Christin

Next to actually being in an abusive relationship, the hardest thing is to witness someone that you love and care about being abused both physically and emotionally.

I wanted desperately to grab Jen by her shoulders and shake some sense into her. I wanted to tell her to leave him. I remember having many conversations with her, telling her that she could do so much better than T. My pleas fell on deaf ears.

I never witnessed T physically abusing Jen. But as I said before, I saw the changes in her and it was if I didn’t know who my friend was anymore. I had to walk a fine line in this situation. I didn’t want to make her feel worse than she was already feeling, by pointing out the obvious but I also couldn’t stand by and watch her being mistreated. I felt helpless and I’m pretty sure Alphonso felt the same way. Our hands were tied.

T eventually came back to the apartment after our fight. He apologized for being an ass. I accepted, but I kept my distance. I didn’t want to be a part of his madness and mayhem.

One day Alphonso and I were out doing some shopping. Coincidentally, we ran into Jen and T at Wal-Mart while we were checking out. Jen didn’t look so good.

“What’s going on” I asked.

“The ex needs money and has agreed to let me see the baby, if I give him some money.” Alright. “We are headed to Denny’s, you want to meet him there?”

Jen looked nervous. “Yeah, that works”

So, Alphonso, T, Jen and I headed down the street to Denny’s to meet Jen’s ex.

We showed up and sat in our regular round booth like we did many nights.

Except this would not be like any other night.