The One That Got Away

Everybody was hanging out, eating pizza, taking turns playing Xbox in pairs. The conversation was about professors, classes, student loans, cars, apartments, and then movies and music. There was beer, and Mike must have had too much.

”I’m gonna call her,” he said finally, reaching for his phone.

”No, man,” his roommate Buck said, “Don’t do it."

"Who is he gonna call?” asked Lisa.

”Matilda. She’s his ex. A real nutjob. You don’t wanna do it, Mike.”

Buck took Mike’s phone away. Mike assumed a serious air. “She’s the one that got away.”

People laughed and patted his back, and then everybody started talking about their exes.

”How about you, Igor?” Buck asked the new kid in town, a Russian immigrant. Skinny and foreign, a strong accent. Igor was just finishing his turn at the game.

”Yes, I knew a girl like that."

"So what happened, tell us."

"I had just finished university. I broke up with this one girl who was a real bitch. I met this girl who was still in college, she was so sweet and innocent. She said she had still felt like a child until she met me. She was kind and loving. And beautiful. And intelligent. Or at least the kind of girl who knows when to shut up, so she comes off as intelligent."

"So what happened?” Jessica asked.

”She went away for a while. In the meantime I met another girl. I cheated on the dream girl. I broke up with her.”

There was a moment of silence, and the the game shouted in a mutated baby voice “Winner!” and Igor smiled the brightest smile ever.

Posted by: Paweł Kowaluk