The Erin Story: Part 3
Continued from Part 1 and Part 2.
Austin and I were going to a KCCO party the next night with his friend Jerry who was in town for a few days.
Jerry was staying in the extra bedroom at Austin's apartment so Austin and I shared his room.We took an Uber downtown. Austin told me Erin was going to some concert downtown and, again, I expressed my weirdness around her and that I wanted to spend time with him, that I didn’t want to see her nor did I want to meet up with her. The party turned out to be a bar crawl. It was a good time, some guy had a Stormtrooper Helmet that we were all wearing and taking selfies with. I was having a lot of fun with Austin for the first time on this trip. Fast forward to the last bar of the night: I was decently drunk but not so bad I would be sick. I was dancing with Austin, with random people from our group. He was dancing with some random drunk military girl. I was dancing with the random drunk military girl. Still he and I we were leaning on each other, buying each other drinks, kissing.Then, I went to the bathroom. I came back out, started dancing with random people, turned around to get his attention, and what do I see when I turn around?Yup, Erin. And she was climbing all over him. I internally screamed, externally cried, and my heart figuratively shattered all at the same time. I went over to Jerry and asked him if Austin was really doing this? “Is he really this dense to not see how much I like him, how much I love him, even, and how much I wanted to be out with just him tonight?” He agreed with me and I believe he tried to apologize for him.
I internally screamed, externally cried, and my heart figuratively shattered all at the same time.
Austin said he had to give Erin a ride to the airport the next day to go back to her country or something about her kid who was still not in the U.S. I knew that was happening in the morning and I was ok with it. I would likely be sleeping in so I really didn't care. I wouldn’t have to see her. ComicCon was the next morning so as long as we made it, (my first time going to one of this size) I wasn't concerned. I was still mad about what just happened at the bar. I ran into the bathroom and just cried. I didn't have any other way to express my emotions. I was “that drunk girl” crying in the bathroom. Damn. I did that. I pulled my shit together and approached him. I asked him what he was doing and why he invited her when I asked him not too, but I really do not remember that part. I do remember demanding his extra key to his apartment and telling him I was leaving. I took a cab back to his place. Jerry came back a few hours later. Austin never did. I had no idea where he was. I had no clue if he was dead or just ignoring me. He and I just had a conversation about shitty things people do in relationships. One of the shitty things was use a dead cell phone as an excuse to not contact someone about not coming back home on time/at all. He told me it was COMPLETELY unacceptable since nearly everyone has a cell phone to borrow and many people have extra chargers/battery packs. He said that if he was in a relationship and he got ignored all night, it would be over first thing the next morning. No grey area; just a breakup. Well folks, you guessed it. He never told me where he was or when he would be home. I BLEW UP his phone with texts and desperate voicemails. I sat with Jerry and just cried because he also didn’t know where he was or where he was going. Apparently, he spent that night on Erin's couch. He told me they were no longer having sex and were only friends, completely platonic. Yes, that's what he said — I believed him then but still doubted him. Today I don't believe that for one second. There’s too much pain there, too much has been hidden for me to believe that he was honest with me about her.
He said that if he was in a relationship and he got ignored all night, it would be over first thing the next morning. No grey area; just a breakup.
He drove her to the airport and came to get me to go to ComicCon. We were silent in the truck for a very long time. We finally broke the silence and I told him how hurt I was. He told me I was ridiculous. I told him about what he had told me about the “shitty relationship things.” He told me he didn't contact me because I was upset and he telling me he was at Erin's would have made it worse. Yea, probably at the time, but I also wouldn't have been up all night crying, thinking something terrible might have happened to him. This was the beginning of the end. I didn't see it at first, but it was. Erin and Austin continued to be “just friends,” or so he said. “She has too much baggage for me to ever be in a relationship with her” and blah blah blah.