Mine happened over a longer period of time. My very close cousin was bugging me to go to my Senior prom. I insisted that I wouldn't go unless I had someone I really wanted to go with. So being kind-hearted she started slowly inviting one of her friends over while I was there or asking if I'd join them out. I did. It seemed like an OK match, I wanted a girl, and she had broken up with a total jerk a couple months ago. At first I was indifferent. She was cool, but I wasn't noticing I was falling for her. It kept progressing, and after the prom we started dating.

My cousin suddenly told me it wasn't meant to be more than the prom. I can't see her. Being a fool, I didn't listen. My cousin insisted she wasn't ready and that she wasn't what she seemed. I ignored her.

Months later I was entirely in love. Life was different. For the first time I could read love poems, or listen to songs and not only know what they meant, but feel it too. We spent the entire summer together, and both of our families encouraged the relationship. I finally got up the nerve to say "I love you" to her weeks later. I'd never said it before, because I would not have meant it. I left myself vulnerable. All I got in return was silence. Silence...

But eventually I wanted to make sure that this relationship was pure, that she and I were steady partners, that she was not seeing anyone else. At first it was to please her as she got very jealous of my hanging out with a couple girls I've known for years.

And thats why it hit me hard when she didn't say she wanted to make it the relationship. She said she needed time.

Months more passed, but things got progressively worse. She started openly seeing other guys, insisting they were just friends like the girls I saw were. Only thing was I've know my friends for over 5 years. The guys she saw were the same guys who picked her up at clubs or in the mall when she was with her friends.

She kept seeing the guys and refusing to acknowledge me to them or her ex-boyfriend whom she spoke with regularly. One night he called late, and I was just leaving her house. Knowing they always fought and that she felt horrible when talking to him, I walked around the house to say "I love you" in her bedroom window as I left. But instead I heard her telling her ex that I was nothing to her that I was just another guy she was using for free dinners and movies. I was devastated. That was what really did it. And that wasn't the only time something like that happened with her...

I left her for good at Christmas. It was the hardest thing I've ever done. And all she did was say OK. When she heard I was hanging out with another girl weeks later, she also sent a nasty email. Thank God, I got away from her...