49. Peer Pressure
Friends from middle school through high school. The guy progressively turned into a bully over the years. He was super cool when it was just me and him hanging out, but was a complete jerk when others were around by putting me down to try to make himself look better.
We had a falling out right before high school graduation, and I figured it was for the best since we would be going to different colleges. Years later we ran into each other in our hometown during Christmas break and reconnected. Seemed like we picked up where we left off, super cool when it was just us and we had a good time catching up.
All of a sudden when we would hang out when other people were around, he would be the same bully he was when I knew him in high school. He was basically the same person he was in high school except he picked up a pot habit. I tried giving it pass because I know how hard it is to keep friends around as you get older, but one night we got into a big argument and led to me kicking him out of my car.
He ended up being extremely butthurt by it and wouldn’t even respond to my calls or texts after that. I tried apologizing to the point that it felt like I was chasing him down.
Then it occurred to me, why… am I practically begging this idiot to be friends with me when he’s a piece of crap that is always treating me bad and he couldn’t forgive me for one lousy thing I did?
I’m so grateful he didn’t get back to me. I understand it’s good to keep friendships going but why would you want a toxic one? I chalk it up to being young and dumb, but now I’m very careful with who I let into my life, and it’s been great. Life has been so much better because of that former friendship because it helped me vet out the bad and keep in the good.