The lesson I had to learn - 1 of 3

Here's a new one for you, gentle readers - a multi-parter. I'd written the lot up, intending to post it as one chunk, but at 2414 words, it would be a bit much I think, so I'll split it up into three parts, which fits the subject matter perfectly, as you'll see. Don't worry, this first part is only a couple of hundred words.

As I was driving in to the office this morning, Madonna’s ‘Power of Goodbye’ came on the radio. I’m not really a fan of Madonna, but one of the lyrics stuck in my head, “You were the lesson I had to learn.” It got me thinking about my ex-girlfriends, and I thought I would share them with you.

First up we have Jill. I think I was 20 when we hooked up. She was the youngest sister of a woman, Elaine, whom I worked with at the time, and we’d met at Elaine’s birthday party. We chatted for a while, but I didn’t really think we ‘clicked’ or that I’d made an impression. Turns out I was wrong, and on the Monday following, her sister-in-law asked me if I wanted to meet Jill again, I said yes and handed over my mobile phone number.

Jill was a year or two younger than I was, and fancied herself as a bit of a Goth. She was also pretty hot, and I had no idea why she was interested in me. I think the fact that I had my eyebrow pierced at the time made her think I was a bit of a rebel. She wasn’t really that bright, either. She was obsessed with Keanu Reeves, believed she was going to become a witch and start her own Coven and all manner of strange things. I really should have clocked that it wasn’t going to work out, but I was still struggling with the tail-end of the depression I’d been dealing with since my teens, so I wasn’t exactly au-fait with how to handle relationships – Jill was in fact the first ‘girlfriend’ I’d had, I had to pluck up the courage just to try and kiss her.

Things just kind of petered out, I suppose. We actually broke up, then got back together for a few weeks, then broke up ‘properly’. I can’t remember if it was me or her that broke it off, and I suppose it doesn’t matter now.