Our Story, Part 3

I don't think either of us really expected Someone Else to come along.  But when that happened it was heart-wrenching for both of us.  We couldn't continue as "us" with Someone Else in the picture so we decided to "just be friends."  We both started dating.  However, neither of us had really lost the feelings we had for each other.

It was somewhere around a year after we had first crossed paths, while Jen and I were in our "just friends" stage, that I came home exhausted from a late class at school and couldn't get into the house.  I thought there was something wrong with my keys and kept trying the lock.  My focus went from the keys in my hands to the porch around me.  There was a suitcase on the porch.  And broken glass from a vase of flowers Jen had sent me when I had been feeling down the week before.  And photos of us torn into pieces littered all over the ground.

My mom had found some photos of Jen and I sitting on a hotel bed together and decided that it was more than she could take.  She had the locks changed.  She kicked me out.

In a state of shock I went to a neighbour's house and called my dad.  In tears, I asked him if I could stay with him for a while.  Thankfully he didn't ask many questions, and just came to get me.

The next few months are a bit of a blur.  I fumbled my way through the school and work.  I continued to date the guy I'd been seeing.  Jen continued to date the girl she'd been seeing.  I had already been heartbroken, but now I was shattered.  The only reason I was able to hold myself together is because I didn't have any other choice.

Jen and I continued to talk.  Through everything that had been happened, our feelings towards each other had remained.  Eventually we made the decision to get back together.  It still wasn't easy, but it was easier.  Ironically I had been "outed" while dating a guy.  Of course, there was more "outing" to do after we got back together.  However this time I was less anxious.  I didn't have as much to lose.