The Book of Plot Twists

Dishonesty

My phone was blowing up all morning with text messages. Every five minutes I would get one, and if I didn't respond immediately, I would get three more. As someone who hasn't had a boyfriend in years, this should excite me. The only problem was that they were all from the same person. I stopped checking the ID and the messages entirely after the first thirty minutes because I knew who sent them and what they said.

All 73 texts said roughly the same thing:
Hey, u there? I'm at the pool house. Come hang out with me. Or we could go do something else. I just wanna c u!

I must admit, at first it was flattering, but now it was just plain creepy. Couldn't the boy see that I wanted to be left alone? Gosh, you go on three dates with a guy and he is automatically obsessed with you.
In his defense though, we had been friends for three years beforehand. So that was three years for him to fall in love with all of this.

I guess I should at least go see him and tell him that I wasn't interested in that way. He deserved to know that much.

Okay, I'll be there in 10, I replied. Not ten seconds later he sent me a stream of smiling emoticons.

I hopped up from my couch, brushed my teeth, and headed out the door. I didn't put any makeup on or change out of the wrinkled clothes I fell asleep in. If I put any effort into looking good, it would give him the impression that I actually cared-which I didn't.

Ryker was standing outside of the pool-house anxiously waiting for my arrival. Could this man be any more desperate? A wide grin spread across his face as I approached him.

"It's so great to see you!" He engulfed me in a hug.

"Likewise," I agreed nervously. It was awkward for me because I knew what I was going to tell him just minutes from now.

He motioned for me to follow him in and we sat down at the bar. He ordered a beer for himself and a coke for me. It was sweet in a way. I once told him that I refused to drink alcohol since my mother died of liver failure and he never forgot that.

"So, what's new?" Ryker asked.

Originally, I was going to go on with this "date," or whatever it was, but I couldn't do it. Every second that passed made me more sick with guilt.

I took a moment to breathe and then said the exact opposite of what he wanted to hear.
"I don't want to see you anymore."

His face faltered for a second, and then his smile slowly faded like he couldn't quite grasp the situation. "What-what do mean?" He pathetically asked, probably hoping I would say I was kidding and then point to the hidden cameras.

"I'd hate to do this to you, but I have to be brutally honest," I started to explain. "When you text or call me, I fill with dread. I never really wanted this in the first place. In fact, the only reason I came here today was because I decided that I couldn't keep stringing you along."

He didn't seem to have an immediate response to that. He was taking it all in.

"What's your problem? Why don't you ever want to talk to me?!" He then screamed with pent up frustration. The longer it took me to reply, the heavier his breathing got.

I felt bad for him. I'd given him tickets to the show but didn't let him in. What else was I to expect?

I didn't want to tell him the rest of the truth, but he deserved to hear it. He deserved to hear just as much as I deserved to say it out loud.

"Don't you get it!?" I yelled, matching his tone of voice. "I'm gay!"

His eyebrows shot up and his mouth fell open. There was nothing but pure shock written in his expression. Clearly, he didn't get it until I shouted it in his face.