💙 Salem The Burnout 🖤 on Nostr: So, when I was really young, I had a friend. He was my only friend. He was my best ...

So, when I was really young, I had a friend. He was my only friend. He was my best friend. And he was quite a bit older than me.

I could escape to his house when my parents were fighting, I could stay the night with him when I didn't want to be alone, and he would teach me baseball, skateboarding, show me Runescape, and all this other cool stuff!

He also really, really liked touching me.

When our parents weren't around, he'd touch me in places nobody was supposed to touch. I didn't understand it, but it made him happy, so I did what he wanted me to.

It would be years and years later before I recognized those advances as sexual. And I certainly don't think that I had the capacity to consent.

But also.. I wasn't mad. The more aware I became, the less mad I was. If I'd had been taught the concepts of sex or consent, I would have eagerly done both. You see, I loved him. And the only aspect of this entire story that makes it traumatic is not knowing whether or not he loved me too.

Now, he's beloved. He's grown up. He has a family, a wife, kids, animals. And I'm happy for him, but the deepest parts of me miss him desperately. I can't help but wonder, had he or I been taught sex, consent, and love by our deadbeat parents, would we have had a chance at love?

I.. get why parents want to shelter their kids and I know how hard conversations surrounding those topics can be, but.. honestly.. not knowing what was going on while this was happening was far more destructive than the conversation concerning it would have been.

Kids, especially kids, have a right to know. And no arbitrary age where parents think they're mature enough to handle things is satisfactory. If you want your child happy and healthy, I strongly suggest making them aware of these things sooner rather than later and helping to guide their development so they don't have to live with the regret that he and I both do when there was a very real, very tangible chance at love.