20. Let Me Have Him
This all starts out poorly with me following my boyfriend to the same college he went to (he was a year older; still don’t regret it after all as I loved my school and everything else out those 4 years). We were a bit off again, and on again the first semester I was there (again, red flags!). My new hallmate in my dorm became my “best friend.” She and my boyfriend didn’t really like each other but it wasn’t a huge deal; just a personality clash and she didn’t like how he treated me with the on/off crap.
Our school had a winter term in January. My boyfriend lived off campus so he was there and my best friend was taking a class; I was home. My best friend was lonely and didn’t know many other people on campus for winter term so I told her to hang out with the boys in my boyfriend’s [frat]house, whom she had friendly-ish with. So they all start hanging out.
And by that, of course, I mean they start hooking up.
I get back to school and I immediately can tell things are weird with my best friend (unbeknownst to me at the time, my boyfriend has had basically our entire relationship to practice covering his tracks and is a smooth and practiced liar by this point). Within a couple of weeks, it all comes out that they’d been hooking up and their best friend actually tells me “you know how much I’ve wanted a boyfriend; if you were a good friend, you’d let me have him.” (Why I still wanted to date him at this point is beyond many many MANY people’s comprehension, including mine, but it did involve a dog that I was beyond attached to).
I do fault them both equally, and did at the time too – I don’t remember being mad at either of them as much as I was just devastated. He was apologetic from the start; she was mean and manipulative (again, not trying to say it was “the other woman’s fault” – just explaining how it all went down). It totally sucked and I felt so betrayed by both of them. Unsurprisingly, I have had a lot of trust and loyalty issues since.