*Content Warning: This piece contains references to domestic violence/intimate partner violence, mental and physical abuse, which may be triggering to some.*
There was a boy I once loved. He was sweet and extremely kind, he was too perfect. When we first started flirting he was super nice, he was a gentleman with the best manners. I started to fall for him, hard. He was my dream guy, he was smart, funny, kind and knew almost everything about me. I let him be a part of literally every aspect of my life. He would walk me home and we would sit together on the bus ride to and from school. He walked me to every class even when his were across the school. The first three months were great, we were happy. Then something started to change.
He started coming over to my house all the time, even the days that I just wanted to be alone. There he was at my front door wanting to see me. It got to the point he would show up at one o’clock in the afternoon and not leave until nine o’clock at night. It was a little bit annoying not being able to do my chores. My mom was oddly fine with this, while I was starting to feel very uncomfortable. I tried to ask him to come over less, but when I did he would ask if I was mad at him or if I was getting bored of him and I would say ‘nevermind’ and he would continue to come over. Before I knew it, his entire attitude toward me did a 360. He started to distance himself in a way. He was checking his phone, a lot. And his attention seemed to be somewhere else.
I tried to change myself to be the perfect girlfriend for him but it just never quite worked. The times he was over he stuck to me like glue and even when I tried to walk away he would ask where I went and bothered me for hours at a time asking what I was doing. Whenever I would disappear he would constantly ask where I went, if I was talking to other guys, and if I still loved him. I was starting to get a little annoyed and even started to fall out of love.
There was a time when my mom took my phone away and he gave me an iPod so we could still text. When my mom finally gave me back my phone I gave the iPod back to him but forgot to log out of my messenger. When I started to talk to one of my friends about going to Six Flags with him one weekend and how my boyfriend was afraid of heights and that he wouldn’t have much fun, my boyfriend texted me not long after saying he would get over his fear of heights. It then clicked after I got a notification and it disappeared that he was looking at my texts. I went to confront him about it, but he denied it. After all that was done he still stuck right next to me, and even gave me a few bruises. After that he kept his hands off me and kept a little distance from me.
After what he did I realized that he was mentally abusive. I decided that I couldn’t be with him anymore. I decided to break it off; I called him down to my house and when I tried to break up, he begged and pleaded that he would change. I said that we would try, but he never changed. I just decided to break up with him over text at three o’clock in the morning.
I kept my distance from him and cut off all contact so he wouldn’t try to manipulate me back into a relationship.
