Jenny - The Girl I Met on The Internet
There are no funnies in this story, just a tale of a love lost and a head full of ‘what-if?’ The following account is true and I hope you’ll bear with me because I feel I’m about to bare my soul....

By a bizarre chain of events I ended up in touch with some people who were following/supporting/street-teaming for Crispian Mills at the start of his solo career after splitting up Kula Shaker and onwards to when he formed ‘The Jeevas’ in 2002. Along the way I met a whole bunch of people via the internet – fans who were passionate about music in general and some industry bods who weren’t actually as nasty as you’d think.

Within this circle, I became very friendly with some people who were living (and studying) quite close to where I was living and eventually we all met up for our first night out. From then, things snowballed and we began to meet up more frequently, spending weekends away at gigs and having some of the best times of my life.

I was married at the time, though due to various issues we began to grow apart – I wanted more from life than just 9 to 5, a mortgage and eating curry in front of whatever drivel was on the TV on a Saturday night. My wife seemed happy with this and couldn’t understand my need to be more than I was. By February 2004 this came to a head and we split. Immediately, my new ‘music family’ rallied around and the nights out, gatherings and gigs became more intense. I remember feeling distinctly hedonistic within my new-found freedom. For the first time in years, I felt alive; I could achieve anything.

Within my little circle, there was Jenny. She was a student at Sheffield University, originally from Hertfordshire. I’d describe her as being a well educated, tall brunette with curves and boobs to die for. We shared the same taste in music, we had the same vision, and we knew what we wanted out of life.

About three months after I became single, I committed the cardinal sin (never sleep with a female friend) and the next morning, I awoke next to Jenny. The next couple years were a rollercoaster ride of emotions with her – we were on and off as a couple (we split 3-4 times, each of us dumping the other) and it became an ongoing meme within our little circle of how long we’d stay apart before we got back together again. But that was just the thing – no matter where we ended up or who we were with, there was an invisible force that pulled us back together. I couldn’t help myself, even when I was dating other people I couldn’t get Jenny out of my head. She was everything to me and no one could even come close to her.

In April 2006 we got back together for what would be the last time. Later that year I started university as a mature student after quitting my job. I met another circle of people who would guide me through the next three years and we became a band of brothers who I’m lucky enough to still see now. I wanted Jenny to be accepted by this group and immediately they took to her (she was impossible not to like – so warm and personable, even though she professed to be painfully shy), but something was wrong. Jenny had jealousy issues with my friends and began to be more demanding of my time. Having learned from the mistakes within my marriage, I told her that I wanted to be with her but not to live in each other’s pockets – I accepted she had friends all over the UK (from uni) and I didn’t have an issue with her seeing them. The other problem was we were in a long-distance relationship, which meant clashes over weekends with each other and weekends where I was supposed to be either researching my work or going out with my uni friends.
Somehow we got through the tense times and I graduated in 2009 with a first. Although times had been tough (mostly me taking out my uni stress on Jenny) she’d been my rock and never faltered. However, the jealously intensified in the run up to the graduation ceremony ; I don’t want to go into detail but what i will say is 37 missed calls from her in one evening when I was having a meal with my non-uni friends was the final straw. In August 2009 we split for the last time – this time I was the one who broke up with her and frankly it was horrible. Jenny was heartbroken, I was heartbroken and my friends couldn’t understand what I’d done. The question that kept coming back to me was “Why didn’t you talk it through?” To this day I still can’t answer that.

In the months that followed we stayed in touch, I still loved her and I couldn’t stop thinking about her. We both dated other people but again, no one could hold a candle to her (when you live in Hull, surrounded by slappers and women just looking for a meal ticket then the pickings are pretty slim). In February 2010 she came up to Hull for a mutual friend’s birthday night out, we shocked a lot of people turning up together and she looked stunning. That night, we slept together for one last time. I just remember her touch being electric – like the first time all over again. The next evening we went out for a walk around the village and she said she was over me and didn’t love me anymore. I was hurt but I didn’t show it, I just accepted it and wished her a safe journey home. That was my second mistake; it was the tipping point where I could have told her I still loved her and wanted to try and make it work between us.

