Used

16 Feb

By the time I started high school, my view on boys was pretty screwed up. I had grown up having had mostly negative interactions with guys, and I was pretty scared because of it. When it came to my dating life, I was probably pretty difficult to deal with. Having been molested, I had little trust in the male race, and I thought that every guy was out to get me.

My first crush was over one of my parent’s friend’s son. We hung out together a lot since our parents were friends, and we were often joined by the daughter of another couple. I remember being pretty good friends with the girl, and we both had crushes on this boy; he was pretty good-looking, and a year older than us. Looking back on the situation now, I can clearly see that he played us both, even though we were kids. He used to sit between us and whisper in my ear about how much he liked me. I knew he was also telling my friend the same things, but I thought he was just trying to make her feel better. I’m pretty good at convincing myself to see things in a better light, if you hadn’t noticed!

Things never got to crazy, but I did kiss him a few times. He was my first little girl crush, but I let it go pretty well in the end.  Eventually our parents just didn’t hang out as much, so we stopped seeing each other. I didn’t expect it to come back to me later in life.

During my last year in middle school, my supposed friends down the street had their way with me again. They dressed me up and paraded me around their house and had a few friends over. One of them just so happened to be the boy that I had a crush on as a little kid. I tried my best to seem cool, but I’m sure I just came off as quiet and awkward. After they left, I told the girls all about my old crush on this guy, and how we used to be really good friends when we were kids. He was a pretty popular guy and still good-looking, so the old crush came right back. My friends told me that he had a girlfriend that they went to school with, but she was a really crappy person. They told me several bad things about her, and I really felt like I should hate her.

The girls got it in their head that they were going to help me catch this guy, even though he had a girlfriend. I went to a different school then they did, so I didn’t know her, and I convinced myself that she was a bad person, so it was somehow ok. They dolled me up again, and reminded me just how pretty I would be if I wasn’t so heavy. They invited this guy over, and we hung out in one of the girls rooms listening to music, and hanging out.

I was pretty shy and quiet, I didn’t have a clue how I was supposed to handle myself in front of guys, let alone guys I had a crush on. I about had a panic attack when both of the girls found an excuse to leave the room, and leave me alone with him. He started making small talk, and then caught my attention when he said something about how the girl told him I really liked him. I didn’t know what to say and I probably just sat there with my mouth open looking confused for a minute.

He must have taken that as a sign, and he quickly came and sat next to me. Before I knew it he was kissing me. The girls came back pretty quickly, and we all hung out a bit longer. We also took some random pictures of the four of us goofing around, and hanging out. I gave the guy my phone number, and told him to give me a call, and we could hang out sometime, and the night ended.

This guy never called me. It was pretty hard, I was young and I thought he really liked me. I felt like I had known him for a really long time, and he should have called. I thought I had done something to make him not want to call, and I was pretty hard on myself. I thought that him not calling was just about the worst thing ever, but I was very wrong.

My so-called friends were apparently not very fond of this guy’s girlfriend, and had pretty much set the whole thing up. After we all hung out that night, they had gone to his girlfriend, and told her all about how he was secretly dating another girl. They went so far as to show her the picture from us all hanging out, but they had omitted most of the pictures with them in them, incriminating me and her boyfriend. I guess she was pretty pissed, and broke up with him over it. He thought I was in on it, and was pretty pissed at me as well.

This was the end of my friendship with these girls. It was one thing to have a guy hurt you, but it was another thing to be hurt by people you consider friends. I couldn’t believe that they had used me like this, and I was upset with myself for following along. I was angry at myself for hurting another girl, and I was very sad over the loss of my friends. Real friend would never use someone like that. I had also had a taste of what it was like to ruin someone’s relationship, and I really felt like a jerk for taking part in that. I learned that it was never ok to cheat or to help someone cheat, someone always gets hurt, and that’s not cool. It also made me re-evaluate what I considered a friend. Friends don’t hurt friends, and they certainly don’t use them in their plots against others.

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47 Responses to “Used”

  1. jkenjiy February 17, 2012 at 3:57 pm #

    I really appreciate the time for you to write a part about you that many dare not to share pubicly. It takes a lot of courage and strength on your part to not just endure the journey, but to see how the story goes and the lessons you learn along the way. I remember reading once, “Love comeforth like sunshine after rain” no matter what happens and how gloomy the rain may seem during the time of hardship, see with your minds eye of the sunshin and the beautiful rainbow after the rain stops. It does not always rain forever. Happy Aloha Friday! ^_^ Keep up the good job!

  2. sarahchronicle1 February 17, 2012 at 4:42 pm #

    I can sort of relate to what you’re saying. Girls can be very cruel; sometimes its better to keep your crushes to yourself; and not tell anyone about them; or tell people who don’t know the person you admire. Friends always ruin it; a lot of people backstab others nowadays; you can never really know who really is your friend until you try them. They should be there for you in all situations, good and bad. Only time can heal; hope you feel better and wish you all the best in your dating life.

    Peace :)

  3. themofman February 17, 2012 at 7:25 pm #

    This reinforces a point that I’ve had to make numerous times with certain people about how easily you can lose you safety. I usually have to illustrate it with the follwing true story that I’ll try to be brief with.

    OC Transpo is the public transit service in Ottawa, Ontario. In 1999, one of its workers went on a shooting rampage, killing and wounding several coworkers before turning his gun on himself. The inquest revealed that for years the shooter was the target of frequent and most vile harassment from his coworkers, and administration did nothing to prevent it while they were well aware of it. The trick that got investigators and the curious baffled was that most of the shooter’s victims were coworkers who repeatedly stood up for the one being harassed and tried to have his torment ended. By simply walking into work and pulling the trigger on anyone who came into his line of sight, he left most of his predetors unscathed.

