Completely Confused

[mutiny]

I'll try to keep this as brief as possible, but the whole situation is kind of complicated. I've been with my boyfriend for 9 months now. I recently got back from a month-long study abroad trip to Europe and in a few days I'll be going on a week-long family trip. I knew all this traveling would be hard on my relationship, but it didn't go about the way I expected. While I was gone, I missed my boyfriend like crazy and we talked online and stuff all the time, I thought about him constantly. When I first got back, everything was great because I was so excited to see him. I don't really know what's gone wrong. I've been really short with him and lost a lot of patience as soon as the excitement died down. I haven't been able to just be happy and have a good time with him like usual. Granted, there are some pretty clear reasons for part of it. He walked away from his job while I was gone and is only just now starting a new one this week. The state of the apartment is still an absolute disaster. He's had friends over playing Call of Duty pretty much every day since I've been back. He hasn't been ignoring me by any means, but it would have been nice to spend some real time together without people coming over to play video games or get him to help them with things, ya know?

 

We haven't been very intimate either. And on my birthday we didn't do anything and I ended up having to take him to the hospital because of some kind of spider bite on his arm. I mean, I'll admit, I've been kind mean. I just haven't been willing to put up with anything at all or let things go. It's only been under a couple of weeks though. We've had a couple of long talks about it and about our relationship, and I still don't know what to think. He blames the trip for my short temper with him, but I don't know. Maybe he's right. Maybe I just need to readjust to reality. I'm not unhappy with him at all. I am completely in love with him and believe we can work it all out pretty quickly. I know he feels the same way and wants everything to work out. The thing is, he's a little bit older than me and thinks that because of my age, I'll just end up leaving him or we'll break up if we don't work through this soon. It makes me kind of wonder if he wants me to break up with him or something, but I know thats not true.

 

I don't know. I'm sure everything will be fine, I don't know what kind of advice I'm looking for. I've heard a lot of stories about relationships ending because of study abroad trips. But I know we'll be ok if he can just stop worrying and talking as if we might not work out unless we can fix this right away. Ugh. I guess I just need to not let things get to me as much and not get so angry, that's been my main problem. Has anyone gone through anything like this?