The shortest houseshare in the world
Karen had been my "best" friend since first school, in fact when I got given Bowthorpe as my allocated secondary school (my third choice as it was a teen chav holding pen)I was really upset until she called to say she had got that too.
We had been through a lot together, the whole teenager girl experience and stayed friends, anyway Karen went into the world of work after 1 year of 6th form and I stayed put in 6th form for another year.
Did I see the cracks appearing? no I was blinded by the "bond of friendship"
For example, being used as a cover for her to go drinking and get out of the house she shared with her boyfriend Andy and pick up random blokes (well she did look like Kylie), she abandoned me in a bar/disco one night because she had "seen some bloke we use to go to school with and was going for a short walk"
Poor Andy, he thought she was being nice and getting me, chubby girl out into town for evenings of girly chat and drinks.
Anyway, I finally left school and home and got into a house share (with a girl whos flatmate's mum knew my mum etc). When she left to get married, I had to find a new sharer and being new to the flatmate world stupidly picked the first person who answered the ad, who didn't sound like a complete psycho.
She didn't sound like a psycho, but dear god as I learned they don't all sound nuts.
After screwing me and the landlord over for rent and bills, I decided enough was enough and asked her to leave, on the grounds it wasn't working and my friend Karen was looking to move out of her parents at that time and share.
Thankfully she went easy and the day of Karen moving in came. Her Dad and current boyfriend arrived and deposited the first full car load of stuff into her room and went back for more. They came back half an hour later, no boxes in hand and proceded to remove the stuff they had already moved in, while her Dad (really decent chap, what he did to deserve a daughter like her, god only knows) explained that Karen had had a change of heart and decided, as she was applying for jobs in London HQ of NU that her "brief" remaining time in Norwich should be best spent in the parental home (where her parents could continue to panda to her every wish and whim)
Leaving me high and dry with a full house rent and bills ( I was only temping at the time and therefore poor as a churchmouse)
camel, back, straw
BTW - she, to my knowledge, never did escape to London's bright lights of insurance HQ)

There was a lot of other stuff that she did before this, that I personally wouldn't do to someone I considered a "best" friend which I ignored/didn't see/etc, but I don't want to explain further lest I overflow the level of bitterness and hurt that this QOTW has already reached.
The invite to her wedding a few years later included a handwritten note which said as she knew I "didn't like weddings" she would "quite understand" if I decided not to come, boll*cks, she was scared than under the influence of a free bar I would tell her family and new husband and the members of her church where the used bodies/condoms where hidden.
This pain has been eased last month by seeing her in the Poundstretcher near my office looking like a worn-out, 36, mother of three (which she now is). My brother Weazal, who had a major crush on her as a teenager, has seen her too and agreed she is no "yummy mummy" and said he definitely wouldn't.
( Not just a hatstand inflamed in the membrane inflamed in the brain, Sun 24 Jul 2005, 22:03, Reply)