Ignorance Is Bliss

8 . Edwin

Weird, how you think you know someone inside and out, even though you've only known them for a little time. It felt like that constantly with Asa. Instead of knowing him for one and a half months, it felt more like several years. Which was bizarre, considering the fact that if I thought about it, I didn't know much about him. Sure, I knew the basic information I should know by now. But as I was sitting opposite him whilst he told me about his girlfriend, it was as if I was meeting an entirely different person. Okay, maybe I was overreacting.

Of course, it wasn't his current girlfriend. They had broken up last year. Thank God.

"She was really sweet. At first," he began."But things changed after we hit our one-month anniversary."

I made myself comfortable on his white couch, presuming that this would be a long story. I don't know why he was sitting on the other side of the room. He felt incredibly distant from me, even though he was only a few steps away.

"It was like she slowly started becoming someone else. She was still her, of course, but..." he shook his head. "I don't know, different."

"She started caring a bit too much about things I did. If it was hanging out with friends, going to the library or taking the bus, she had an opinion about everything. It drove her crazy to know that I was with someone other than her."

He pulled at a ring on his index finger.

Ah, I knew where this was heading. A classic.

"She hated all of my friends, even though I knew how hard they were trying to be nice to her. Weird, how everyone around you sees the big picture, but you're still stuck in your daydreams about having this perfect romance, that you don't even notice all these signs around you."

He exhaled slowly.

"Anyway, then it all hit me at one point. I broke up with her after that."

I sat upright, trying to figure out his facial expression.

"That's it?" I asked. "She didn't try to murder you or anything?"

He laughed, letting his head fall against the back of the couch.

"No, she didn't like me that much."

In the back of my mind, I imagined her coming years later, trying to sabotage our relationship. I hope that wasn't the case, but if it would happen, I wouldn't be surprised. I definitely read too many thriller books.

A burning question, which I wanted to ask for a while, finally came to mind.

"Where is she now?"

His mood shifted.

"I—" he broke off. "I don't know."

He moved his attention to the ring on his little finger, gently turning it between his index and thumb.

"I heard she moved away to a different town, but those were all rumours. Either way, I haven't seen her since the day I broke things off with her."

Well, that's a relief.

I picked at the skin beside my nails, letting his words sink in.

"I don't understand. Why are you telling me this?" I blurted out. Surprisingly I hadn't asked him about Chrissy, before this day. I was many things, but definitely not nosy. At least most of the time.

He swallowed, in two minds about whether he should tell me or not.

"Raven. She found out about Chrissy, from some yearbook last year. Apparently, she thought that I was cheating on you with her. She came to my house, accusing me of that."