girl she used to be; she was now the type of girl who met their standards.

The following day Jessica came to her senses and realised that she had lost her virginity. She started crying and didn’t go to school. Her friends were worried about the whereabouts of Jessica as they left her and that boy at the house party the night before. They thought maybe something happened to her. She was also not answering any phone calls as she was so stressed and disappointed in herself.

Her friends then visited her after school just to check on her and they realised that Jessica was not in a space of talking to anyone. They managed to speak to her regarding what happened the day before.

“We’ve all been through it Jessica. It’s no big deal,” said Hlogi.

Jessica was somewhat relieved thinking that her friends were there for her, not knowing that they were actually ruining her reputation.

They all continued clubbing and dating rich people, which became a habit for Jessica. Jessica’s personality changed in a way that she even disrespected her mom, she came home late and was wearing short clothes to captivate men.

Jessica started losing focus at school, and her marks were dropping extremely low. She seduced her school teacher to convince him to raise her marks.

So Jessica slept with her teacher for the very first time and she was happy because she thought that sleeping with her school teacher would make her popular.

After a few days Jessica felt very sick and immediately consulted the doctor to see what was wrong with her. The doctor did some tests and told Jessica, “You are pregnant and you are also HIV positive.”

In that moment she felt like the walls were caving in, she felt like the world had turned against her.

“No, no… redo the test. There must be some kind of mistake,” Jessica said in shock.

Unfortunately, the result came back the same.

Jessica was very scared to tell her teacher, Sam, the bad news but she eventually did. Sam was very angry with her, “I didn’t infect you with HIV or get your pregnant!”

“You are the only person I’ve been with for a long time,” said Jessica trying to explain, but it was not worth it for Sam.

Jessica ran home crying all the way. She didn’t want to talk to anyone.

When Jessica arrived home she went straight to her room and locked herself up for hours.

When her mom came back from work, she shouted, “Jessica, Jessica are you home?!”

There was no response and she assumed that Jessica wasn’t home and she asked people in the neighbourhood if they’d seen Jessica. Later she broke into Jessica’s room and found her daughter hanging with a rope around her neck. That was the deadline of Jessica’s life.

Tell us: What advice would you give to someone going through what Jessica experienced?