PUBLISHED September 19, 2011

Friend Ex-es?

So I’m sitting in Saxby’s Coffee waiting for my roommate to get out of class so we can share our walk back home and I’m sipping espresso (because Europe ruined me and its the only way I can enjoy coffee anymore) when I hear “Hey, whats up Nomi?” And there sitting at the table next to me is my friends ex-significant other. They never achieved boyfriend-girlfriend status but you know, they were “talking.” Anyways, they had a pretty bad ending. He actually told her she didn’t capture his interest enough and he felt like all the time he had spent with and invested in her was a waste…to her face. Harsh. So what does that mean for me? Do I give him the total cold shoulder? Stick my tongue out? Pour my coffee down his shirt? Or am I given a free pass to be cordial? If we take on all of our friends ex-love affair burdens won’t we have to be on constant alert for people to snub?

What if I had a friendship with this person and he fucked over my friend? Obviously as girls we pay allegiance to our girlfriends, but does that mean we have to act like bitches to the idiots who hurt them? Some of us nice girls don’t have that much mean-ness to spread around to all the douches that have done wrong to our girls. But in these instances of campus run-ins, whats the etiquette?

My best friends are still conversational with my ex. In fact, they never treated him like the shit he deserved to be treated like and it made me feel really alone in hating him so much.

For the record, I gave a lazy but polite hello back and that was the extent of the interaction. To break the very apparent awkwardness I made sure to say bye, but I sure hope ex-es better don’t make a habit of crossing my path.

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