Editor’s note: The complete name, major and academic year of the author of this letter were withheld.

Editor:

I am writing in response to the Oct. 21 article in the advice column, “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Bros?”The article itself was funny (the sitcom pitch could actually work) and the advice was good, but I believe theright thing to do would be to break it off with the girl and not even let her brothers know that they were dating.

Whether they act like they don’t give a s*** or really are protective, big brothers are big brothers. They’re just not going to be down with the idea of their friend hooking up with their little sister. How would you feel if a friend of yours dated your little sister? What it comes down to is this:It’s just disrespectful and not cool at all. It’s kind of like that unspoken rule wherea sister shouldn’t date her sister’s ex-boyfriend.Face it, “Just Freaking Confused.”

There’s no way you can keep their friendships along with your courtship.

Are you kidding yourself? You’ve already kept a secret from them. Hello, damage has already been done.Don’t make it worse. Sometimes life sucks and you’ve got to make tough decisions, man. You may be thinking, “But what if she tells them that we were dating anyway?” But chances are, she won’t. It’s a “little sister” mentality-if she were to say anything, it would get her into trouble too, and I’m sure she doesn’t want that.

Save your friendships with her brothers right now while you can.It’ll suck to lie to them and break up with her, but it would be a lot less complicated than if they find you out. It’s your obligation as a friend to break it off. Friendships should always outweigh relationships, even in your case.

Am I speaking from experience? Yes. Am I bitter? Maybe. But do I think this is what you should do?

Hell, yeah.

Juli T.S.