My Ode to October

Recently I have been forced to endure some tests whose results changed my social life dramatically. These seemed to be all related but flowed more as a 'series of unfortunate events', if you will. These changes have improved my self worth and respect by a mile. Although it was quite an internal journey, it has sent me into a whirlwind of emotions that have ultimately had me come out on top.
These trials all started with a choice I had made that many find themselves at a crossroads with in fleeting relationships. Most predictably, I am talking about infedelity which I had ultimately made a choice to succumb to. A friend of mine had introduced me to a man she had been friends with through her then boy-toy over a pool date with the four of us in attendance. At this point my first impression of him was rather superficial and misled due to a pre-date talk i had with my friend. I was in a relationship at this point with a boy who was, accurately , 1 year and 9 months younger than me and by no intention of mine was this "date" I am speaking of, romantic in the slightest. It was her request that I attend this get together for the sake of me meeting the boy she had been involved with and his friend just happened to tag along to balance out the ratio. That day went about just fine with nothing to complain about whatsoever. We were all connected via Facebook a mere 3 hours later. This is where I started to really talk to Tom.
The first few weeks of us knowing each other consisted of late night chats over IM and text, nothing to be of any concern. My relationship situation seemed to be non-existent because of a recent change in distance between us, both physical and emotional. He had moved away (not by choice), and had since then slacked on even talking to me. The distance was only about an extra 20 minutes away but because of his age, he was on parental lock down. I am 17, and he was 15. Now, I know everyone says that's a little weird because we are in high school age but bear with me. We had both shared a passion for music and singing and that is what unfortunately began to consume him after his move. He began to change aspects of himself that worried me. His music, his style, and his religious views. This unfamiliar distance made me feel that we were not actually together,though he always swore we were meant to be it just didn't feel like that is where we were meant to be.
My friend Amber was the girl who introduced Tom and I. One of those days in July she got mad at me for some unknown reason and all of our other friends were busy, I decided to go hang out with Tom and expand my social life. That night turned out to create more of an expansion on the distance I now had with my actual boyfriend of the moment, Taylor. Tom and I got very closely intimate. I really liked him now that I actually got to see him in a neutral setting. We tried to cover it up and forget about it but Amber had made an assumption that I was hanging out with him and called her boy-toy Matt to gather details of the previous night. He neither proved or disproved the actual happenings so she just assumed that we had done something. She came over to my house and I tried to lie about it, which is something I almost never do. She had guessed it, and that was the beginning of her treating me like utter shit.
Somehow she got it in her head that it was okay to make me feel awful about it every time she got me alone, though it turned out that she had told our friend Bradley. We had had so many problems over this because she had never spoken to me in that tone before and i am always apt to stand up for myself. Amber and I went through a very dramatically rough time with each other and she had gotten one of the groups most influential guys in our group on her side. She gt caught up in the middle of a power struggle. I am with Tom now and Taylor still does not know about what led to us being together.
Amber and Bradley turned out to be hiding that the had many experiences of that same kind with each other since they were always together over the summer and intoxicated every day of that time. They have gotten so much shit from our peers and are now trying to focus the drama on me to get the attention off of their continuing affair with each other. They are much worse for this because they continued to have these occurances while Bradley had a girlfriend, whom everyone loves. These two expect me to be there for them during their uncanny "situation", when they were not there for me one bit through mine, meanwhile they are both treating me like shit and also each other. When I told them I would not support them the disrespect got more blatant. I have let go of them because Tom and my dad have made it very clear to me that they were only using me for anything they could get. The only thing that bothered me about this split was that our mutual friend Hayden was in the middle watching everything explode around him. He cannot think for himself and Amber got it in his head that i wanted him to choose between me and the other party. This was definitely not the case at all. But since he chose to believe what she says, he walked away with them. I was sad about this for maybe one night and it passed in a flash. I have been hearing from people that he wants to start talking to me again, but i am probably not going to let that happen. If i associate with him i am forced to be around Bradley and Amber, and i am getting the hell away from them. I have a new life now free of bullshit. At this point I believe that If i have less friends, I have less problems.