Oh, dear readers, buckle up because have I stumbled upon a juicy Reddit morsel that’s got more layers than your grandma’s lasagna – and just as likely to cause heartburn. This is a real story from a real person, mind you, which practically begged me to dive into the delicious drama, so let’s dissect, shall we?
Picture this: two childhood friends, let’s call them Caleb and our storyteller (who shall remain namelessly fabulous), briefly dated in their hormone-fueled teenage years. Fast forward to adulthood, they’ve managed to salvage a friendship out of the hormonal wreckage, sharing a bond forged through shared history and mutual family connections. Enter stage left: Gretchen, Caleb’s current girlfriend, whose obsession with their tepid teenage love tale could give any soap opera a run for its money.
It seems Gretchen can’t interact with our protagonist without dredging up the past. Favorite holiday destinations? “Did you guys go there while you were together?” Hometown haunts?
Original story
My family friend “Caleb” and I made the mistake of dating when we were younger (16-18 on and off). It was a disaster of a “relationship” that was just a lot of hormones and hurt feelings. It took us a long time afterwards to get to a place where we were friends again and meetings between our families wasn’t awkward anymore. But we’re there now. I consider him a good friend, not a super close one in the sense we don’t really hang out much because we’re busy and don’t live near each other but I’ve known him my whole life, there will always be a bond there.
Caleb’s gf “Gretchen” is obsessed with the fact that we used to date. And I don’t say obsessed lightly, it’s the only thing she will reference when we are in the same room. She will bring it up when it has no relevance to the conversation. We (the whole group) will be talking about our favourite holiday destination and she will be like “oh did you guys ever go on holiday there while you were together?”. What does it matter? Or if we are in our home town she will be like “is this where you guys would come on dates?”. Just…why? She has even asked me incredibly weird things like whether we lost our virginity to each other. I’ve told Caleb this is beyond creepy and she needs to stop bringing up the past and he agrees, but also said it’s pretty normal that she would be curious about it (I don’t think this is normal).
This past weekend we (my family and Caleb’s family) all had dinner because it’s Caleb’s half sister’s birthday. Gretchen was there and at one point the little girl (she’s 8) said I was her favourite “cousin” and Gretchen said “well she could have been your sister if she hadn’t dumped your brother”. I just lost it. I said something to the effect of “why are you so obsessed with the fact that we had a fling nearly a decade ago? You’ve spent more time talking about this relationship that we spent in it, it’s pathetic. What actually is the problem Gretchen?”. Gretchen didn’t say anything, but I demanded she answer the question. Caleb told me to just leave and I said I will leave it when she does. Gretchen called me a bitch which pissed off Caleb’s mother and then everyone was bickering.
Everyone’s got different opinions on what I should have said, whether I should have said anything, timing, etc. but I’m on a character limit so I’ll just say it’s a pretty even split amongst several avenues. I just want to know if I was a dick for saying something instead of just putting up with her essentially picking at scar tissue.