Pinpointing the Half-Boyfriend.

The best mother-given advice I've ever walked away with was: 

If a boy really likes you, he will do anything in his power to have you.

(Excluding... avoiding you)

That's it. There's no skirting around it. There are no excuses to be made. Plain and simple, if a boy wanted to be your boyfriend, he would. Thinking about it, all I do is make excuses for boys. "I know he really does like me, but he just cannot be in a relationship." It'll just take time, right? Wrong. A boy who wants to be with you knows right away that he wants to be with you. There's no maybe, or we'll see later. It's a do or die kind of thing. And on top of that, he does what it takes to achieve his goal. If that doesn't sound like your man, it's time to go out and find someone who thinks the idea of leaving you alone for five minutes is earth-ending.

A few girls that I know are stuck in what I like to call one-way romances. You want your relationship so badly that you're willing to put up with half-a-boyfriend. He's the guy who returns your calls when he feels like it, wants to hang out when the guys are busy, and calls every other shot... on his terms. So many of us get sucked into this half-relationship, and the truth of the matter is, it's completely pitiful.

We're the girls that love making excuses. 

We're the ones that walk on eggshells because we never know what they want or how they're going to react. We're the ones that beg the question: "How high?" when they beckon us to leap. So how do we remove ourselves from an attachment that's already long formed? Much like putty in their hands, it's impossible to just get up and walk away, but there are a few things you can do that will help you become a more independent person who is not so readily available at the press of a button.

You first start with your availability. Get together with your girlfriends. Scatter. Read a book. Take a nap. Do whatever it takes to remove yourself from his presence and his mind. Because, let's face it, the chase is just animalistic... we're all after it. The more scarce you make your presence, the more he'll think about you, and the more he thinks about you, the more he should attempt to make time for you. He should miss you. You are very missable.

He wants to get together because the guys are all with their girls? That reason should not be good enough. Make sure that's not his consistent reasoning for seeing you. After 11pm? Turn your phone off. Gross. There's only one thing he wants, and it's not the pleasure of your company.

Put yourself first. 

After all, you deserve it. 

No matter how amazing some moments the two of you shared, 

if that's not most of the time, he's not worth your time.