Brad* met Cassie* in AP World History. She had turned around one day to make a sarcastic comment after their teacher had called him by his last name. Everyone called Brad-and knew him-by his last name, up to a point where some of the other students were unfamiliar with his first name.

“Yeah, Crenshaw,” Cassie had turned in her seat and said to Brad with a sarcastic grin. He had fallen in love with her ever since.

So, Brad started to talk to Cassie. They had both discovered that they had the same taste in music- alternative rock, and that they both loved the same bands- Bloc Party, The Killers, Taking Back Sunday, Billy Talent. Cassie then added him on Facebook, and Brad had asked her to hang out one day. Cassie, who was just getting out of a relationship, wasn’t sure if she wanted to or not. After all, all she wanted from this guy was a friend, and only a friend.

“Sure,” she said. But, she wasn’t even close to being sure.

He sent her a message via Facebook chat, and they started talking music and concerts. Both agreed that they wanted to see Disturbed, but it was on Valentine’s Day. Brad called Cassie perfect, and said that he wanted to be her valentine. Cassie blushed at her desk in front of her computer and smiled. That night, Cassie prayed to God that if He wanted Brad to take a part in her life, then to put him there, and she would be content. The next night, Brad asked her to be his girlfriend, and she had said yes.

Brad and Cassie were inseparable ever since. They held hands in the hallways at school and snuck kisses in front of their parents. They talked on the phone for hours on end late at night and then complained about how sleep-deprived they were in the morning. They went to the movies, the mall, and concerts together. Brad would buy Cassie all of the nicest presents in the world. Anything her little heart desired, Brad gave it to her on a silver platter.
All of their friends said that they would last forever and go to college together and get married. Brad and Cassie wanted to go to college together; Brad told Cassie that he wanted to make her his wife. Cassie saw the engagement ring she wanted, and Brad promised that he would save up his money and propose to her one day. Cassie’s heart was so overjoyed with love for Brad that words couldn’t even express it.
Brad was a drinker, and he also worried a lot. He would get very jealous when Cassie went to dance parties with her friends or talked to some of her swimming teammates on the computer. Brad would call Cassie when he was out with his best friend Trent*, who gave him all of the alcohol. At first, Cassie was only slightly worried about Brad and his drinking and worrying, but she didn’t pay much attention.
Brad and Cassie started fighting over stupid little things. He would point out the things in her that annoyed him, and she would call him and the whole situation pathetic. Cassie’s friends started to worry about her, and Cassie’s parents started asking why they fought. But, both Brad and Cassie let every situation blow over until the two of them were perfectly fine, and they didn’t fight about it anymore.
One night, after another argument with Brad, Cassie was at home with her best friend Stella*, watching Dane Cook skits on YouTube and talking to her friend Connor* from journalism camp. Brad had called her, and he was very, very upset. Cassie asked what was wrong and Brad started to cry.
“I think I have a drinking problem,” he said.
Cassie was shocked about his words. She had never heard him this upset before, and she desperately wanted to help him as he continued to confess to her about his loneliness and depression and family drinking history. She started researching ways to help him as he cried and confessed and apologized to Cassie in between sobs of hysteria. Cassie had told Brad that she loved him and the she wasn’t going to leave him, and she also told Connor that something was wrong with Brad and that she couldn’t talk anymore. Connor said that he would be there for her if she needed him, and she cried herself to sleep in Stella’s arms that night, as Brad tried to make his way back upstairs. Trent had given him alcohol again, and Brad was drunk that night. He had drunk almost an entire bottle of wine, and all Cassie could do was pray. Connor ended up being there for her.
The fighting continued to get worse and worse. Cassie threatened to leave Brad over and over through tears in her eyes as he begged and pleaded for her to stay. Cassie stayed, and Brad left for Tennessee with his family later on in the summer. She was supposed to go with him, and she cried for hours in her room while wearing his jacket on the day he left.
Brad became more jealous and insecure since he left for Tennessee. He started bringing up things from her past- other guys she had talked to or liked before him, ex-boyfriends, hookups; things that were completely irrelevant to their relationship. He said that he couldn’t trust her as she cried and told him that she was being truthful and honest with him. He kept throwing her past in her face and she felt like she was being slapped around.
Stella and her other best friend Jenna* kept on trying to talk to him and tell him that this wasn’t fair to Cassie, but Brad wouldn’t care. He was too consumed by his own selfish thoughts to realize the pain he was inflicting upon her. Cassie refused to speak to Brad, for she was contemplating leaving him, and she called Connor that night and cried to him as he told her that everything was going to be okay. He kept her sane while she was feeling that her world was crumbling to pieces.
The “trust issue” fight lasted for three days and nights, Wednesday through Friday. Brad kept making assumptions and blaming Cassie for things that weren’t true while she kept fighting to save their relationship. That Friday night, Brad compared her to a slut, and practically called her so, and at that moment she knew what she had to do. She picked up the phone and, fighting back tears of pain and heartache, told him that even though she loved him with everything, she thought that they shouldn’t be together anymore. She called Connor right after and cried to him as he kept her sane, just like he always did, and for the first time since the many fights with Brad, Cassie felt at peace.
Brad called the next morning crying, and Cassie had to drill it into his head that it was over as he cried and cried. She spent the day with Stella as they packed up his belongings and removed all traces of Brad from every place and every belonging in Cassie’s presence. It was as if Brad never existed.
Brad kept calling and calling, and sometimes Brad still calls. Brad promised to stop drinking, but he started up again. Brad threatened to commit suicide, and he still feels suicidal. Brad sometimes calls her friends for support out of the fact that he’s just lonely and depressed, but they don’t want to deal with him. Brad took revenge out on Cassie by hooking up with her teammate while being in a drunken state, but by that time Cassie had enough. She stopped answering his phone calls, text messages, and completely erased him from her memory and her heart. Now, Cassie talks to Connor, and even though she doesn’t want another boyfriend for as long of a time as possible, she feels happy with where she is in her love life, and he still keeps her sane, just like he always has.
If Cassie learned a lesson from all of this, she learned who to trust and who not to trust. She also learned the lesson of who to love, and who not to love. As Cassie’s mother always told her, never give your all into any relationship unless you know for a fact that it’s worth it, and Brad wasn’t worth it. But, Cassie learned from her mistake, and now she knows better, and if you don’t think that Cassie has learned or will learn, trust me, she has. I am her.

*- Name has been changed.