Stephanie was at work and had her door locked the entire night. If anyone knocked she would demand to know who it was otherwise she wouldn't let them in. She was a mess at work. Papers were all over the desk, the matches were messed up, everyone was confused about instructions that she gave, phones kept ringing and she just kept ignoring them. There was a knock on the door and Stephanie asked who it was.
"Randy. Can I come in?" Randy asked.
Stephanie walked up and opened the door for him.
"Can I help you with anything?" Stephanie asked.
"I think I could be asking you that question." Randy said.
Stephanie pretended to seem confused about his statement.
"What are you talking about?" Stephanie asked.
"Oh, come on, Steph. Look around you. You're an organized person and look at your desk. You never have this much paper on your desk. Your phones keep ringing and you don't answer them. The show tonight is all over the place. Stephanie, what is the matter?" Randy asked.
"Nothing." Stephanie answered and avoided him.
"Look, I know there's something wrong. Can you please tell me so I can do something?" Randy asked.
"I can't… I mean…" Stephanie replied.
"You can't what?" Randy asked now suspicious.
Stephanie walked back to her desk and looked at the papers on her desk.
"I can't tell you because it has nothing to do with you." Stephanie said.
"Even if it doesn't, let me help you." Randy pleaded.
"Help. There's a word that could have went into action two night ago." Stephanie muttered.
"What?" Randy asked.
"Nothing." Stephanie said.
"No, you said something. Something when I said help. Steph, what's wrong?" Randy asked.
"Randy nothing is wrong. Everything is fine." Stephanie said.
"If everything is so fine, then why do you have the door locked? Why do you ignore your pone calls? Why are you ignoring your own friends? Look at yourself. You haven't slept in days. What are you doing to yourself?" Randy asked.
"I'm not ignoring anyone!" Stephanie yelled.
"Stephanie… you mentioned something about two night ago. What happened two nights ago?" Randy asked.
"Nothing happened." Stephanie answered.
"Stephanie… if something happened to you, you need to tell me so I can help you." Randy explained.
Stephanie looked away and began to cry. She broke down into tears and covered her face. Randy was really worried about her and sat next to her.
"Steph… what happened?" Randy asked.
"Remember when you saw me and John leave the arena that night?" Stephanie reminded him.
"Yeah." Randy replied.
"I lied. He was drunk. I didn't want anyone to know." Stephanie confessed.
"Oh man." Randy said.
"So I took him home… and because I was afraid he was going to choke during his sleep, I stayed with him all night and watched him sleep. I knew he was never drunk before and I had to find out why he was like this. So the next day… I broke into his home…" Stephanie said.
"Oh God. Did he find you?" Randy asked.
Stephanie couldn't answer that question. She was choked up and all she did was nod.
"He saw me… and I tried… I wanted to tell him the truth about why I was there. I wanted to… to know why he was so drunk… but…it turns out he was drunk… he was high." Stephanie said as she cried softly.
Randy looked at Stephanie and shook his head.
"He had drugs hidden in his house. And when he saw me… he demanded an answer on why I came down there. I couldn't answer him because he trapped me… and… and he… started…" Stephanie closed her eyes and tried to continue. "He started kissing me." Stephanie said.
"Oh, Steph… did you stop him?" Randy asked.
"So many times… but he took me upstairs…" Stephanie said as she tried to finish her sentence.
"Steph… don't tell me…" Randy started.
He paused but Stephanie nodded.
"He raped me…" Stephanie said angry and full of emotion.
"… and I tried to stop him but gave up. I tried to stop him… but I let him take advantage of me." Stephanie finally said and broke down in tears.
Randy hugged Stephanie and kissed her on the head.
"God, Steph… I'm so sorry. I'm sorry for what he did to you." Randy said.
"I can't believe I let me him do it. I just gave up… I never do that." Stephanie said and looked at Randy.
"But this was about your safety. If you fought back, he'd hurt you. You had no choice." Randy said.
"But I did… I did and I didn't use that choice." Stephanie replied.
"Where is he?" Randy asked her.
"What?" Stephanie asked.
"I'm going to find him and I'm going to kill him." Randy explained.
"No! Randy please don't do anything to hurt yourself. I don't want anything to happen to you because of me." Stephanie said.
"Steph, he raped you! He doesn't deserve to live." Randy said.
"I know. I know but if you try to go after him, he'll know I told you." Stephanie explained.
"Not unless I hurt him and have him end up in the hospital." Randy said and got up.
Stephanie grabbed his arm and begged him to stay here in the office with her.
"Please, Randy. I've begged John to stop too many times. I don't want to beg to you either." Stephanie said.
Randy touched her hand and saw the fear in her eyes.
"All right. All right, I won't go after him… but you can't do this to yourself. You have to go talk to someone about this… someone professional." Randy said.
"I will. Just not now." Stephanie said.
Randy sighed and looked at Stephanie.
"I'll always be available if you ever want to talk."
"Thanks Randy." Stephanie said with a small smile across her f ace.
"But if I do across John… I'll talk to him." Randy said.
Stephanie looked at him and Randy had a smile on his face.
"Don't worry… I know what I'm doing. He'll never know that you told me." Randy replied.
"He won't suspect anything?" Stephanie asked.
"Nope." Randy said.
Stephanie looked down and wondered if Randy was right.
"Hey, I gotta go now. I'll come by later and make sure you're okay. I'll see you later." Randy said and left the office.
Stephanie sat back and hoped Randy was right.