A guilt and a lie that I’ve held onto for years. In high school, I cheated on my boyfriend of 2-3 years at the time. We have now been together for 8+ years. He knew the other guy, the guy I cheated with. It started as a friendship and became something more. My boyfriend had gone off to college and we were in a long-distance relationship. This was super hard on me; I had never realized just how much I needed physical presence to feel connected and loved. My friend was there for me when my boyfriend wasn’t. I got attached to the friendship. We felt like siblings. It became something more. First it was emotional connection; when my boyfriend wasn’t available, I could go to this friend. What a hard time it was for me back then. I was so suicidal, suffering so much, putting so much pressure on myself, and it felt like my boyfriend was never there. It didn’t feel like cheating then, but now I think it was the start. I felt like we still loved each other so much…but something was missing. Eventually, my friend started comforting me physically with hugs. Innocuous, but it opened the door. As I started to like him more, as he was constantly there, I wondered what it would be like to kiss him. We kissed once, and the guilt consumed me. But then we kept doing it. We would sneak to parts of the school where nobody was and make out.
