Page 67 of You've Got a Place Here, Too
Course Overview
Through the close examination of actual case studies, students will learn time-tested strategies for bruising and/or breaking someone’s heart no matter how romantic seeming the situation / the scenario.
Case Study 1: How to bruise someone’s heart after they declare their love just after sunset outside of your dorm room building.
Six weeks later, the couple stands outside of Middle Residence Hall.
“I was never lucky before you,” he says.
“Me too,” she says, and tucks her head into the crook of his neck.
He trails his fingers across her shoulder blades and down her spine. She feels his chest rise as he inhales. The words come on the exhalation.
“I love you,” he says.
His words are unmistakable, but just low enough that she can pretend not to have heard them over the laughter of her fellow students streaming past.
“Good night to you too,” she says, pretending that’s what he said. She pulls out of his arms and avoids his eyes though she can feel them searching her face. A part of her wants him to say the words again because they are a joyto hear from him. A bigger part of her knows the only course of action is to go back to her dorm room, alone, and to hope that he never says the words again so that she doesn’t have to break his heart and, too, her own.
Case Study 2: How to break someone’s heart after they declare their love for you (for the second time!) in the dining hall just before you take a bite of chocolate cake.
The couple is having dinner in Café UVI, hands laced together, his thumb tracing circles on hers. There’s a break in their conversation. He tilts his head slightly. A nervous not-quite-a-smile settles at the corners of his lips.
“I love you,” he says.
This time there’s no pretending she didn’t hear or that she misheard. And because she’s panicking and filled with guilt over all the things she should’ve said before now, she responds in the most ridiculous way possible:
“No, you don’t.”
At first he smiles, thinking she’s joking. His smile fades as he realizes he has no idea what the joke could possiblybe.
“I—” he says.
But she stops him. “We’ve been spending a lot of time together and we have fun. We have a lot in common and we’re young and idealistic and have great physical chemistry so I can see how you could get confused, but this is not love.” She stops, inhales, starts again. “I mean, you’ll get over me by next semester and I’ll—”
He frowns and lets go of her hand. “What is happening right now?”
She doesn’t have an answer.
“Your response tometellingyouthat I love you is to tell me that I’m wrong about my own feelings?”
“It sounds absurd when you put it like that,” she says.
He digs his fingers into his temples. “Is there a way of putting it that wouldn’t sound absurd?”
“All I’m saying is that we should keep things casual. We’re having a good time. No need for us to—”
He holds a hand up to stop her from breaking his heart further. “You could’ve just said you don’t feel the same,” he says, voice low. He glances out of the huge picture window next to them. She gazes out too, trailing her eyes over the gentle slopes of the quad, the manicured lawn, and the paved concrete paths leading away from where they are.
When he looks back at her, his eyes are remote. “It sounds a lot like you’re saying you’re not really in this with me.”
She squeezes her eyes shut. If she could deny his conclusion, she would. But the truth is, there is no future for them.
“I thought we were just having fun,” she says.
He flinches as if her words are a slap. And then he’s up, dining tray in hand, tears welling behind his eyes. “I thought we were doing more than that,” he says, and then he’s gone.
Course Outcomes
