Error in Creation

"He's a little bit of an asshole, but he's not a bad guy."

I don't really know what to say. I'm shocked. I'm confused. All I can manage is, "really?"

"Yeah. You're never gonna find anyone better than him."

The words are meant to be reassuring, from my mom, who knows me best in the world. But they've just made me more confused. Mom, you know me. You know I'm gay too. And who did she mean? I've never dated anyone before. Not even once. The only person I've ever been with, physically, is...

I look at the picture she puts down on the table in front of me and feel my stomach drop out from beneath me.

* * * * * *

I met him last year while visiting my parents for winter break. We went ice skating at the local park by their house one evening and we both had a blast that night. He was funny and cute, and he seemed like a genuinely nice guy. After that night, however, it seemed that he had disappeared off the face of the earth. I thought about him a lot after that day, but something told me that he wouldn't remember me when we saw each other again anyway.

* * * * * *

It's been four months since then - the beginning of fall quarter - and I have just gotten back home for Thanksgiving break and am laying around watching TV after an exhausting drive home from Kansas City. It's almost eleven o'clock at night when there's suddenly a knock on my apartment door across town in Columbia, Missouri and it sends shivers down my spine as I wonder if it might be him again, if our second chance encounter is finally happening again after all this time apart between our two schools...

But when I open the door to see him standing there instead with a nervous smile plastered across his face holding a small plastic shopping bag, my heart sinks in disappointment until he speaks up: "Hey! It's been forever! How have you been?"