Aahana Swrup
After a long history of secretive one-night stands procured via dating apps, Leighton Murray gets her first taste of an actual romance in ‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’ after meeting Alicia. The Women’s Center volunteer overseer enters the aspiring sorority member’s life after the latter is forced to complete community hours at the center in light of a wild night of drinking. At first, the closeted lesbian is wary of spending her time with Alicia and other usually activism-prone individuals. Nonetheless, once she begins to get comfortable with shedding her expected role of “the popular girl,” her fondness for the center as well as her feelings for its leader become evident. Still, between Leighton’s own unresolved issues and the complications of young love, it becomes hard to say if a happily ever after is in the cards for the pair. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Alicia’s Reluctance to Go Back in the Closet Compels Her to Break Up With Leighton
When Leighton first arrives at Essex College, she is ready to play the role that is expected of her. She’s eyeing her mother’s old sorority house for application and is prepared to do whatever it takes to fit in. Meanwhile, she’s harboring a major secret regarding her sexuality. Although the secret perpetually weighs upon her, it’s easy enough to ignore when the college student’s love life is made up of one-off hookups. However, things get a bit more complicated when Alicia enters the picture. With her, Leighton begins to crave a genuine connection and relationship. Even so, as the two begin dating, the sorority aspirant stays in the closet, keeping their romance under wraps.
Initially, Alicia has no problem with their arrangement. Naturally, she understands the daunting nature of coming out and doesn’t want to push her girlfriend to make any life-changing decisions. Nonetheless, soon enough, the cost of dating someone in the closet began to catch up to her. While dating Leighton, there is an implicit expectation for Alicia to also keep secrets, sneak around, and essentially go back into a closet of sorts herself. The tipping point arrives during a weekend getaway when Leighton becomes too neurotic about her purse being in the background of one of Alicia’s Instagram photos. The incident cements the vastly different worlds that the two girls exist in, compelling Alicia to pump the brakes on their romance before things get out of hand.
Leighton’s Disastrous Relationship With Tatum Takes Her Back to Alicia
In season 2, as Leighton and her roommates return to campus after Thanksgiving, the math student decides to come out of the closet for her own sake. Once she’s no longer required to sneak around to keep her secret, the freshman becomes much more open and liberal with her womanizing tendencies. Rather than pursuing another serious relationship, she delves into a series of no-strings-attached hookups. However, it’s only a matter of time before this phase of her life blows over. Afterward, Leighton develops a crush on Tatum, another highly sophisticated, mean blonde, who is more or less her own doppleganger.
After some trial and error, Leighton and Tatum begin dating. Simultaneously, her tryouts for the Kappa sorority also begin to take hold. Around the same time, Alicia reaches out to her ex-girlfriend with the hopes of catching up again, now that enough time has passed since their breakup. This leads to the enmeshing of Leighton’s two worlds as she finds herself attending a Women’s Center fundraiser with her new girlfriend. However, at this event, Leighton begins to realize that Tatum embodies all the old parts of herself that she’d like to shed. Tatum is judgmental, callous, and unempathetic in ways that Leighton used to be before the Women’s Center and her oddball roommates helped her change for the better. For the same reason, she ends up breaking up with her girlfriend.
Shortly afterward, Leighton also realizes that she no longer fits in with the other superficial and status-obsessed girls at the Kappa sorority. As such, she decides to withdraw from the race and asks her mother to move her donation from the sorority house to the Women’s Center. In doing so, she ends up saving the place. These small actions showcase the ways in which Leighton has grown and has started to care for her community. Alicia takes notice of the same and can’t help but fall back into her magnetic orbit. The pair’s previous breakup was purely a result of their unfavorable circumstances. However, now that things have changed, they have an actual fighting chance that both are ready to take. In the end, Leighton and Alicia decide to give their romance another chance and begin dating again.
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