🎙️ Update:
I didn’t expect my first post to get such a huge response—thank you to everyone who weighed in. Here’s the update on what’s happened since.
Last night, I worked on New Year’s Eve while my boyfriend had the night off. He planned to get Christmas photos taken with his best friend, but when they discovered the store was closed, they ended up hanging out at her place. Before I left for work, he looked me in the eye and promised he wouldn’t drink. But when I called him after my shift, he was drunk. Apparently, his best friend convinced him to do shots.
This wasn’t the first time he’d gotten drunk at her place and stayed overnight without telling me, so I wasn’t sure if he planned to come home. I was upset, and he could tell, so he asked me to pick him up. That would’ve meant an hour of driving after an extra-long shift, and I was exhausted. Thankfully, someone else gave him a ride home.
When I got home, I called a friend to talk things through. My friend agreed that the sweater situation was strange, and while I was on the phone, my boyfriend called me five times. When I finally called him back, he was crying, a complete mess, and I could barely understand him. Worried, I went to check on him. I’ve had severe panic attacks before, so I didn’t want to leave him alone.
He was in the middle of a mental health episode, spiraling into self-hate and lamenting that he wasn’t living up to his potential. I let him stay the night at my place because I was concerned, but soon after we got there, he threw his empty vape across the room, pounded his fists on the couch, and started yelling about a video game. I’d never seen him act like this, and it deeply concerned me. Thankfully, he passed out almost immediately after the outburst.
The next morning, he admitted he wasn’t sure what was wrong with him but said his mental health had been bad lately. Last week, we had a terrible fight while drunk, with yelling and crying, but we talked it through. I planned to talk things through again when we woke up, but after his outburst, I wanted him to leave. When I brought it up, he started crying, and I felt torn.
He spent most of the day sick in the bathroom, claiming he only had two shots. I’m not sure if he was lying or if he just caught a stomach bug at the worst time. While he was in the bathroom, his phone kept ringing. After the third call, I checked and saw it was from someone saved as “💚1/2 gf 💚.” That was the final straw.
The moment he came out, I told him he was leaving, that he was single, and I was ordering him a Lyft.
You were all right—the “half girlfriend” thing was the biggest red flag. The sweater situation was weird, but this cut much deeper. When I first noticed the name, it hurt, and we discussed it. He promised to change it, saying it was just a joke. But when I confronted him again, he admitted she’d asked him to change it back, so he did. I told him that he had chosen her over me.
For context: He used to live with her and her ex. Her ex was apparently so awful that, by comparison, my boyfriend treated her better. She started calling him her “half boyfriend,” and he’d even asked her out once, but she rejected him, saying they were better as friends. He agreed, claiming he didn’t want to date her. Clearly, though, she has no respect for me or our relationship, and I can’t trust him when he’s around her.
So, he’s no longer my boyfriend.
I’m a mess right now—exhausted from not sleeping and emotionally drained from dealing with all of this. It’s made even harder because we work together, but my coworkers have been incredibly supportive. I’m confident I made the right choice by breaking up.
Here’s to starting 2025 single and prioritizing myself.