I started dating a friend and five minutes into our first date, he looked at me and asked, “So… we gonna make out now or what?” He also invited himself to spend the night at my place that same night. I told him that I’d rather he didn’t, as I had to get up early for work, but he insisted. When I got blankets and a pillow from the closet for him, he rolled his eyes and said, quite peevishly, “So I guess I’m sleeping on the couch, then?”

—Jenna

Aftermath: I broke up with him a week later. He still tells people that when I “figure out what I want,” we’ll be together. It’s been almost four years since that first date.

15

One day, casually sitting next to me on the couch, he looks over and says, “You know, you’d be perfect…with green eyes.”

—Lucy

Aftermath: We stayed together a year and a half, to two years. The comment was made pretty early on, but it stuck with me through the end. Crazy as it sounds, my eye color should not be that important to him.

6

We broke up when he told me I “tasted like aspirin when we kissed.”

—Cassie

Aftermath: It was our sophomore year in high school. I should have known he was a jerk when he broke up with his girlfriend for me.

4

I met this guy while drunk, kissed him and made plans to meet him the next day. When I saw him the next day, he was wearing Oakley sunglasses with bright orange lenses and jeans that were too short and too tight.

—Inez

Aftermath: He left town right after we met again. Though I told him I would look him up again, we only exchanged awkward instant messages afterward.

4

On a trip out of town without him, I went to the best restaurant of my entire life. I wanted to share the experience with him, so I bought plane tickets to fly two hours to the restaurant, eat and come home that night as a cool date. He said he couldn’t because he needed to golf.

—QPJ

Aftermath: Still working on the best way to break up…we have a dog.

10