You Can’t Always Afford to Be Nice
Especially in a world where people aren’t afraid to push your personal boundaries
Trigger Warning: Sexual coercive behavior is described in detail. Fearless community, please read with care.
He was nothing like his pictures. He was several inches shorter than his profile said he’d be and skinnier than he’d looked in most of his selfies. Had I been a little more self-assured, I would’ve drummed up an excuse to leave the moment he opened the door.
But I was eighteen, barely out of high school, and way too nice. He was twenty-four, studying for his master’s, and had no problem coming up with excuses.
He was from Tinder — I can’t remember how long we’d been talking for, only a couple of days. On the phone, he sounded like a sympathetic character: he was tired of having hookups, he was just looking for the right girl, he just wanted something real.
Then, he asked me over to his apartment to watch movies together. My teenage brain could decode the hidden message behind that suggestion.
Translation: we’ll get physical while a movie neither of us is watching blares in the background.
I wasn’t interested in a hookup, but it didn’t sound like the worst way I could spend a Sunday afternoon…
