
They just need to break up, situations like this will continue to happen again. Neither of them have the emotional maturity to continue on in a successful relationship. Especially the uke Tom. So many things progressed and went too far simply because he refused to open up to his partner, and refused to set boundaries and avoid a person he knew for a fact was trying to hurt them. Yeah sure rape is bad and I’m not going to say that he’s at fault for that act, BUT there were many red flags and ample opportunity for boundaries to be set against that guy WAAAY before things got anywhere near that point, and every single one of those opportunities were actively dodged via excuse or justification. Even using “I just want to see his cat” as a justification at one point. In truth, both of these dudes should have cut off contact with the toxic neighbor after the first few bouts of pettiness/interference. But for some reason blaming each other was easier. Everyone failed here, just in varying degrees. Some more than others. Nevertheless, this was a very painful and frustrating read.
Being jealous of someone you love is tough, man. You want to be happy for them and support their wins, but at the same time all you can focus on is how much YOU haven’t accomplished yet. Being around them becomes more painful than enjoyable, and you also become afraid that your pessimism will rub off on them/ ruin the relationship, so you start to distance yourself. Sucks big time.