    The connection between the shooting rampage and the situation you had is that when people seek revenge or just fixate on some plot to hurt someone in some way–even for no logical reason at all, no one is safe from their wrath. Not even the innocent, friends or family members.

    I am glad that your story has a much happier ending. You can live to tell about it, and educate us on how to not fall into the same predicaments.

  4. imabusinessman February 18, 2012 at 6:08 am #

    Really sorry to hear about that. Kids can be really cruel.

  5. Kato McKracken February 18, 2012 at 10:17 am #

    It’s amazing the parallels I can draw from this to my own life and experiences. I’ve not only been told (serveral times) that I’m pretty but too fat, but I used to belive it too. I would look in the mirror and think “I COULD be pretty. If I lost 25 pounds.”
    A lot of it had to do with very unencouraging “friends”, and people who I thought loved me but really only wanted to keep me beneath them. Once I cut those people out of my life, I’ve never been happier or more confident about my appearance and personality.
    I’m really glad you were able to see through your “friends” quickly enough to get away from them. And I want to thank you for sharing your experiences with everyone. Reading it only makes me that much more proud of myself and the decisions I’ve made.
    Thanks so much, and what a wonderful writer and inspiration you are!

  6. littlepiecesovertime February 18, 2012 at 10:41 am #

    I’m glad you’re in a better place now and I hope you will never find such people again, you don’t deserve this kind of treatment :)

  7. Axy February 18, 2012 at 11:51 am #

    Thank you for sharing this! At some points I really find myself in what you’ve experienced. You seem like a genuinely nice person and I wish you the best!

  8. michael February 18, 2012 at 1:00 pm #

    It’s nice to get a glimpse of life from a female perspective. I think we’ve all done things we now would rather not have done, but that’s just the way life is. We make mistakes, and we don’t realise certain things until we’re fully grown. (Then again, I’m not sure we’ve ever truly ‘grown’, we grow with each day, each passing night.)

    I guess the only thing we have control over is what we do with our past (or in spite of it), and it sounds like you’ve ended up in a good way. I wish you all the best with what you decide to do from this moment on.

    Cheers!

  9. speakingup4me February 18, 2012 at 2:32 pm #

    Now that you know that you know that you know you can truly grow from this. Don’t feel ashamed or embarrassed by the events that took place, it was all apart of the big picture to change the character of your very being. God doesn’t do things by happenstance , nor is HE caught by surprise-it was all designed. Love the post- keep em coming. I’m a fan!!!! You keep your head up and follow your heart not phonies!

  10. lorijss February 18, 2012 at 8:28 pm #

    Real friends definitely don’t USE friends. Your real friends will never lead you astray or let you down. Thank you so much for sharing.

  11. carinaragno February 18, 2012 at 9:19 pm #

    for your really raw, heartfelt blogs, thank you, I am passing Versatile Blogger Award to you!

  12. Purely.. Kay February 18, 2012 at 10:56 pm #

    I definitely agree with one of the commenters.. someone will definitely learn a lesson by reading your wonderful stories. Thank you for sharing this with us

  13. A.B. Thomas February 19, 2012 at 7:32 am #

    The dynamic of friendship that one formats in their “awkward” years are often the hardest as they are the platform that one uses for adult relationships. What you encountered could have easily could have blossomed into a complex set of social rules of duplicity in relation to others; it sounds that though with a measure of bitternes, easily understandable, you chose a far simpler and overt outlook on the definition of friendship and strenghtened a fiber in your belief system. Very well written!

  14. drewpan February 19, 2012 at 10:15 pm #

    That’s a terrible story! You had some pretty nasty friends back then, and I hope you’ve met some much nicer people since. Kids can be really, really cruel.

  15. evilnymphstuff February 20, 2012 at 4:48 am #

    I have some uneasy experiencea with boys too especially those I had a crush on. It just never worked. Anyway I’m glad that you stopped being friends with these girls. How could they have done that!

  16. notestowomen February 20, 2012 at 8:15 am #

    I read your post “Used” and and I could feel the raw emotion. It’s a horrible feeling to be used, especially by people whom you consider to be your friends. You are right. True friends won’t use you. they would have your back. I will definitely read more of your posts. Keep writing.

  17. ktbme February 20, 2012 at 8:17 am #

    I believe this a common story. I feel like we have all been down this road before or have a similar story like this. I think it makes us a lot stronger in the end, if not that it makes us able to guide our children or other youths better than the people who did this to us.

  18. amandastrav February 20, 2012 at 10:27 am #

    Loved this post! I think almost every girl goes through this: the guy playing both girls and girls using other girls…it’s a mess. But, there’s beauty in the mess. These situations help girls become stronger and wiser. Keep writing! :)

  19. Afsal Ismail February 20, 2012 at 12:33 pm #

    I just wanted to say that I’ve been in your exact situation but I’m a guy. The gender norms apparently make it 10x worse for me to show my emotion. I had an ex cheat on me with one of my supposed friends at the time. The break up was hard on our friend group cause we all had mutual friends. I don’t know, I let go of it, but it always comes back to mind every once in a while about what it felt like.

    You have a new follower btw!

  20. wherelionsroam February 20, 2012 at 2:01 pm #

    I wanted to inform you that I have nominated you for the following awards. Candle Lighter Award and One Lovely Blog Award. Please visit http://wherelionsroam.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/my-nominations/ for the info

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