TW: Sexual assault

I have known  my friend for 17 years and have been best friends with her for at least 10 of those years. I stayed with her for a few weeks.When I told her that a guy she was seeing r*aped me i could tell she didn't really believe me. i am very good at reading people so i knew straight away she didn't believe me. i somewhat understood why she didn't believe because I'm not the best communicator and didn't explain everything in full as it was a sensitive topic and i wasn't ready to talk to her about. i wasn't ready to talk about it because i was scared she wouldn't believe me and i was also scared of accepting what had happened to me that night however i still told her because i felt that it was my responsibility to do so for her own safety. I asked her if shes going to ask him about the situation and she said no. She then messaged the guy to hear his side of the story and they had a phone call, once that phone call was done she said that he had said that the sex was consensual then she asked so who's lying? that really hurt me because shes the friend i never lie to,i was not even ready to speak on the matter but knew i had to tell her because i don't want him to hurt her the way he hurt me. After this we had a conversation and she explained that she does believe me she just had doubts about what had happened because i didn't explain the situation properly. i understood her doubts and decided to let the situation go as i just wanted it to be over with. her saying that she believed me made me feel happy as i just wanted the situation to be over with. after that we never spoke about it again but then she started mentioning small things about him which really irritated me but i didn't realize how much it irritated me until a few weeks later as sometimes it is hard for me to understand/process my feelings. she once watched his snap chat story and made the comment that he's so rich and she also once showed me his snap chat story which was a video of a girl he went on a date with, whilst showing me the snap she said to me that it makes her feel happy when she sees him chilling with ugly girls. in my head i just felt like why do you care who he is with i just told you he r*aped me but whatever. of course i never said that to her I just didn't respond. we continued to be cool after this like nothing happened. At some point I had to go home as I had responsibilities to get back to as did she. We continued to face time/ text but after sometime the reality of the situation hit. I realized the fact that she was still mentioning him to me meant that she either didn't believe me or that shes just very inconsiderate. Either way I am very hurt and I have stopped calling her and have been ignoring her calls. sometimes id reply saying that i would call her back because i would actually intend on doing so but every time i would think of calling her i just cant do it as i am too hurt. i love her so much but I'm so hurt and i don't think this is something that i can move past its sad because i really want to be able to and I'm still holding onto the possibility of being able to move past it. i know she feels a type of way because i always you used to talk to her about how important communication in a friendship is and here i am not communicating. the longer i go without talking to her i risk the possibility of losing her as a friend forever. apart of me feels like i don't owe her an explanation but a part of me feels like i do if i still want this friendship. i don't know what to do. i don't want to talk about this situation as it is a traumatic topic for me which is the biggest reason as to why i haven't reached out to her and explain why I haven't been speaking to her. i don't want relive those events and i also don't want to be invalidated.i don't know what to do. can i have some advice please?

Parents
  • I have read everyone's comments and in doing so I now have a clearer understanding of my situation. However, I am still stuck on what to do. I don't know if I should still be friends with her. I don't know if I should continue to ghost her and just let the friendship end without giving her an explanation. I don't know if I should end the friendship and at least  give her an explanation . I don't want to explain why to her because I don't want to talk about the assault again. I just don't know what to do. Also sorry for not replying to everyone individually Its too overwhelming.

Reply
  • I have read everyone's comments and in doing so I now have a clearer understanding of my situation. However, I am still stuck on what to do. I don't know if I should still be friends with her. I don't know if I should continue to ghost her and just let the friendship end without giving her an explanation. I don't know if I should end the friendship and at least  give her an explanation . I don't want to explain why to her because I don't want to talk about the assault again. I just don't know what to do. Also sorry for not replying to everyone individually Its too overwhelming.

Children
  • Perhaps it might be easiest on you to make a written statement of your situation, either on paper or by email or message. That way you will be more emotionally insulated than if you had to speak about it directly. Send it to your friend, they will then have something concrete that they can consider and mull over, and then leave things in their court, as to how they wish to interact with you in the future.