When I was in 10th grade, I was in what I thought was a serious relationship with a guy named…we’ll say Brent. Brent and I had been dating for about 2 months, so you can say things were getting serious. We were going to be highschool sweethearts, after all(haha).
So when Homecoming rolled around, I was expecting a huge proposal, right? Wrong. Sort of…After school one day, our group of friends approached me. The girls were all giggly, the guys were all secretive, I KNEW what was happening! They took me by the hands to our school’s courtyard (which was really just a grass field) where Brent was standing at the ready. He held a bouquet of red roses with a golden ribbon that held TICKETS TO HAMILTON (Now would be a good time to mention that we were both theatre nerds) and a large black poster reading “I’ll be your Alexander if you’ll be my Elizabeth at HOCO, Stephanie…” There was just one problem: My name is Alyssa.
At that moment, I remember watching whoever Stephanie(fake name) was squel “yes!” and jump into his arms. I remember my best friend “Johnny”(fake name) telling the others to stop filming. I remember my friends following me as I ran to the football field and hid under the bleachers. And I remember going to Homecoming…alone.
A few months later, Brent and I started dating again. He’d told me that I was so much better than Stephanie, that he missed me, that he was sorry, all that generic bullshit. We had the same friends, and the same electives, and even lived a street away from each other. Basically, I saw him all the time. And I missed him too.
I should’ve known the same thing was going to happen. The last few months of Sophomore year, Brent had been caught by my friends several times “flirting with girls,” and even with Stephanie after they played the lead roles in our school production of Grease. I brushed it off, and he continued with the generic “I’ll never leave you!’s”
That summer, he broke up with me. Shocker! He claimed he couldn’t do “long distance” and that we’d hardly ever see each other. (Remember when I mentioned living a street away…) I had my fair share of cookie dough ice cream and Avril Lavigne music that night.
When school started up again, guess who else did? You got it: Brentlyssa! (That was the cringe ship name our friends assigned us, except his name wasn’t actually Brent, haha). That’s right, we started dating again. By that time, I was pissed. The only reason I dated him was because I had an irrational fear of being single, for reasons you’ll later understand…
Deep down, though, I knew our relationship was built on lies. I came to resent him over time, as he used me for social media posts and attention, and to make girls he actually liked jealous. I wanted to dump him. Before I did, though, I was going to get revenge.
With the help of my friends(our friends, but they didn’t like him as he was a douche in many ways), we set up a very similar homecoming proposal to the last one, which was actually to Stephanie. Me and my friends had something EPIC planned. I went out and bought red roses, and tickets to Love Never Dies as a local production was being shown at the time, and made a poster that read “I’ll be your Christine if you be my Phantom.” And we met up in the courtyard, but this time made sure a large(r) crowd was present. He looked so happy, I almost felt bad. “Jessica, will you go to prom with me?!” I shouted at the top of my lungs.
That’s right. I came out as gay, dumped my shit boyfriend, and got the best revenge EVER all at the same time. And that year, Homecoming was a blast!