Miles
Miles was born on the exact same day that Nora was–December 31, 1974. His parents are Roy and Angela. His parents are nurses–Roy in the ER and Angela in Palliative Care. They moved down the street from Nora’s house when Miles was 8 and started going to the same school as Nora and I. Nora’s Mom was the only one who didn’t work outside the house, so she’d often babysit the three of us. To me, he was like the boy cousin I never had.
Miles had a pretty normal childhood. He liked skateboarding, playing video games, and New Wave. He got along with everyone at school because he was kind and funny. His parents put him in Takewondo when he was 12 and he ended up loving it. That same year, Nora suddenly decided she wanted Miles to be her boyfriend. She was going through quite a rough time (see her bio for more). Miles was attracted to her and thought it might keep Nora from making really big mistakes as she was acting out, so he agreed. Sadly, Nora treated Miles like crap a lot of the time–getting really overprotective because she was afraid that Miles would leave her one day and breaking up with him the next because some other guy asked her out. He’d always lie for her so Nora’s parents wouldn’t know about all of her other boyfriends. Thankfully, all the guys in school knew Miles was studying Taekwondo, so nothing terrible ever happened to Nora. Taekwondo also helped him deal with how Nora was treating him. In junior high, he was initially reluctant to start sparring and concentrated on forms, but in high school, sparring was a great way to combat the horrible way Nora was treating him. He developed a keen ability to read opponents and use adapt his blocking style accordingly.
As hard as this was on Miles, he never left Nora. Miles and focused a lot of our teenage years on Nora (again, see her bio), which is how we ended up best friends. I kept telling Miles that Nora’s behavior wasn’t acceptable, but he always forgave her. I told them both when we were 16 that one day Miles was going to know when he’d finally had enough and he’d leave. Nora laughed at me, and Miles shook his head.
When they finally broke up, each of them said they’d left the other. Miles told me that he broke up with her the morning of Prom. He went by her place and told her that they were going to have this one last night together, and then they were done for good. As payback, Nora ditched him for one of her exes that night. Miles and I ended up leaving early with my date and his sister with the mission to have breakfast as close to San Francisco as possible. We made it over the Golden Gate Bridge at sunrise. We had to turn around and go home afterward, but we decided to plot out a drive that would include rest stops and truck stops for snacks and a little rest. It was really good for Miles to have such a spontaneous adventure right after breaking up with Nora. We did another trip right after graduation, but this time it was just Miles and I, and we took a train out to see my Godparents for a week. We both had pot brownies for the first time and spent hours listening to David Bowie. Miles also started learning about the computers my Godmother has, and took a big enough interest in them that he decided to study computer science. She sent Miles home with some programming books so he could get an idea of what he needed to know.
That summer, we both got a job at an ice cream shop. We worked a lot together and went out a lot with our co-workers that summer. Miles planned on going to the same college and carpooling to the rail station to take the train to school.
When school came around, Miles was surprised to find that a few of the programming books he had been reading were also his textbooks. Aside from saving money, it also helped him with his homework. He turned out to have quite a talent for it. Miles stopped studying Taekwondo during our first year of college, right after he got his second degree black belt. He wanted to focus more on school to try to graduate in 4 years.
Miles and I met Shirley when we helped her move into the dorm at the beginning of college. It was obvious from the beginning that those two would end up together. Shirley had a boyfriend, Rael, but he was older and encouraged her to date other people her age. After college, Miles and Shirley dated long distance until she married Rael.
Shortly after starting to date Shirley, Miles and I began to realize that sure, we loved each other, but we also lusted after each other. We decided to see if adding intimacy to our friendship was going to work. To our delight, it did. We never stopped dating other people, though he primarily dated Shirley and I. Miles and I got an apartment with Shirley our second year of college. He also got along with Barrett when he started spending a lot of time at our place.
Miles graduated and is in what is now called IT. He cautiously moved to the Bay Area for a bit and enjoyed the Dot Com era before the bubble burst. Then, he moved back home and started his own business offering IT services to startups. Once he got their stuff up and running and the company was doing well, he’d help them hire his replacement. He kept his client load small to allow himself time to also teach Taekwondo.
After Graduation, Shirley got a job near Rael and moved. Miles and I lived together in a small guest house for many years.
Rael died in 2014. Miles took a year off from teaching and stopped taking in new clients to spend as much time with Shirley as possible. They picked up where they’d left off a dozen years earlier. In 2015, I inherited a house, and Miles and I moved out of the guest house.
A couple years ago, Miles leased a nice sized office suite and started a Taekwondo School with a small after school program. He also has an office where he spends the days working for his last few clients. He’s been quite successful.