Jamie, the Loneliest Poly Nerd in the World

"See you later Jamie!"

I smile and wave off my friend Amy as she walked into the thin yet comforting arms of her boyfriend Jim. He says something and she punches his side lightly, and they laugh.

"Must've been a raunchy joke." I quietly said, the bittersweet sensation of watching my best friend be so romantically fufilled on the back of my mind.

I was jealous of them. It was only a little about Jim daring to date my only remaining friend from school, but it was more about how they had a healthy and happy relationship with just each other that ate away at me.

You see, I had dated before in middle and highschool. I had always had crushes on multiple people, but I figured that was normal. A lot of people liked more than one person at a time from what I gathered from my friends. But no matter what the relationships, what they were like, it always felt like I was missing something.

It was only after I dived into Tumbler that I realised that my 'wandering eye' was due to polyamorous instincts rather than me just being a horn dog.

Then, I made a fucking stupid mistake.

I thought I was in a fairly liberal area, so I decided to be open and honest about my new found insight.

I was derided, bullied, and couldnt make new friends let alone date. I lost a lot of friends and gained to many tormentors once the rumor mill was done with me. Only Amy remained after all of that, and I doubt she would have stayed if I hadnt been friends with her since Kindergarten.

In the end, me and Amy went to the same college for different degrees, far away from my hometown. I haven't made any new friends, and my only remaining friend's own happiness just made me wistful. I'm sure that later on I'll find people like me, but it will be a while before I'm comfortable enough to try to reconnect with others. I dont even dare walk into the LGBT area, since their problems are vastly larger than my own.

I just...

I murmer, "I just wish more people like me... that I was Normal."

The wind picked up, and I could sware I heard laughter everywhere and no where all at once. Soon, though, it was over and I warily walk back to my Dorm.

Little did I know, that that might've been the most significant in my, and everyone else's, life.

The day I started Becoming Normal.