Page 54 of Open Water
"My cousin."
"Okay… what about him?"
"He was at Yale. Pre-law. Did everything the family wanted. And when he was twenty-three, he brought his boyfriend home for Thanksgiving."
I waited.
"Within hours he lost everything. Trust fund. Apartment. Car. Internship." Alex's voice was flat. "He's in Portland now. Works at a nonprofit. Nobody in my family has spoken to him in six years."
"Your family's fucked up."
I could see Alex shaking at that point. "I know. That's what I'm telling you. He basically said I was next."
He's telling the truth. No. He's going to leave you.
"I folded," Alex said.
"And now?"
"Now I'm telling you the truth. I don't know what I'd do without my family's support. And I know how that sounds—"
"It sounds like you're choosing them." Pressure started building behind my eyes, this was really happening.
"I'm telling you what I'm choosingbetween. It's not you versus money. It's you versus being erased by every person in my family."
The room was quiet. The vent clicking.
"That doesn't change the fact that you said okay."
"No."
"And it doesn't change the fact that we've been here before."
All I could think about was him asking me to leave the morning after the party. He was doing it again.
"Two months ago. You told me that you weren't going to shut the door again." I kept my voice steady. "And I told you — if you let me in and shut the door, I'm done. I won't come back."
"I remember."
"Do you? Because here I am. Listening to you explain why you agreed to break up with me."
"It's not—"
"It's exactly the same thing, Alex."
Silence. I just watched him as the gears turned in his head. But I couldn't wait for him to figure this out. I had to go, I had to be the one to leave. I couldn't make him choose me.
So I stood up and grabbed my jacket off the bed.
"Liam—"
"I can't do this." I was already moving. Jacket on. Three steps to the door then I turned to face him. "I told you on that bridge what would happen and you did it anyway. You agreed to ending us and I'm supposed to understand? Because your family's scary?"
"Liam, wait—"
"Everyone's family is scary. Mine left. At least yours is fighting to keep you."
I turned to the door and grabbed the knob.
