Member-only story
I’ll leave it to you to decide if I made good and right choices.
December 1, 2017
There were three that got away. Tom was one.
He was my high school boyfriend’s best friend. He was an earnest young man, a good Catholic boy, attending the prestigious Seattle University. My high school boyfriend was in the service by now. He had discontinued communication with me. He had found someone else. I was a junior in high school. Tom was a freshman in college.
We went on a double date with one of Tom’s friend from college and my friend Laney. Tom was informally paired with Laney. I was with the other fellow, Tom’s friend. His name escapes. At some point during the date things switched around. Although the outing was never intended to be romantic, just friends enjoying a night out, on the way home, Tom and I ended up in the back seat engaged in a very intense make out session.
It was during a time when I was intensely focused on school and was preparing to attend college the summer between my junior and senior years so I could graduate early. I was very single minded. I had to get away from my father. At all costs, that was all I could think of. So when Tom subsequently reached out, I simply stopped responding. I had clear and unshakable priorities and I just wouldn’t and likely couldn’t focus on anything else.
