Ambition and dedication was all that Loretta was known for in her local primary school. Until the day she went to high school where she changed for the worst. Her focus, determination and ambition faded into thin air. She met a group of friends, nine, who had bad manners. They were disrespectful and they were controlling. They caught hold of her attention and wanted her to be a member of their group. She joined their group at the expense of losing her voice. She became dependent on them for everything. It’s true what they say, evil company corrupts good behaviour.

School holidays came by and everyone was excited, except Loretta. She was worried that she would have to be independent, no one to order her around, give her advice and she wouldn’t have anyone to copy things from.

Then she thought of one of the ideas from the girls group and that was to date someone older.

“Dating older guys is so much better,” one of the girls said in their private group chat.

She suddenly felt the need within her to find herself an older man. Someone who would control her, someone she could depend on. Little did she know, an older guy would lead to her downfall.

She used social media to begin communicating with her friends. She asked their advice on dating an older guy. They encouraged it and praised the idea. She later received a text message from an online dating site. She checked the profile and saw a handsome man interested in her. Loretta was so convinced that Ben had money and he was a perfect match for her, a business man who was interested in teenagers. He wasn’t even ashamed of himself, a forty-five year old dating a thirteen year old girl who was fit enough to be his daughter.

One windy Saturday morning she woke up and told her grandmother that she was going to visit her friend. Her grandmother believed her without hesitation. She went straight to the bus stop where Ben arranged to meet her.

When she arrived she saw something different to the photos, a fat man with a belly which made him look like Father Christmas. She tried avoiding him but it was too late. She went to him with a fake smile on her face.

“You look nice,” Ben said.

He looks like my father, but anyways the girls said age is just a number, she thought.

They went to his car, he offered her a drink and set next to her. He already had a hotel room booked for the two of them. Loretta’s inner voice was telling her that the next few hours would ruin her. She ignored that voice. They arrived at the hotel and went straight to the bedroom. Ben went inside first.

“Aren’t you coming to join me so that we can get to know each other in an understandable language?” He said, in a harsh tone.

As she opened the door, she saw the unexpected surprise of a totally naked man waiting for her. The door was locked and he grabbed her hand and threw her on the bed. She had nowhere to run to and no one could hear her cries for help. He called her sweet names, but this time she wasn’t blushing, she was crying her heart out.

“Don’t worry I won’t hurt you, I will be gentle,” he whispered.

Not all that glitters is gold and all I saw was the money and nice cars, she thought as she screams.

***

The next day Loretta woke up on a hospital bed. It was a stormy day and she was in pain, she could not even feel her legs, she had bruises all over her body. She felt disgusted.

“I have been raped,” she cried out.

She was lucky to have arrived at the hospital in time. The doctors were able to clean all the remaining sperm from Ben and gave her a PEP treatment to get rid of the HI virus, if he had one.

The school holidays were over and Ben was on the run. Loretta was afraid to go to school until the day a policeman came to her home. He told her that Ben had committed suicide and left a note dedicated to Loretta. He apologized for what he had done to her. She finally felt at ease to go to school the next day.

She decided to find the root of her story. She realized that if it wasn’t for the group all that happened to her would not have happened. If she didn’t lose her voice she would have enjoyed her holidays. Loretta slowly excluded herself from the girls group.

“I would have never been feeling this pain if I never tried to fit in that group, I lost my virginity for a group of friends,” she said.

*****

Tell us: Do you think the need to fit in can cause one to do dangerous things?