"Jay only touches me when his friends are around to see it happen, and when we’re alone he talks about his friends a lot, especially Blake. My father paid for this trip, and when I told him that I wanted to bring Jay, he said that I was old enough now to make those kinds of decisions for myself. I appreciated his confidence in me, but when I realized this wasn’t going to be the romantic adventure I thought it was, I wondered if I had actually earned my father’s trust.
After we arrived and settled in at the cottage, Jay casually mentioned that several of his fraternity brothers had rented a cottage not far from ours. He tried to make it sound as if turning the summer into a group trip wasn’t a significant departure from our plans. It broke my heart. We talked about this trip all last spring, and he never said anything about bringing friends. It was supposed to be just the two of us.
I’ve decided to make the best of it. This is a beautiful place, and I know I’m lucky to be here, so I’m not going to act like a spoiled brat and pout the whole time. …but some nights when we go to our separate bedrooms, I cry.
I’m going to break up with Jay when we go back to school in August. I’m also going to tell him that it’s not fair for him to play games with the people in his life. I’ll be nice about it. Of course I was mad when I figured out what was going on, but I still care about him. He needs to grow up is all. If the friends he has now won’t accept him for who he is, then he needs to find new ones who will. And if Blake doesn’t want him, there are plenty of other men who would jump at the chance to be with him.
Maybe some day we can both laugh at what happened here."
Photographer unknown
Models unknown
Little fictional story by Gary Cottle
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