We headed to picassos as it is the place to be on Sunday nights in university city. Everyone goes. Friends visiting from Boston, cute guys with mohawks, oh, and my ex and his frat pack.

La’Nolan was already on her third Long Island when we got there at 9:30. She and a pilot friend of hers call them Homewreckers, but that is a story for a different day. We sat down and talked about rehab and so far there was no sign of Jas. I was hoping he wouldn’t come because La’Nolan told me the first thing she was going to do when she got to Cha-town was break into his apartment wearing a ski mask. But not long after karaoke started he walked past our table and La’Nolan poured a beer into her empty LIT glass and drank it down.

There comes a time after every break up where something clicks, something changes, and for some reason when you see your ex you don’t recognize them anymore. I don’t know when or why or how it happens. They might look exactly the same but the person they are is no longer the person you were with. And instead of the pangs of lost love you feel a kind of reserved sadness that not only is it definitely over but that that person who consumed so much of your life for so long doesn’t even exist anymore. That was me last night. Jas kind of looked at me surprised, like, why are you in my bar surprised. Tried to hug La’Nolan – who told him she was fresh out of rehab and returned to a fresh LIT. Then he shrugged and came over and stood beside me awkwardly.
Hey, how are you.
Sorry I’m in your bar, La’Nolan picked.
That’s ok. How is she?
Um, she hates you so I would leave her alone.

That was about all we said to each other. Even though this is a guy who told me he still loved me not two weeks ago.

Soon though I was distracted by the lyrical stylings of La’Nolan and Jared singing Karaoke. Barbie Girl to be precise. The crowd loved it. Especially this line which I missed in the original version “You can brush my hair, Undress me anywhere, Imagination, I just got out of rehabbbbbbb.” That’s what’s great about La’Nolan and karaoke, she improvises. Fast forward about 10 songs and it was her and Gabby’s turn to sing “All By Myself”. This is one of our favorites. A few years earlier we sang this one night at Mickey’s (RIP Mickeys, Weasels, Iron Thunder) and La’Nolan burned Gabby with a cigarette and cried about her ex, Drew, breaking her heart. I was hoping this night would be no different. They made it to the big instrumental break without any embarassing outbursts so I decided to grab the mike and add “Drew broke her heartttt.” Which, La’Nolan promptly paid back with. “Those days are gone, Jas B where are you, I hate you…. All by mysellllffffff.” At the end, the DJ declared it the longest 6 minutes of his life and said, “Didn’t she just get off a plane? Send her back.” Karaoke success.

I headed home at about 1 but not before hugging my crush of the week who told me all about how he met my ex fiancee the other day at picassos. Great. I passed Jas one more time on the way out, bent over a beer and smoking. I so need to move out of university city. But until then, there’s La’Nolan.