@Snafu That had to take an enormous amount of courage to admit too.
At 12, you're still a child. A child who has suffered a horrible abuse in both a place that is supposed to be safe for children to learn and grow, and in a place that should always be safe.
At that age, you should be worried about grades, or looking dorky, or getting rejected by the cute kid in class you want to go to the dance with. Not being raped.
How can a 12 year old kid, even comprehend such a thing?
Then to have it happen at home where you are supposed to be safe, by a brother?
Brothers are supposed to tease their sisters. Give them a hard time about all the girly stuff they do.
But at the end of the day, they are supposed to be the first person who you can call on to defend you. Your brother should have been the first in line to beat the ever loving shit out of the classmate that violated you. Not do the same thing.
That must have been so overwhelming to go through that. I can't even begin to imagine how that would make me feel, were I in your shoes.
I remember being 12, I remember how much I hated it. I had what would be referred to as a fairly normal childhood. Add to that, what you experienced? Nope. I can't even.
I don't think your bad. I think you were terrified, confused, hurt, desperate to remove yourself from the pain you
were are in. How do you do that?
Who could you tell? How do you tell? What do you do?
The adolescent brain, is still very much that of a small child. With a shit ton of adult hormones running through it, making everything go haywire. Dump all that horror and trauma into the mix, and watch it short out.
The other thing I want to add. After all these years, you still feel horrible about it. This is even more proof that you aren't a bad person. Nor were you one then. Just a child trying to cope with something so overwhelmingly terrible, no child could cope with it. Or should have ever had to.