Story Sent in by Coleen:
When I came out in high school, I found myself with a bunch of new friends, both straight and gay. Alicia was a beautiful lesbian who I always thought was way out of my league. But when she befriended me, I took it as my in to spend as much time with her as I could. We became close, and I'd often visit her house after school to listen to her music or play video games or whatever else. We were both definitely into women, but nothing had yet happened between us. I thought she was great, but she gave me no signals as to whether or not she was into me in that way.
When I finally told her, one day after school, she became very rigid and quiet and told me that it was "a lot to process" and that she wanted to be alone for a while to think about it. I felt like I had crashed and burned, and I practically cried myself to sleep that night.
The next morning, Alicia caught up with me in the bathroom and handed me a long paper banner. It had the word PROPERTY on it over and over.
"Wear it," Alicia said, "Wear it today and then we can go out."
"But I'm not property," I said.
She said, "Wrap it around yourself and wear it today. Then we can go out. I'm sorry but it's the only way."
I asked, "Can't we just... go out?"
She said, "That's not how it's done. Either you wear it or I go around today telling everyone you're my property. Your choice."
I had once thought that Alicia was awesome, but she was really just kinda psycho. I told her, "Go for it."
She rolled up the banner and left the bathroom. She spent the day telling everyone she could find that I was her property, and the only negative repercussions to happen were that everyone thought she was nuts. At the end of the day, I found her in the hall, telling a group of freshmen that I "belonged to her." I touched her shoulder and asked if we could talk.
She shoved at me with the banner in her hand and yelled, "If you had just worn it, none of this would've happened!" She then stormed away.
A couple of months later, I found a sane, cute girl at another local school and we dated for a couple of years.
First, OP, congrats on the courage to make the move. I think of my HS same-sex friend crush as that universal right of passage, and it usually ends badly (because if it were gonna end well you wouldn't have to say a word, it would already be happening). Double congrats on seeing the crazy and handling it with maturity and grace (not something I had in HS). Not everyone is so insightful --- I'm sure she found someone to wear her banner later.
ReplyDeleteAfter your first night with her, you would have woken up with one of these.
ReplyDeleteAt least she didn't show up at your house with a U-Haul.