Break Up Scene -Take Two

Shortly thereafter, I was asked out by another guy from our class. I wanted to go on the date, and although I still wasn’t sure what Johnny and I were classified as, I knew I had to talk to him first. We met in the chorus room one night after a school event so I could tell him in person.

“Why do you want to go out with him? He’s not your type and he’s a total jerk!”

“Well, maybe I want to find that out for myself.” (stupid teenager)

--cue sad romance movie soundtrack—

“But I love you.”

And there it was. I suddenly felt like someone was sitting on my chest and I couldn’t get a good breath. We had never said it. Never even implied it that I could recall. We’d written to each other a hundred times and every letter ended the same way, “Always Your Friend.” Friend! Not “I love you,” not “Love ya,” not even just “Love.” And yet here he was saying it; and I knew I couldn’t say it back. I just stood there, trying to move air into my lungs.

He stood to his feet, grabbed me by the shoulders, and kissed me hard on the lips.

With that, I turned away and left the room. Tears streaming down my face and in a moment of bizarre irony, I grabbed the girlfriend who had employed me to fix her up with him many months prior and said, “I think you should go check on Johnny.”

I did not love him. But hurting him sucked. Of course, now, he too is married and were he to read this would likely be thinking thank God she left the room. Oh, and in retrospect, he was partly right. The other guy wasn’t a total jerk but he was definitely not my type.

So, Johnny and I parted ways but we didn’t completely lose contact, not for awhile. As a matter of fact, he will show up again later in the story.