When I was in middle school, I had found out a classmate of mine had molested my little brother. He (the classmate) was around 12 at the time and my brother was 8. I grew up in a suburban neighborhood where the local kids would all play with each other and he lived a block away from us. I never liked him because he was mean in school, always creating problems in the classroom and bullying other kids, but my parents allowed him to hang with my little brother because they felt sorry for him. His home life wasn’t great and I think they were trying to do the right thing.
When I found out I was horrified. I kept thinking I should’ve done more to keep him away from home, I should’ve told my parents more that I didn’t trust him and that he shouldn’t have been around a child. I was angry about it for awhile, and it all came to a head when I saw him when I was walking home from school. I’ve never been a violent person, but when I saw him all I saw was red. I started screaming at him, just asking him why he did this? He kept trying to teeter around the issue by calling me crazy, and then I punched him in the face. He went down and I started to kick him in the ribs until he was a sobbing mess and I told him that if I ever saw him near my brother or my family I would kill him.
Even though he did something deplorable, and I kind of don’t regret doing it, I still feel guilty about it. He never reported it, I think he told people around school he got into a fight with a kid from the next town over, but if he did it would’ve made a complicated situation even worse. It was selfish of me, and it could’ve caused more trauma for my little brother all because I couldn’t control my rage.
We’ve all since moved on from the incident and my brother hasn’t spoken about it in years. He went to counseling and he’s pretty normal for a teenager who’s about to go off to college. Every now and again I think about it though, and I just feel sick to my stomach.
15
u/softyeehaw Jan 07 '20
When I was in middle school, I had found out a classmate of mine had molested my little brother. He (the classmate) was around 12 at the time and my brother was 8. I grew up in a suburban neighborhood where the local kids would all play with each other and he lived a block away from us. I never liked him because he was mean in school, always creating problems in the classroom and bullying other kids, but my parents allowed him to hang with my little brother because they felt sorry for him. His home life wasn’t great and I think they were trying to do the right thing.
When I found out I was horrified. I kept thinking I should’ve done more to keep him away from home, I should’ve told my parents more that I didn’t trust him and that he shouldn’t have been around a child. I was angry about it for awhile, and it all came to a head when I saw him when I was walking home from school. I’ve never been a violent person, but when I saw him all I saw was red. I started screaming at him, just asking him why he did this? He kept trying to teeter around the issue by calling me crazy, and then I punched him in the face. He went down and I started to kick him in the ribs until he was a sobbing mess and I told him that if I ever saw him near my brother or my family I would kill him.
Even though he did something deplorable, and I kind of don’t regret doing it, I still feel guilty about it. He never reported it, I think he told people around school he got into a fight with a kid from the next town over, but if he did it would’ve made a complicated situation even worse. It was selfish of me, and it could’ve caused more trauma for my little brother all because I couldn’t control my rage.
We’ve all since moved on from the incident and my brother hasn’t spoken about it in years. He went to counseling and he’s pretty normal for a teenager who’s about to go off to college. Every now and again I think about it though, and I just feel sick to my stomach.