He implied that my girlfriends and I went out on the town to chase boys—and he therefore didn’t think I should go out with the girls. Insecurity = not very hot.
—Bill
Aftermath: I ditched his lame ass and I still never chase boys on girls’ nights.
I was at the store one day and happened to remember that my skateboarding boyfriend said he needed a new pair of shoelaces. So in an attempt to be a thoughtful girlfriend, I bought him a pair… but it was apparently the wrong kind. When I brought them over the next day, his only response was “If you can’t pay attention to the kind of shoelaces I wear, how can I expect you to understand my needs?”
—L.
Aftermath: We were together off and on for about 2 years, but it was high school so that’s pretty much an eternity.
He cried because his favorite band, System of a Down, broke up. He got angry at me, because I wasn’t being emotionally supportive.
—Cynthia
Aftermath: We broke up a week later, and he still holds a grudge…four years later.
I drove 140 miles to console her over getting a ‘B’ on a graduate school exam even though I was terribly ill. During the night she woke me to tell me my breathing was bothering her and could I go sleep on the couch?
—Andy
Aftermath: Four months later, she told me that she sat rocking in a chair and crying all afternoon because she felt all of her friends liked me more than her and she wanted to be the ‘star’ of the relationship.
