How unsettling it is to think your perception is your reality of me

Must I even come to my own defense as if I owe you an explanation?

You asked me if I had slept with him – I barely even know you.

Obviously uncomfortable, I grimace while shaking my head, “No”…

“It’s okay, we were all teenagers once” – You add as if to remove the implied shame.

I wonder if I should tell you.

I wonder if you’ll ever know exactly how fucked up that question is.

He raped me when I was a teenager, still a minor child.

But it’s not really any of your business.

Or something I particularly care to revisit.

And I’m not sure you’d ever understand.

So I shake my head again, “No.”

And let it go.