Link can never let go of events that had happened years before. He can't get over how his parents weren't adult enough to work out their issues to save their marriage, and Link had to deal with living with his mother in one home in one town while his father was living in another home somewhere in another town.
He can't get over how all of this bullshit had to happen a second time with his mother's second marriage, and again the two of them had to move. Again they had to start on a blank page of a whole new novel. Link had convinced himself as a child that he was never going to have a father figure in his life. He only had memories of his mother and step-father being happy one day, looking so in love as they would smile and laugh and display their affection. When tomorrow came, Link's mother and her beau would be at each other's throats, constantly arguing up a storm about how they were now unhappy in the relationship and wanted out. There was a repetition of the threat of filing for divorce, until papers were finally signed and it was back to just Link and his mom.
Then there was Rhett James McLaughlin. Link had met Rhett the first day of first grade, and already he was causing trouble when he took a red Crayola marker and wrote obscene graffiti on his desk. Maybe it was because he was feeling mischievous and, well, like a boy to make trouble for himself. Or maybe it was because he was looking to letting out his frustration on being a single child with a single mother while the rest of his class had siblings and two parents, all living together in one home.
Little did he know that by a strange coincidence, Rhett was doing the same thing desks away from Link's. The two boys had to be kept in from recess as a punishment, and since their teacher figured that they were trying to be creative, she gave each of them a paper of a mythical creature to color in. Not really much discipline there, but at the time both boys were feeling distraught as they were missing their first recess at their new school and were forced to color in what they thought were girly pictures of fairies and mermaids.
The next thing that happened changed everything, as the empty room was full of solitude and both were in need of social interaction since they couldn't run around outside and be with other children - good children. Link and Rhett introduced themselves, wallowed in their boredom together, and that was when it all started.
They ended up becoming inseparable since that very day, and stayed best friends through elementary, middle school, and high school. As Rhett and Link got older, they got closer. So close that Link felt differently when he was around Rhett. Instead of seeing him as just his buddy since childhood, Link saw Rhett as more of a romantic interest day by day. Funny how Link's seen Rhett's dazzling smile and the rest of his physical features for the longest time, but now as a teenager it was as if he's seen Rhett in person for the first time. When he'd crack a grin or laugh up a storm, Link would feel his stomach flutter like wings of a ladybug. When Rhett would come into contact with Link, like pat him on the shoulder for encouragement or to congratulate him for accomplishing something, or give him a tight embrace followed by a brotherly slap on the back, Link could've sworn his heart would expand to the size of Texas and California combined every time.
Rhett has been Link's first and everlasting crush through high school, college, and through the next stages of evolving into actual men. Link's tried to tell himself to stop this nonsense and move on to being attracted to other people, which would've been all female. He didn't even want to question if he was actually gay. He didn't want to think about homosexuality. He was a devoted Christian, and he was destined to have relations with a female, not a male. Not his best friend.
Link had eventually found a woman at last, her name being Christy, and what a lovely thing she was too. To him, Christy seemed like a knockout even when he first laid eyes on her. They began to date, then got very serious, and it felt like years soared by until Link had made her his wife. He figured that since he was now married himself, he wasn't going to let him and Christy become what had happened to his mother, father, and even his ex-stepfather. He had this gorgeous woman, and he wasn't going to fuck everything up.
Then it occurred to Link on why he was determined to not lose her. He still couldn't let go of his mom's failed marriages, and it was like he made some sort of vow to himself sometime in his life to never become a divorcee like her. He just couldn't let go of that.
He still can't even let go of his extreme interest for Rhett, even while Christy is in his life. He's told himself countless of times that he must forget this burning desire for his best friend because he's married, and Christy and him were expecting their first child together. Rhett had even found himself a girl name Jessie, and they had gotten themselves wedded. Even Link agreed that Jessie was a beautiful woman for Rhett, but he knew that he was never going to be equal to her in his life. Link even said that he was so happy for Rhett finding somebody to be happy with, like Link was happy with Christy, but he knew that he would never really mean every word.
Link were the stars, but Jessie was the moon. Link was the bird, but Jessie was the song. Link was the rose, but Jessie was the garden. He isn't her, and this reality would crash down on him like heavy tides, taking Link in and spitting him out again and again. He could never compare to her. He could never compete with her. He had to accept this.
Link can never let go of the past, no matter how much he would convince himself to move on. He just can't let go of his mother and father's failed marriage. He just can't let go of his mother's second failed marriage. He just can't let go of Rhett McLaughlin.
He just can't let go of it all.