If Someone Cares About You, They Tell You The Truth

For the privacy purpose of the girl involved, names and details in this story are going to be changed.

In 2017, I started my first year at Sacramento State.

I met this girl named Ashley.

We had known each other since Fall 2017, but finally had a class together in Spring 2018.

From the time I had known her, she had been dating this one guy, and to my knowledge, it was pretty serious, and they had been dating for at least three years.

Before class, one day after the weekend, we were standing in the hallway. She was so happy and giddy. She was glowing, and I had never seen her in such a jovial mood.

I asked her how her weekend was, and without hesitation, she took her left hand and flashed it in my face with the biggest smile I had ever seen her wear.

"Jacob proposed to me Friday night! We get married July 1 of this year."

This was great news to me as I'm a big fan of marriage.

I asked her how he did it and what the plans were for the venue and honeymoon. I even asked her about how many kids they were going to have.

Her mouth was traveling at the speed of light. And it was beautiful to see.

But I then realized something: I had no clue what this guy looked like.

"Ashley, I just realized, I've never seen Jacob."

She whipped her phone out and showed me the picture she had set as her lock screen.

My heart dropped into my feet.

Jacob was clearly gay. And he was a bottom.

There was absolutely no question about it. It was so blatantly obvious.

I'll leave it at that.

I kept the smile on my face and just nodded.

Class was starting, so we had to go inside.

We didn't sit near each other in class, so I told her we would talk after class some more.

Usually in that class, I was an active participant and would engage with class discussions.

But today, I couldn't muster a single word.

All I could think about was how to tell her the truth about her fiancé.

I couldn't believe no one in her social circle or family had told her the truth.

I also was wondering whether it was even my place to say something. Ashley and I knew each other and were comfortable with each other, but I definitely wasn't a close friend or family member.

Deep down, I knew that she, just like all people, deserved to know the truth.

So after class, we walked outside to a different area of campus, and I steered us to a more secluded area so we could have some privacy.

"Ashley, there is something I need to tell you and you won't like what I'm about to say."

She looked at me with hesitation, but nodded.

"Ashley. Your fiance is gay. He's just not out of the closet yet."

As soon as the word "gay" left my lips, she looked at me as if I had just slapped her in the face.

"Solomon, you can go fuck yourself!"

With that, she stormed off. I watched her stomp away.

For the next 14 months, I would see her from time to time around campus, but we never spoke.

Then one day, as I was at the campus eatery, I felt a very light tap on my shoulder.

It was Ashley. She looked different, but I knew that it was her.

"Hi Solomon."

Still in disbelief that she was speaking to me, I turned all the way around.

"Hey Ashley. What's going on?"

I could see her searching for words, but her mouth refused to work.

"Can I buy you lunch and we talk?"

"Yes, I'd like us to talk, but I'm paying for both of us."

I opened my mouth to protest, but she nipped it in the bud.

"Solomon, I'm paying. End of story."

I decided to let her and we went to go sit at a booth after getting our food.

Long story short, she got married about 8 months after our last interaction. Within a couple months of the marriage, she walked into her bedroom one day after coming home from work to see her husband on all fours, "receiving" his best man from behind.

He moved out. They divorced.

But what bothered her the most from this disaster was her own "friends", after hearing the news about what happened, told her they weren't surprised by this turn of events. Her parents even knew.

They all had a rendition of the excuse of "Well, I didn't want to hurt your feelings".

The closest people in her life knew the man she was going to marry was a homosexual, but didn't want to tell her the truth to save her feelings.

They would have preferred that she lived in a delusion rather than reality.

Not only had she lost her husband, but she had finally learned no one in her life actually cared about her enough to tell her the truth. She had nobody. On top of all this, she had been publicly humiliated.

She finished her story with tears in her eyes and a heart broken beyond repair.

"Solomon, you have every right to laugh at me and scream at me. I totally deserve it. You told me the truth, and I screamed in your face. You were right. I was wrong. I'm such a dumbass."

She bowed her head in shame and emptiness. I stood up out of the booth, grabbed her by her hands, pulled her close to me, and hugged her as tight as I could. I just held her as she wept against my chest.

To the reader, you need to tell those you care about and love the truth. I'm not saying it's easy. I'm not saying it's fun all the time.

However, the true marker of a friend is someone who tells you the truth even when you don't want to hear it.