Later that year I began dating again and I met the girl who I’m with now. She’s fabulous, pretty, funny, charming, and intelligent and for the first time since I was with Jenny I feel complete. We really just ‘get’ each other; there are no pressures on us to be anything other than a couple and living in the same city certainly helps.

Yet, when it’s quiet, when I’m alone or even when I’m driving to work I find myself thinking of Jenny and the question that keeps me awake at night.... “What if?” To me, Jenny will always be ‘the one that got away’, she will always be the one girl who knows me better than anyone else on the planet and she helped me become the person who I am. I’ve learned a lot since we split and the person who I am now would have the emotional maturity to deal with relationship issues, not just got straight to “We’re finished”. I know she’s seeing another guy now; I just hope she’s happy and above all that he sees her through my eyes.

There’s so much more to this story, so many more players and so many interwoven stories. I swear blind that I could write a book about the whole thing but the danger would be that either no one would read it or even worse – it would end up as a dreadful screenplay, somewhat similar to ‘P.S. I love you’.

So there we go, that’s my story about Jenny – the girl I met on the internet.
(The Graduate Adding to the confusion since 1974, Fri 21 Oct 2011, 12:24, 13 replies)

Gotta post something,
just to acknowledge the time you spent on that!

I reckon quite a few people have similar stories. I know I do.
(username failed moderation, Fri 21 Oct 2011, 12:43, closed)

Thanks :) I think most of us b3tans have something similar to tell, maybe we should club together and publish "I can haz girlfriendz now?: The B3ta bumper book of relationship foul-ups".

I reckon it's a winner, booker prize here we come ;o)
(The Graduate Adding to the confusion since 1974, Fri 21 Oct 2011, 12:46, closed)

You'd have to print it on waterproof paper.
To protect it from the tears, obviously.

And the jizz
(Professor Kenny Martin Hmm? What?, Fri 21 Oct 2011, 12:59, closed)

:(

( SauronWibble I'll hold it, you lick it..., Fri 21 Oct 2011, 15:17, closed)

I was only going to say tears...
Then I decided I'd better get in there with the jizz before everyone else waded in.


...so to speak! There's a phrase I didn't expect to be typing when I woke up this morning :D
(Professor Kenny Martin Hmm? What?, Fri 21 Oct 2011, 15:25, closed)

hee hee!
You said jizz
( SauronWibble I'll hold it, you lick it..., Fri 21 Oct 2011, 15:31, closed)

and the steaming
diareah.



(Yeah, I know. Can you spell it? Didn't think so)
(username failed moderation, Fri 21 Oct 2011, 15:54, closed)

Hahaha
I did a diarrhoea relief website for Johnson & Johnson once

it's permanently stamped into my brain now
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Fri 21 Oct 2011, 16:44, closed)

I'm trying to work out,
having challenged you to spell it, and you did - whether you get props, or pity.

Under the circumstances, I think pity. Of all the things to be stamped into your brain . . .
(username failed moderation, Fri 21 Oct 2011, 17:25, closed)

I've seen this film
You name your entire fleet of shrimp-catching boats after her, and then she dies, right?

But seriously, good story. Will touch a nerve with a lot of people as I'm sure most can relate to a story like that. Click.
(TheManWithThePlan cussed your mum on, Fri 21 Oct 2011, 12:48, closed)

Haha, thanks :oD
(The Graduate Adding to the confusion since 1974, Fri 21 Oct 2011, 12:53, closed)

In years to come you'll still wonder What If?
But at least you'll do it with a smile and maybe raise your glass to some good times. In the end, it just wasn't meant to be.
Good story, and well written.
(SpangoTheWonderBadger is brewing beer, Fri 21 Oct 2011, 14:19, closed)

Tragically everyone involved in this story died two weeks later.

( Undulating Tentacles of Love getting fun down to acceptable levels, Fri 21 Oct 2011, 16:46, closed)