Allayah: Crossing the Line: College Interpersonal Domestic Violence

Crossing the Line: College Interpersonal Domestic Violence

By: Allayah Beamon

1/25/16 @ 6:00 P.M. PST

            Layah was only an 18-year-old, college freshman when she first encountered interpersonal domestic violence, victim to a never-ending cycle of pain, guilt, sorrow, and confusion, and fear for her life. Engaged in the second semester of her freshman year at Loyola Marymount University, this young black lady faced something that no human being should ever experience in their lives.Entering college she was dating her high school sweetheart, his name was Dante, and they met in 6^th grade at a middle school in Carson, Ca. Both into music, they reunited in 10^th grade at a newly opened performing arts high school in Los Angeles. In the eyes of their peers they seemed like the cutest couple, perfect young lovers, the ideal dream relationship.

From the outside looking in they were happy, in love, symbols of faithfulness, and commitment; and they were. 2 years into their relationship, the honeymoon stage faded away, and soon after his true colors became transparent. Going to college was her dream, and she was at one of the greatest higher education institutions in the world. A fortunate situation, turned unfortunate really rapidly when just after, a rocky fall semester, they broke up but he tried to Layah patched their relationship and ignored the break-up. Dante wanted to keep her around so much that on, Valentine’s Day of her spring semester, he proposed, and asked for her hand in marriage. She hesitated but still said, “Yes”! Her relationship status on Facebook changed from, “In a relationship with, to Engaged to”. People felt she was young, but they still congratulated her on her proposal. Knowing nothing about being an adult she made an irrational decision that she didn’t expect to cause her…

That same weekend her friends took her to a party near LMU to celebrate her engagement and she was excited to get out and have some fun. Layah got dressed like it was just another day, but did her makeup really nice that night. With her face sparkling and alcohol in her system she enjoyed herself so much they stayed out from 9-1am. After the party was over she returned to her dorm to catch some ZZZZ’s. She messaged her fiancé and let him know she made it in, he said, “Okay, good I’ll be over tomorrow cause I want to talk”. “Okay, about what”, she asked. “You will find out tomorrow”. “Okay babe, love you”. Directly after she finished her last statement he hung up the phone, without even saying “I love you” back to Layah. All night she pondered what could he want to talk about, what did she do, and afraid at the same time. After only getting 4 hours of sleep, the next morning Dante was outside her door at 10:00am. With a confusing look on his face she invited him in and they lay in bed and watched movies for about 2 hours. Then he grabbed the remote, and shut up the television. She was unsure what to expect next. He was behaving weirder than normally and she felt like he was a different person. She assumed the silence meant it was time to talk, but instead of talking with his mouth, spoke with his hands. One hard slap to the left side of her cheek and his hands choking her skinny neck, Dante became abusive. He told her, “If you ever go out looking like that again, I will beat the crap out of you, I hate when you go out, I know guys were all over you, you slut”!

She tried to pull him off, but his strength outweighed hers. He continued to hit her and pushing her into objects in the room, when he was done she had internal and external bruises. That was the very first time she experience physical violence, from someone who supposedly loved her. Her heart was broken, he body was scarred, her nose was bleeding, her ribs were damaged and her life was never the same. Domestic violence is one of the most traumatic and heartbreaking things any woman or man can experience in life, and at such a young age, she was beaten due to jealousy and insecurity, affecting her love life forever, she never trusted a man again. She realized he crossed the line, and continues to tell her story to help other young victims of similar issues.