the unknown friend
Here's a story from a grown man (maybe) who still regrets the turns of fate he failed to make in middle school.
a kid rode on the bus with me one day. sat next to me. he was one of the four of us. It was Kenny Sonnek, Kyle Stasse, this other kid whose name I can't remember, and me. I don't know who decided we were a bunch of losers. I think it was me. I was a loner until I got tacitly accepted to gang around with these kids. They were not the only friends I had. Because I didn't consider them friends. They called me a loner. And I believed them.
a kid rode on the bus with me one day. sat next to me. he was one of the four of us. It was Kenny Sonnek, Kyle Stasse, this other kid whose name I can't remember, and me. I don't know who decided we were a bunch of losers. I think it was me. I was a loner until I got tacitly accepted to gang around with these kids. They were not the only friends I had. Because I didn't consider them friends. They called me a loner. And I believed them.
All of my life friendship was given to me. I never learned that to make a friend, you have to at least try to be a friend.
In retrospect, these kids were not loners, but they were dorks, geeks, nerds, spazzes, dweebs, freaks, and pals. Ah middle school. But I hated them. Because I hated myself. But I was just consolable enough to hang around and pretend. Some of the time.
Anyways. One day on the bus, and i didn't ride the bus so i don't know how this happened, but that kid (who wasn't a loner but for sure a spaz) tried his damnedest to win me over. he made all sorts of lame jokes. jokes about disgusting things. jokes about video game hedgehogs. more daringly, jokes about me and my posture and my too cool behavior. Oh no that would never work. Finally, he gave up in a stupor and said something like, "my favorite thing to do is wake up at noon on a saturday, sit in my underpants in front of the tube with a bowl of soggy fruit loops and watch music videos". Holy cheezwhiz, here you've got yourself a friend for life, young schoolboy.
But no. Later on in the year we got into a fist fight and I failed to prove myself there as well. I didn't say it was a happy story.
I don't remember his name, but wherever he is, I hope he has friends as good as the ones I have today. Sorry it took 22 years to recognize a courageous act of friendliness. I remember it like it was yesterday. I will call him "the unknown friend". Moral to the story: friendship, even failed friendship, is forever.
In retrospect, these kids were not loners, but they were dorks, geeks, nerds, spazzes, dweebs, freaks, and pals. Ah middle school. But I hated them. Because I hated myself. But I was just consolable enough to hang around and pretend. Some of the time.
Anyways. One day on the bus, and i didn't ride the bus so i don't know how this happened, but that kid (who wasn't a loner but for sure a spaz) tried his damnedest to win me over. he made all sorts of lame jokes. jokes about disgusting things. jokes about video game hedgehogs. more daringly, jokes about me and my posture and my too cool behavior. Oh no that would never work. Finally, he gave up in a stupor and said something like, "my favorite thing to do is wake up at noon on a saturday, sit in my underpants in front of the tube with a bowl of soggy fruit loops and watch music videos". Holy cheezwhiz, here you've got yourself a friend for life, young schoolboy.
But no. Later on in the year we got into a fist fight and I failed to prove myself there as well. I didn't say it was a happy story.
I don't remember his name, but wherever he is, I hope he has friends as good as the ones I have today. Sorry it took 22 years to recognize a courageous act of friendliness. I remember it like it was yesterday. I will call him "the unknown friend". Moral to the story: friendship, even failed friendship, is forever.
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