UT (University Tripz): A Strange Friendship...

The ringing Phone dragged Jabbard through several levels of consciousness to the waking state. He had the feeling the time was some minutes after two in the morning. He looked at the screen of the phone and saw numbers. He had to wake up even more to recognize that the numbers belonged to Helen's line. Helen never called any time past seven in the evening without prior announcement. The time was thirty minutes after two on a saturday morning. Jabbard answered with a grumpy 'hello'. Helen's voice sounded off. She seemed cold and distressed. In a shaky voice she asked 'are you at home?'. At the sound of the affirmative, she then asked Jabbard if he was alone. Jabbard was totally awake and trying to put the pieces of all the information in the right places. She said she would be outside his house in a minute. Jabbard got up. Without tiding the room or putting a shirt over the shorts he had on, he went to receive his guest. Jabbard stood outside and saw a figure approaching. He knew it was Helen. When she came closer, he saw she was sobbing, shivering and scared... Jabbard strictly adhering to his prioritised college lifestyle of academics before money, and money before everything else, never engaged in a chase that exceeded a semester. There were pretty ladies who held out that long and made the principle affect his desire for them. But Helen was somewhat special. She was not the prettiest, the tallest or the most appealing. She would naturally not stand a chance against some before her. It is a wonder how she made Jabbard lust for her well over a semester. Helen rejected Jabbard's love but appreciated his friendship. She would lay in bed with him telling stories, eating chocolate bars, drinking Coke and playing with clothes on. This was some intriguing torment for Jabbard. Jabbard played about while trying to persuade Helen to succumb, but eventually let her dictate what the relationship was. A strange friendship... Jabbard stood back and urged Helen in. He locked the gate behind her and noticed her hair was in disarray and her walk was a burden for her as she passed by him going towards his room. She had no makeup on and seemed concerned only with getting somewhere familiar. He closed the door after entering the room. He saw she had already laid on the bed cuddling herself under the blanket and visibly shaking in the warm dimly lit room. She asked if he locked the door, to which he said "yes" and wondered why it was important to her that the door was locked. Jabbard sat on the table with his back to the window and slanted his legs on a chair away from the bed and looked along the length of her figure ending his inspection on her tear glistering cheeks. He was totally caught off guard. His assumptions and imagination could not correctly answer the questions he wanted to ask. He knew she had a cousin nearby and a couple of girlfriends around. If she was in trouble, she had more viable options of people to call before she should call him. He thought of letting her sleep the shock off, but he knew if he didn't ask now, he may never get the accurate story. So he asked "what happened?" She sat up facing him with her back leaning on the wall. She still held the blanket like it would provide her some form of protection from the evils of this world. With subsiding sobs, she started to narrate the events that happened in the evening. "I was reading in the cafeteria with my roommate and one of my course mates. My roommate is Eve, her boyfriend called her and said they should go out. She said she was with her friends and he said that we should come along too. She asked Frank and me if we wanted to hangout. We agreed as it was a friday and we had read enough. We went to the hostel, dropped our books and dressed up. Frank waited for us. When Eve's boyfriend came, she got in the front seat while me and Frank sat behind. We drove out of the school into town. We bought some chicken on our way to the joint. Went we got there, I saw one of my old school mates, his name is Tom. He was there drinking with his friend. I knew both of them. So we sat down and invited them over. Six of us were there for a while. Tom and his friend wanted to leave, so we all decided to leave as we were going towards the same place. When we got to Tom's place, he put on some music and we started dancing. We were still drinking wine. Frank was already sleeping in one corner. After a while Eve told me she wanted to go with her boyfriend to his place and asked 'how far?'. I told her that they can go as I didn't want to make them go and drop me off first and I have been at Tom's place several times before. It was already very late. We were still dancing, drinking and making noise when they left. Frank was still sleeping. We were just drinking, dancing and gisting for sometime. One time while we were dancing, I was in the middle of Tom and his friend. The friend started holding and touching me. I just continued dancing. Then, he started squeezing my breasts. I told him to stop and he did, but Tom was already touching me from behind. We were not dancing anymore, they were just holding me close. I left them there and went to sit beside Frank. I tried to wake him, but he didn't wake. Tom came and sat down. He held me and was trying to kiss me. I was trying to dodge and fell on my back. Tom's friend was already touching my breasts. I didn't know what to do. I told them to stop, but Tom kissed me roughly and they didn't stop. I was struggling to get away but they held me down. Someone was holding my hand and my other hand was under Tom. I stopped struggling and started begging. I was already crying. Tom said I should relax and his friend was trying to get my blouse off. We had stopped struggling, so I asked Tom's friend to pass me the drink. I drank it while Tom was still touching me. I told them to let me ease myself and they let me get up. I left the room and went out and that's when I called you". Jabbard listened to the story without interupting. He watched Helen as she spoke and wondered how much she didn't say. He imagined she was omitting when she wore a scowl and looked into a distant void like she was trying to remember a day in her childhood. And the times she paused to wipe her face, he imagined she was adding her pieces to the ordeal. At certain instances, Jabbard felt like bursting out an hysterical laughter. Jabbard could laugh at the weirdest things. But he didn't. Sometimes the tale seemed to be below his level of paranoia and disbelief that he would have blurted out a "get the fuck out of here!" or a "shut the fuck up!", but he had to respect the orator since he asked for the tale. Jabbard realised that she had been silent for some seconds and it was approaching awkward. So he got up and went over, squatting by the bed to console her. Jabbard, poor with emotions didn't know what to do when she receded sharply at the touch of her shoulder. He told her slowly that everything was ok like he was counting his words. He didn't try to touch her or hug her, he just told her to sleep and that she would feel better when she wakes. She knew he meant she should go to sleep at that moment as he was still staring at her and waiting for her to obey. She reclined resting her head on a pillow and folded slightly at the waist with the blanket held to her chin. She looked up at him as if to ask if that was enough. He saw she was backing enough space on the bed for two people, he refused to smile. He just keep looking at her like an angel who had answered her prayers and was telling her "you can close your eyes now, you are safe now". When her eyes were finally closed, Jabbard went, sat on the chair, put his leg on the table and stared into the night sky through the window. He was digesting everything. He wondered what the boys would be doing, would they be searching for Helen? What if they knew him, would they come and try to get her back? Would a face appear at the window? Jabbard idly played with thoughts for some minutes and when he was sure Helen was asleep, he went out with a fire box and an intention to throw some in the air. He sat on the edge of the compound well, took an excess feel of the early morning freshness through his skin, ears, eyes, nose and mind, and lit his escape. After some puffs, Jabbard understood the reason why he was the first person Helen called and why she had so far refused to accept him totally. She trusted and respected him and didn't want to lose him by letting her hold on him go. What she felt for him must have been more than he had to offer her. With a final exhalation he let her go, and looked up attentively as dawn diluted the smoke of freedom...