I was still in bed pretending to be sleeping my head was spinning and my body was in pain. I knew that once he is fully asleep all I need to take with me was my passport, phone, laptop and a plane ticket.

It hasn’t been easy for me but this time was enough and I was already a strong young women.

I got myself together and with slowly movements I was reaching for my stuff, put on some black leggings a short but large hoodie, he was sleeping deeply like I knew he will; like nothing happened and as he did not destroy years of trust respect and confidence, all I wanted was to be out of the apartment and far away from everything that was known to me, friends, family and dreams: I was still shaking wondering if I should take the elevator or I should take the stairs, I hit the stairs as they were handiest , the shaking did not stop even once I was in the car, tough outside was a sunny morning, I could feel the spring breeze touching my skin and it gave me goosebumps, my body was in pain and I could tell I had few bruises, it was weekend so were only few people and cars on the street.

- Lisa? It’s me Ariana I am heading towards your place please, do me a favour and meet me outside in 20 minutes, do not tell Andrew who are you meeting.

-Ariana what’s wrong? She couldn’t ask me more questions I was already hanging up, I knew I have few hours to prepare everything and be gone, I was planning to leave town at some point, preferably in a different way, but sometimes life doesn’t give us any instructions or notice and things that we heard of happening to others at some point that ‘others’ might be us.

Tough after all that I have been through, I had no idea that was only the begging of a new me, new friendships, love, betrayals and games.

Lisa was looking quite cute considering I got her out of her cozy bed very early in the morning, she was wearing her favourite jeans and a jacket, her blond hair was messy and her eyes were a beautiful and bright honey colour.

- What happened?

One thing I loved about her was that she was smart and cautious about her friends feelings, you could easily fall in love with her way of being trustable and well mannered, at that time I did not realise that years would pass until I will see Lisa again.

-I will tell you everything once we are in a safe place, do you have any friend we can go for a few hours until I sort everything out? We cannot go to your place, either mine, and no one can know we are together!

-Ok! I have a good friend actually Asha, she lives a bit outside the city, she just got engaged and you meet her at my place when we had girls night?

-I barely know my name after everything that happened last night, I’m impressed I could get out or it didn’t took a very bad course.

-Calm down, we have time and I am here now!

I could say she was worried and that she had many questions, but she was giving me the space I needed at that moment, driving was helping me to relax and to assess the prior night.

-Asha, thank god your awake…

By the time we arrived to Asha’s place I was already sorting out my plan of the day, I could quickly remember her once we meet, you could tell it’s Lisa’s childhood friend she was reserved and supportive, her place was brand new and had a posh design and furniture, the lighting in her living room was amazing but what was the most outstanding about it was her own candle design’s.

I sat down and had tears in my eyes, felt ashamed of myself and about what happened, I light up a cigarette Asha offered us coffee and were all taking a moment of silence.

Few moments later l was in the toilet looking into the mirror, my green eyes turned to be lighter than ever, probably from the tiredness, My long brown hair was messy so I tied it up and thru some water on my face.

-You ok? Can we talk now? Lisa had some questions but I didn’t want to discuss anything, everything happened so fast that night and unexpected took me unprepared.

-I know you need answers but I can tell you that Michael went beyond limits, he followed me since we break up and I had no idea he had growing so much hate towards myself he came yesterday to my place with the excuse to talk…

-Did you feel like talking? Asha interfered while we were back on the couch.

-No! It was over for almost 3 months so I wasn’t really thinking about it, but I still cared about him, he was my first relationship you know… I was never crazy in love with him, but we did had a good and trustable relationship, we know each other since forever, so I let him in.

Lisa and Asha were good listener’s, even I could tell Asha was more like me, energetic and with a strong personality, her expressions were much more active than Lisa’s, she was still in her night outfit a long green T-shirt. I changed my position while I got back onto the night before;

-So he was nervous and straight to the point that he wants us to be back together!

-Oh no. I knew that he was calling everyone from our circle to talk about you, but we knew were you stand so we considered to not bring it up again.

I looked at Lisa, because I was somehow not impressed by that I knew also that he contacted all of my family members, but ceased already after few weeks, I closed my eyes and I could remember the night perfectly again.

“-Mitch, you know that it is not possible, I am over it, please accept that.

Mitch: You are a whore who destroyed my life, I had plans with you!

-What are you talking about? We are still young 21 years old it is not late to start over, plus you should be careful how you call me, I always respected our relationship, now it’s over and you should leave!”

-So he talked to you like that!? Asha was looking at me shocked and with big eyes, Lisa knew him so she wasn’t showing any impression that was unexpected behaviour of him.

-Yes, he did it also when I finished our relationship, but now he looked different and strange, he refused to leave; so I was about to call my mum, but he took my phone and hide it away with my home keys.

Lisa: -Now you have me angry , this is too much!

-I am not done, he come to me and he grabs my hands holding them;” -If you don’t say yes, we are not leaving this apartment! “ I got pretty upset so I pushed him and said to him that it’s enough and I tried to escape, it was unreal I felt trapped with no escape my feelings were overwhelming me I felt dizzy and anxious.

-So obviously you did not manage, until you called me?

-True, and he did some things that I don’t want to relive it, so I had to change my behaviour towards him, I said that we will try again, hopefully he will leave, but he didn’t instead he wanted to sleep so I played along with him, I knew he has a deep sleep and I will be able to leave after.

-Oh my god! I am so sorry this happened to you! Did he hurt you? Both asked me, the answer was yes but from my reaction it was unnecessary to say it out-loud.

They were both hugging me at this point so I could finally cry and release some of the tension and fear.

I was scared and I knew probably this incident will affect me profoundly and that it will not be easy to have a comeback from.

We spent the next hours buying a plane ticket to my mums town Bourn, luckily money were not a real issue for me and even though my family wasn’t wealthy, you couldn’t say we were poor either.

“Are you planning to come back” Lisa asked me and at that time I honestly thought I will, but life had other plans for me.

That day I haven’t spoken to no one else besides my mum and sister, friends and family were texting me that Michael is desperate and is searching for me, this was a nightmare I only wished to be left alone, I didn’t pressed any charges because this was a person that I grew up knowing it even that his actions were unacceptable I felt that anyone can have an easily a breakdown, one thing I knew for sure was that I will not be able to forget or to forgive him.

-I don’t know, but we keep in touch always, I am grateful for your kindness and of your friend Asha she was an angel, thank you! We hugged and that was the last time I saw Lisa for many years.

The time in the airport was awful and sad in one way I had the impression that someone will come and stop me, I was also emotionally unstable only when the plane took off I was able to calm down, it was already dark outside so I could see the Hiwia city night lights from my window it looked beautiful.