It’s a short story, there’s not much to tell. I hadn’t drunk at all during the beginning of the evening. I didn’t even want to go out. My friends on the other hand begged me to go out with them. Where? Tavern. They had all drunk way too much and they wanted me to protect them and help them.

We went out in the cold, well dressed, I was clothed fairly conservatively the rest were not. We got there and I already could tell I was going to hate it. A bro kept approaching me, he was a member of Tavern I knew that for sure. I told him to leave and I didn’t see him for the rest of the evening. I spent my time protecting my friends from other guys who were hitting on them even though they were clearly much too inebriated to function.

Ultimately, I went to the second floor to relax and spend some time on the couch. I went back down and lost track of all of my friends. Of the initial group of 7 there were none on the dance floor. I frantically went around looking for them, two were in the bathroom, and another 3 had gone back home alone but two were still not accounted for.

The next morning they came back disheveled and in tears. They were taken advantage of by two separate members of Tavern. They had come back at 7 in the morning when the guys kicked them out. They hadn’t said stop but they hadn’t given consent and one of the perpetrators was particularly vicious giving her bruises.

We are freshman who live in Allen. My two friends were taken advantage of and decided to blame themselves. It took them weeks to come to terms with it and now they party again. For me? I can never accept an apology from those two men and I’ll do my best to protect my friends better next time.

This must be stopped at ALL costs.

Thank you for listening.

​Author: Anonymous Middlebury College Student

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