Pittsburgh Boy
We met through College Roomie, who I was visiting in Pittsburgh. You can read about that here, here, and here. Dated, broke up. The usual.

PK/Peter
An old fling that used to be referred to on a nearly-daily basis. Nowadays…not so much.
“I didn’t know what hate felt like, not the hate that comes after love. It’s huge and desperate and it longs to be proved wrong. And every day it’s proved right it grows a litte more monstrous. If the love was passion, the hate will be obsession. A need to see the once-loved weak and cowed beneath pity. Disgust is close and dignity is far away. The hate is not only for the once-loved, it’s for yourself too; how could you have ever loved this?”
Jeannette Winterson, The Passion

College Roomie
We roomed together our freshman year of college and HATED each other. While living together we dated best friends, which was the source of the majority of our arguments. Our relationship, despite or perhaps because of the bickering, was sisterly: I’d try on dozens of outfits every morning, she’d yell that the first one was fine. I went out partying and called her boring, she called me a slut. After she finally broke up with that boyfriend we found our ground again- we could never live together again but have become steadily closer over the 300 miles between us.

TBFC
From college, we didn’t meet until the very last semester of our senior years. We bonded quickly over late nights in my apartment, pretending to study but really cooking and watching movies. After months of what I’d like to call verbal foreplay, we finally hooked up this past fall. He’s completely my kind of guy, but I always manage to ruin it with him when things start to get serious.
“I already recognized, even then, the sadness of another person lying on top of you. They will leave (wht’s someone going to do, just lie there forever?) and that’s the sad part. You can always feel imminent loss.”
-Curtis Sittenfeld, Prep

The New Guy
I met him while working at the cafe in the city and he asked me out. The dates were fun, he was sweet, but something was lacking. We still catch the occasional movie and have the occasional makeout, but it does not have the potential for an actual relationship.

The Fiance
One of those relationships that goes too fast too quickly. It starts furiously and passionately, and without realization you are picking out apartments together. It was unhealthy- I stopped talked to many of my friends during the course of it, he was picking out what I could and couldn’t wear- and yet I stayed with him because I loved him. When I found out that he was seeing another girl, news that he relayed to me on the day of my close friend’s funeral, I broke down. Because what else can you do?

 

Brian/Briface
We actually disliked each other when we first met, but ended up becoming close friends through high school founded on Chinese food and kung fu movies. We tried to date once, and though it didn’t work we are still incredibly close.

Ian
Typical should-have-been-a-frat-boy, Ian was the quiet kid in high school. He then did the typical go-crazy-in-college. He’s my guy’s guy, the one I talk sex with, the one I can kid around with. His blog is one of my all-time favorites and often makes me feel very, very dumb.

FaveDave
Probaby one of the smartest people I know, Dave was an engineering major now living in Germany. We spent many, many nights out drinking and returning to his apartment so that I could argue with his roomate. He’s also probably the best source of advice of anyone I know. Instead of the “oh my god, how are you feeling?” he gives me the brutal “figure out what you want, get it, don’t cry a tear while doing it.”

Habibi
We dated early on after meeting each other, a relationship that went back and forth between steaming hot and chilling. We broke up for reasons I didn’t understand at the time. It turned out that he had his own issues to work out, but we still are close. He is a self-proclaimed flake, making plans with our group of friends but then disappearing for a day.

Brizzle
Brizz was one of my closest friends through college. We met in a creative writing class in the fall of our first year, me the obnoxiously loud girl trying to make everyone laugh, her the shy, quiet type. She’s from Colorado, but sometimes I think she’s found more of a home here. We had a huge fight in our senior year, mostly because I am a terrible, terrible friend and dated the guy she liked. We’ve since made up, but the cross-country bit is hard.