“You want this, right?”
She is mute because all her life, she has been taught to give herself away
In little bits and pieces until nothing is left
He takes the silence as a yes; implied consent to take yet another little slice of her
After all, she is nothing
but a pretty face
wearing a short skirt

When a new day dawns she walks the hallway with her head down
Praying prying eyes will not be able to read her face
The boy already texted his friends, but there is more to say
She just won’t be the one to say it

“Sl*t.” Whispered words weigh on her mind
No matter how many showers she takes, she can’t feel clean
Can’t burn off her skin with scalding water
Can’t unlock her tongue to tell

Finally she plucks up her courage, tells her best friend
And over the phone she is told
“If you didn’t say no, he probably took it as yes.
Just stop thinking about it.”
But it is hard to stop thinking when someone takes
What isn’t theirs

So she takes a needle and thread
Sews shut her mouth, watches in the bathroom mirror as
Blood drips down her chin
Staining the porcelain floor

Months later, after she has spent sleepless nights trying to forget

After she found herself
Pissing on a pregnancy test in a gas station bathroom
Cubicle walls pressing in on her
Branding vandalism onto panicked skin

After she has thanked God that it was negative

She reads an article in the paper:
The boy who pilfered a piece of her is on trial for his greed
For stealing from another girl
For taking what didn’t belong to him

Because this other girl,
She used her voice
She said “No.”
And when he took “No” as “Yes”
She used her voice
Again.