I'm only 17 and I started dating this guy in early January and I thought everything was perfect. He'd been recently kicked out of his house and he'd made his guardians sound like real jerks. As it turns out, while his uncle was abusive, he was also threatening his aunt and throwing knives at them, etc.

Our relationship went months where we were happy and never fought and so on. When the summer came and he was out of school, he moved out of his new guardian's apartment and moved into my house with my family and I. Things were a little shakey around that time because I have a hard time talking to people about things that bother me and he couldn't understand why I wouldn't talk to him about things. At first he was just frustrated with me. The first physical act of violence was so small that I didn't even think about it. He'd just shoved me back onto a couch. Then he'd grab at my wrists, but I asked him not to do it anymore and he said he wouldn't and stopped for a while. Eventually it slowly progressed to the point where he was holding me down and stopping me from leaving the room during arguments. Then he would hit and kick and bite. I'd go to work with my face scabbed over from scratching and biting. Black eyes weren't uncommon. Then he'd strangle me. I would wrestle him off semi-okay, but then he started working out and now he's just too strong. The other day he had me pinned to a wall by my neck and my feet were almost a foot off the ground.

And that's not even counting all the verbal/emotional abuse... He doesn't let me see my friends. I haven't seen them in months. He deletes my phone contacts. He doesn't let me forget how stupid and ignorant I am. Accuses me of cheating. Says he doesn't want me to have male friends and that he doesn't really want me to have friends at all. He gets angry over the smallest things. He made me call my best friend in the world and tell her that I hate her and never want to speak to her again. He said if he didn't then he'd kill me. He brakes everything and is very visually angry and does a lot to intimidate me before becoming actually violent.

His new thing is to get angry that I appear scared of him. If he makes a violent motion (with or without intent to be violent) when he is upset then I flinch away and it makes him angry. He says that he's trying to turn over a new leaf and that by being scared and by treating him differently (less affectionate, finding excuses not to be around him or alone with him, refusing to have sex anymore) I am only trying to keep him abusive because I like the abuse and want people to feel sorry for me.

I haven't had sex with him since I realized that this behavior will never stop. I lost my virginity to him and it was because we were in love and he treated me right. So I see no purpose in continuing that because I believe in sex being for couples that love, RESPECT, and TRUST each other. Maybe he loves me, but he does not respect or trust me, nor do I respect or trust him. Since I stopped, he has been incessantly bothering me about it. Every night he gets me alone and tries to seduce me and gets angry when I do not submit. He tries to guilt me into it by saying he is blue balled. He tries to further his advances in hopes I'll change my mind. I'm scared that it will turn into more.

I'm scared to death of him, but everyone (most of my friends, my boss, my co-workers, my family) loves him and not many people believe what is actually going on. I don't know what to do. I don't know how to get rid of him. Everytime I try he either finds some way of making me feel so sorry for him that I say he can stay or I get emotionally distraught and start feeling like I can't live without him and I'm so ashamed of that. I feel so weak and the fact that I can't stick to my guns and get rid of him makes me feel like he's right about me. Thanks to anyone who actually read all this. Just looking for some words of wisdom...