psychopathological
So, he gave me a pair of earrings to apologise for having been an arse. They were massive, tasteless cubic zirconia studs in the standard cheap plastic Elizabeth Duke box. Well, it was the 90s, we were teenagers, we weren't what you'd call affluent, so fair enough.

He tried to tell me they were diamonds. He could afford them because he was secretly a top DJ for Helter Skelter and the suchlike, but I mustn't mention that in front of his father, because his father didn't like him doing it ever since he'd become embroiled in a shoot-out with a drugs gang... I can't remember the rest. When I gently suggested in the most non-accusatory manner I could, that the earrings weren't diamonds (and they really, obviously weren't, backstory aside), he kicked off. Violently.

The following day I found the Argos receipt for £4.99 cubic zirconia studs lying on his bed. I handed the receipt to him and queried it.
"I got them for my mum"
"oh, right, okay, let's have a look. Do you want a hand with wrapping them?"
"I've already given them to her" and then he kicked off. Violently.

As he was walking me home, chance of chances, we bumped into his mum. I asked if she'd liked her earrings. She gave me a polite but confused look. He made an effort at a save for his mum - "the ones I got you last year, or was it the year before?" - and then, when we'd said goodbye to her and walked on a bit, he kicked off. Not violently, but aggressively and loudly.

The next couple of days were uncomfortable, he was bragging to anyone who would listen that he had bought me diamonds and getting upset that I wasn't wearing them and joining in with the showing-off. Mum suggested that I should say we'd had them valued for insurance purposes and that they were fakes, and while I was in no way accusing him of a lie, I had been correct that they weren't diamonds. I gave this a try. He kicked off. Violently. Thankfully, he also took the earrings, so I didn't have to wear them while pretending they were spectacular diamonds, and end up tagging myself with the Massive Bullshit label.

To this day, I'm not sure if all the anger and violence was (1) frustration at being caught out in a lie and recognised as a bullshitting teenager rather than the cool and dangerous DJ he wanted to be, or (2) frustration because he really believed the stuff he was coming out with and couldn't understand why I would keep challenging it.
( Batsgirl, Sun 2 Dec 2007, 1:59, Reply)