Bring Brandon to lunch with Jamie

"If I let you join us, that's the end of it," I said sternly. "You'll leave us alone for good afterwards."

"If that's what you want," he replied noncommittally.

"Fine, let's go!" I said before I could change my mind. I couldn't believe I was about to do this.

Together we walked down the steps and met up with Jamie. On seeing Brandon, he reacted with outrage.

"What the fuck is this? You said you would stay away from this guy, and now you're meeting up at campus?"

"I thought perhaps you could meet with him to talk it out..." I said weakly, but to no avail. Spinning around, Jamie strode off in a huff. His feelings of betrayal had been written on his face. This had been a bad idea. I was about to race after him when Brandon held me back.

"Let him cool off, he'll come around."

I wasn't sure if I believed that, but Jamie was already gone.

"Now," Brandon smiled at me. "How about lunch?"

No way I could do that with Jamie mad at me. Shaking off his grip I set out to scour campus and finding my boyfriend. I found him sitting by the fountain, looking completely dejected. As I got closer I slowed down, suddenly uncertain of what to say or do. In the end I simply sat down next to him.

"I don't know if I can do this anymore Em," he whispered. "I love you, but I feel like I can't trust you anymore."

My heart was in my throat. I was unable to say a word.

"I'm sorry, but I think we should break up," he said.

My heart was breaking into a million pieces, and I had no-one to blame but myself. I could only nod weakly in agreement.

"Take care of yourself, okay?" was his last word to me.

Completely broken up over Jamie, I took a long time to recover. Jessica did her best to cheer me up. Brandon swooped in like a vulture of course, but I got rid of him with threats of calling the police. I had no time for him after he had helped break up my first relationship.

Many years later, happily married to someone else, I could only look back at this as a failed first love. The kind of messy breakup so many go through. A learning experience.