I grabbed her phone the first chance I got and scrolled straight to Jared’s name. The messages looked normal at first, just transactions. But the number of texts and calls didn’t match how often she came home with weed. She was either deleting messages or stopping by his place without leaving a trail.
I scrolled up further and saw it. A message from him: “Are you coming around today? ” followed by an eggplant emoji. There was no other way to read that.
I had my proof, but that wasn’t the worst part. When I reached the top of their conversation, I found the real reason she suddenly wanted to smoke. It had nothing to do with weed. She had seen him at a hangout with her friend, gotten his number, and then started smoking just to have an excuse to talk to him.
She wanted to seem cool to him. She made it look like a natural interest, but it was a crush, and she had acted on it. We’d been together eight years. I was already looking at rings, planning the proposal, working harder than ever because I thought she was my future.
Apparently, that meant nothing. I sat her down one day when I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I had already exported the chat log to my phone, so she couldn’t deny anything. I asked her how she met Jared.
She said she got his number after developing an interest in weed, and the first time they met was when she went for a pickup. That was the first lie. I let her believe I bought it. Then I asked her directly if she had a crush on him.
She looked shocked, then blank. She didn’t answer. I asked again. “Why would you ask me that?
” she said. “Just answer the question. ”
“Of course not. ”
I nodded and said nothing.
She asked why I was asking such an offensive question, so I told her I’d heard otherwise about her and Jared. She guessed it was her friend who told me, which made me think her friend knew more than I realized. I told her it wasn’t. She got more aggressive because I wasn’t getting to the point.
Finally, I told her I saw it in her phone. I said it was clear they had slept together. She went into full denial mode, but I just watched her flounder. She hadn’t even let me explain what I saw.
I cut her off and told her that if she had deleted messages, she hadn’t deleted all of them. Her face gave her away. She didn’t know which message I was referring to, so she didn’t know if she could keep fighting. She stopped denying and started scrolling through her own phone, trying to figure out which mistake she left behind.
I pointed out that her behavior was proof enough that messages were deleted. She kept scrolling anyway, and I watched her face change when she found the message. She still tried to defend herself. She claimed it was just a joke, that I didn’t understand Jared’s sense of humor, and I was reading it all wrong.
“You can try and BS someone else,” I told her. “Not me. ”
I asked if Jared even knew she was in a relationship. She hesitated and said it never came up.
But it didn’t need to, because they weren’t doing anything wrong. I asked what she thought he’d say if I called him right then. I started dialing his number. She tried to act cool, then begged me to hang up.
I did. She admitted they slept together. She said it just sort of happened, that it wasn’t meant to last, that she was just looking for a little excitement. She knew it was wrong, but she still loved me immensely, and that’s why she had been lying so hard.
She didn’t want to lose me. I told her that was flattering, but it wouldn’t save anything. I made it clear how disappointed I was, how she broke my heart. She tried to argue, but I told her I had zero interest in anything, especially after she confirmed she had stopped with him.
I told her to pack her things and leave. She begged one last time, but she left on her own. I was glad she did. I sent her a message to set a date to come get the rest of her stuff.
She didn’t respond at first, but eventually she came with a guy in a pickup truck. I had a very good feeling it was Jared. I knew he dealt with other things besides weed, but I didn’t know how far it went. I found out the hard way.
She called me not long after, sounding strange. I asked if she had smoked. She said no, but she didn’t sound convincing. She said she needed help.
I told her I couldn’t give her money. She said that wasn’t what she needed. She hesitated so long that I hung up. A few days later, she messaged again.
This time she sent a picture of herself. She didn’t look like the person I remembered. She wrote a long message admitting she made the mistake of trying other drugs and things went wrong. She tried to stop but couldn’t.
She admitted she was dating Jared, and having drugs so easily available didn’t help. She wanted to go to rehab, but Jared didn’t care enough to pay for it. She said that was the only favor she needed from me, and then she’d be out of my life forever. It sounded like a ruse to get money, but she said she’d let me pay the center directly.
A lot of people would disagree with me, but I couldn’t leave her like that. I resented her, but I didn’t want the very worst for her. I agreed. I told her the day to meet me in front of the rehab center.
She said she would. I got there in the morning and waited two hours. I called and messaged her repeatedly, but she never answered. She never showed up.
I left. I even asked the receptionist to call me if she showed up. I never got that call. She messaged me later with flimsy excuses.
I was glad to know she was still alive, but I had no more patience for it. I blocked her number. She showed up at my door one day, but I didn’t open it. It’s crazy how she could have had the life she really wanted, but she allowed herself to fall in love with a criminal.
That one choice ruined everything. I tried to help her, but she let me down. There’s only so much care I can give to someone like her, and I’m out of it now.
