This is a standalone story, but would be much better if you read part 1 first. As usual comments both encouraged and appreciated.
*****
Karen returned from her cruise and seemed to slip back into a normal lifestyle. Inside she still felt extremely timid, weak and terribly afraid of confrontation. She would be easily intimidated, even in every day events. Karen would find herself shying away from incidents which in truth were nothing, but to her were major issues, which could very easily escalate into something more serious.
Karen would always avoid confrontation and stand to the back until everyone else had got what they wanted. Whether it was a parking space, shopping cart, or even just to go through a door, Karen would give way.
Even if Karen arrived first, even if she was in the right, she would run a mile. She would never, ever, try to return faulty goods or God forbid, actually complain about anything.
Her husband Paul, whilst getting annoyed at her from time to time, over what he saw as her being a doormat and letting people push her around, had no idea of the actual state of his wife's mental problem.
What this fear had resulted in on the cruise, finally led Karen to seek help. She had been seeing a psychiatrist for a while and had made some form of progress. Dr Morton had dealt with clients who had various forms of confrontation aversion before, but had never dealt with someone who had the affliction as bad as Karen.
The condition he identified as 'Chronic Avoidant Personality Disorder' and proceeded to treat Karen as best as he could. It had taken Dr Morton several sessions with Karen to finally get to the bottom of the issue and understand the depth of the problem. Ironically, had Karen not had the fear of the Dr being annoyed at her, for holding out on him, she would never have told him the full story. Dr Morton sensing that she was holding back, used the very affliction she had, to force her to open up and tell of her ordeals.
Karen was making progress in small steps and one day that progress was put to the test, she left a session at the Doctors office and returned home.
Jake Turner was the neighbourhood asshole. He was about 18 and had been in and out of institutions all his life. He didn't terrorise the community violently, as he was only a slender, weedy little man, but that didn't stop him being a major headache. He was constantly a nuisance to the whole neighbourhood with petty theft and anti-social behaviour. He was a horrible little slime ball that was known as Rat boy by the people around. He always wore a hoodie and always looked short of a good wash. He was an ugly, slimy, dirty, spotty little runt of a boy.
And he was in Karen's house.
As Karen entered through her front door Jake heard her. He panicked and turned to flee the way he had broken in. It was too late. Unaware of his presence (or she would have run a mile) Karen entered the sitting room and found herself face to face with the intruder.
They faced each other and they both froze. On Karen's part she was terrified, and on Jake's part he was scared of being arrested and spending more time inside. Time which proved to be very hard, for a weedy runt like him.
Jake waited for the explosion, the indignant ranting he had endured on the two previous occasions he had been caught in the act. Karen was seething inside at the violation of her home and her safe haven, however as hard as she tried, she could not take the tiny step from inward fury to external action. Jake was confused, the woman just simply glared at him and did nothing.
If only Karen could have brought it out of herself , to verbally or even physically attack Jake, she would have found him to be gutless and he would have capitulated to her totally.
She hesitated and the moment to put all the therapy she had undergone into action, escaped her.
Jake stood and considered what was coming his way, now that he had been caught yet again. All the misery he could see on the horizon just deflated him and he just thought,
"What the fuck, I'm nicked again. There is no point worrying about it now." That acceptance gave him a cocky, couldn't be bothered type attitude.
"Listen Lady, you better get on with what you gotta do, I ain't standing here like a fucking spare part all day."
It was then he looked at Karen properly for the first time. He started to realise that this woman was either shit scared of him, or she actually wasn't bothered he was here. Given the fact number two was highly improbable, she must just be frightened.
"Can I possibly turn this my way? He thought, Can I slide out from under this?"
Jake approached Karen in a non threatening way, all the time muttering apologies for doing what he had done etc. He was stood at an angle to her and as he stretched out his arms, in what he meant to be a friendly and pleading gesture, to hold her by the upper arms, his hand accidentally brushed her breast and in particular her nipple. He momentarily felt the hard little bud on his fingertips, and the situation that had had absolutely no sexual undertone to it before, suddenly took on a whole new feeling.
Inside Karen's head the deja vu returned, the warning signs were there, but she was unable to act. She was frightened of the situation and repulsed by the individual involved, but that would not manifest itself in defiance and confrontation.
Jake was totally confused, he was not very bright and took life, its situations and moments on face value. He had not the intellect to realise this woman had simply frozen in fear. Her inaction seemed to him (just as the cabin boys on the ship had read it) like a green light to carry on. After all, she had not been angry, she had not fought him or shown any aggression towards him when he had brushed her nipple,
"Maybe she's just an old slut," he thought.
He just had to know, if he walked away now, he would forever wonder what the situation had been. He moved his hands to the front of her blouse and cupped her small breasts.
Nothing.
No screaming, no slap in the face, neither aggression nor pleading for him to not do this.
Nothing.
He rubbed both thumbs over her nipples simultaneously and felt them both harden. Jake looked Karen in the face as he toyed with her breasts. Karen disastrously closed her eyes, because Jake saw this as her sensual enjoyment, he had no idea it was her way of trying to block out the revulsion.
"How far dare I take this? He wondered. After all she seems to want it, maybe her husband doesn't give it to her anymore, and she is getting on a bit I suppose."
If Jake had looked in a mirror, he may have got the answer. If he had seen the ugly, weedy, spotty, loathsome individual that he was, he would have known that even though this woman was in her fifties and was a pretty ordinary looking woman, she still wouldn't want the likes of him pawing at her, let alone doing what he realised he was just about to do.
Jake unbuttoned her blouse, not having the first idea, that what he was about to do was actually rape. He thought he was lucky enough to find himself in one of those situations that he had read about in his porno mags, when letters and 'confessions' pages told of lonely housewives who were always horny and fucked strangers etc.
If it was possible, Karen froze even more. As the rat boy lifted her bra and she stood bared to him, all the feelings of deja vu ran through her mind.
"Please God no, don't let this happen to me again," she prayed. Of all the people, please don't let this slimy little rat be the one."
