The Boy I Could Never Love

A Friend

New students at our small middle school, which carried little more than two hundred with all three grades combined, stood out among the people I'd known my whole life. Determined to sink my claws in before my classmates turned them against me, I acted like the welcome committee.

One potential friend came to hate me because of something someone told them. The affair arrived about a year before. I begged them to help me in my want to change, but they told me to just change before walking away. They never talked nice to me again. Another left for the treatment received for being around me. I couldn't change my past, but if I made myself worth it none of that would matter. All I desired was a friend who wasn't required to enjoy being with me. These occurrences made me go above and beyond for someone to want to be near me.

One day, I spotted a boy I'd never seen before. Separation brought him to our district with his mother and sister. Thinking the term fresh meat applied, I bounced over and introduced myself. Coming on strong spooked him a bit, but after he got over the shock, I made sure the two of us were inseparable in that god-forsaken prison of peers.

Afraid of someone telling him something to make him hate me, the idea of him having friends who didn't like me saw I smothered him. I tasked myself with making his school experience the best I could, despite our classmates' determination to see it the worst. As I entered school each day, I thought about what I could do to make my friend's day a little brighter so he stayed my friend. It helped that I loved his smile and would do anything to see it directed at me.

One such act occurred in gym class. My girlfriend, who became my friend around the same time, and myself always got chosen last so we never played on the same team. She was larger, and I didn't understand the rules, not to mention uncoordinated. Feeling that just because we weren't athletes didn't mean we shouldn't deserve to have fun, I volunteered to pick teams, not having a clue how to put one together. I got chosen as captain, picked her, and smiled to myself.

When it came back to me, I made a show of thinking about it, and everyone complained loudly when I landed on him as my second choice. He didn't believe it at first. I think someone pushed him to get him to move. Walking over, he asked if I was sure, and I chipperly said, of course. Our team didn't win, obviously, but we had fun playing together. My friend said he expected to wake up any minute.

We talked about classes and how our classmates treated us. After learning how much getting chosen, even after us, upset him, I chose to do something about it. My goal in stalling meant to make them wait the way they did us. I cared little about the game, likely dodge ball or something. What I did care about was my friends. I often picked our teams after that, and everyone knew how mad I was at him by when I chose to pick him, the innocence of childhood.

What things did you do to make a friend happy?
Voting is appreciated. Thank you