Either Brett was never taught the skills essential to managing his emotions or he didn't care about using them. I don't know. Whatever it was, I knew that our constant arguing had alienated me from my friends and made us the Bobby and Whitney laughingstock of our dorm.
His drinking, which was always pretty heavy, had gotten worse. If you've never experienced them, 3:00 a.m. calls where someone yells at you for 45 minutes and then cries and tells you he'll kill himself if you ever leave are pretty wearing on the psyche. Even though I loved him, I recognized that he was deeply flawed
and I was never going to be able to fix what was wrong. He came over after a gig one night and I told him it was over.