The worst betrayal involved a stray dog named Scout that I found behind a gas station when I was sixteen. He was a gentle, watchful animal who followed me home and slept with his nose against my bedroom door every night. Tyler hated that the dog loved me, so he faked a scratch on his arm and told our parents that Scout had attacked him.
The next day, I came home from school and found Scout’s bowls were gone and the house was silent. My father was in the garage, and when I asked where my dog was, he just said the animal was taken care of. Something hardened in me that day, a slow turning of water into ice that eventually led me to the Army.
The military gave me rules and a world where effort actually counted for something, which was where I eventually met Terrence. He was helping build wheelchair ramps for a charity in Austin and made me laugh before he ever even tried to flirt with me. He loved me in practical ways, like filling up my gas tank or putting clean sheets on the bed.