In my life, I have done many reckless and daring things that I later regretted and for which I had to face the consequences. Many of those experiences happened when I was an adult, and as such, I did them consciously. For those that I did not, I had to accept my guilt, make amends if possible, and learn from them.
But when I was 15, I did one of the most daring things I could have done, and it could have cost me dearly. Thank God my guardian angel was working that day, and nothing serious happened. All I was left with was the story and the scare. At that time, I had some friends who lived near my house and studied with me. They were sisters, the same age as me, and more than friends, they were like sisters to me because we had grown up together, shared clothes, went out for walks, and did everything that teenagers do together. However, their mother abandoned them, and they began to lead a “dissolute” life, out of control and full of vices. When my parents saw this, they forbade me from maintaining that friendship because they considered them a bad influence on me.
Obviously, as a teenager, I didn't see anything wrong with what my friends were doing, and I often defended them against my parents' accusations. But they categorically informed me that I could not go to their house under any circumstances, nor could they come to ours. It seemed unfair to me that a long-standing friendship should end because of my parents' arbitrary decision, but I couldn't go against their wishes, so I obeyed.
Certainly, my friends began to make other friends with a dubious reputation and do things that, according to my parents, were not appropriate for girls our age, such as smoking cigarettes, having boyfriends, drinking alcohol, and staying out all night at parties. I won't deny that as a teenager, I envied my friends and would have given anything to do what they were doing. Personally, I thought my parents were very overprotective and “old-fashioned” and didn't understand the vibe of young people.
So, one afternoon when I left school, I saw one of those friends get into a car with two boys who were much older than us, around 20 years old, and after getting in, she called me over. I approached and after introducing me to the two boys, she asked me if I wanted to go for a ride with them. And because I didn't want to seem like a child and because I missed my friend, I said yes. Immediately, one of the boys opened the back door for me, and after I got in, he sat down next to me, and the car sped off. My body trembled, I don't know if from fear or excitement.
Once in the car, my friend and the two boys started smoking. They offered me a cigarette, but I politely declined. They started laughing and I felt stupid. Inside, I questioned my childish behavior, which made me look foolish. The car stopped in a secluded spot and my friend and one of the boys started kissing. Then the boy in the back seat asked me if he could kiss me, and I said yes. The boy kissed me slowly, but then I felt his tongue open my mouth and enter it fiercely, just as his two hands were all over my body. Instinctively, I pushed him away with all my strength and said I wanted to leave. My friend tried to persuade me, but I kept insisting that I wanted to go home. I remember that for a moment I wanted to agree to stay when I saw the reproachful look on my friend's face, but my guardian angel won out and I firmly stuck to my decision to leave. Reluctantly, they took me and left me where they had picked me up: in front of the high school.
This experience comes back to me again and again, every time I talk about my adolescence. You don't have to be Nostradamus to know what the consequences of that rebellious and irresponsible act would have been. Youth passes, but some of the crazy things you do under the excuse of rebellion during those years haunt you wherever you go. Personally, I was spared from carrying a cross that would have been a great burden in my life.
