cancer – day 808
Who would have thought some guy would had held a grudge against me for twenty years for “stealing” his best friend in high school. We all make our own choices, and John and spent all our time together in high school, because we were in love and both seemed to feel every experience to have a greater richness if we experienced it together. Unfortunately, some of Johnny’s childhood friends were completely unaccepting of John’s choice to spend so much time with me and always be with me at social events (or protect me from the . . . unsavory social activities).
So anyway, this guy whom shall remain nameless because anyone who knows, knows, and names are unnecessary, I see him watching me from across the room so I go over to give him a hug and ask him how things are going. Mind you, I haven’t seen the guy in 10 years. And how does he respond, this drunken iron ranger? He says, “You know I have something really important to tell you. I completely hated you in high school for stealing my best friend. So did a-girl-who-will-also-remain-nameless. We hated you so much that we defaced your yearbook and that was why John had to get you a new one.”
I had forgotten about the yearbook swap thing, but this reminded me that John had in fact taken my yearbook to write his page in it, and he replaced it with a clean copy and then I did the signatures and stuff with my other friends after John had it for a day or so. Ancient history, completely forgotten, and not something I was ever really aware of. Once my brother graduated, Johnny V. became my protector, even protecting me from his own childhood friends, apparently.
But Good Lord, has this guy really been harboring this hatred and keeping the coal burning for twenty years? I haven’t even thought his name in all that time, and here he’s been planning his revenge to be meted out in public to “humiliate” me. Which of course didn’t happen. I laughed about it and said John made his own choices and decisions, so hating me probably hadn’t done him much good.
The girl, now she’s the real trip. She is the best fake friend I have ever known. I knew she was always jealous of my relationship with John, but she pretended to be really good friends with me in order to be able to keep contact with Johnny because of her association with me. Sick stuff. Glad I didn’t know she was that mental in school.
It was weird being back up there, but fun too. I did a lot of Jeeping and got Rubi absolutely filthy, and John took me out pistol shooting because I’m thinking about getting a gun. And we went to the waterfall and hung and just gabbed all afternoon like old friends do. We have an absolutely awesome friendship now, and the opportunity to see him was the only real reason I went up there. I made the most of it, enjoying the beauty of the area and going out the lake and going Jeeping. And I worked during the day, so that kept me busy too.
Oh, so moral of the story? I pretty much left after telling John about that little conversation, and I started the drive to my parents place. I drove a couple hours and then was too tired to go any further, so I pulled into a rest area. As soon as the engine was of and I’d brought in the keys from the Jeep (which I tow behind my little RV), as soon as was stopped, up went my satellite dish and out came my laptop and lo and behold 30 seconds later, I reduced my facebook friend headcount by one (the guy never made it o my facebook to begin with, in case you were wondering who I removed). I don’t like fake friends in life, so why have them as a friend on facebook?