Gotta Love Those Fake Friends, They Always Help You Find the Real Ones

How would one get out of a friendship? "Well that's simple, just stop hanging out with the person" one might say. But what if he was the only friend you ever had and it was your best friend, then how would you get out of it? Now obviously one wouldn't want to stop being friends with somebody unless they had a reason. Well I have a reason, and though unorthodox it may seem, there are several reasons why I need to stop being his friend. For one, he was a bully. He'd spit on me, call me names, make fun of whatever I would wear, and the list just goes on and on. We met in 6th grade, same class, same teacher. I think we bonded over how much we hated the little witch. Although the way she looked she could be one of those mythical trolls that you see on TV or read about in books.

"You ever notice how when she talks a little piece of skin from her upper lip just hangs off?" he whispered.

"Yeah, it's pretty gross--" I said.

"Mr. Fowler and Mr. G! Am I interrupting something?!" Ms. Diaz asked.

"No, sorry, we'll pay attention" I said.

"You'd better or both of you will get demerits!"

"Old snag a tooth hag" he mumbled under his breath. He leaned back over towards me, "My name is Glenn, what's your name?" he asked me.

"It's Nathaniel, Nathan for short. Why did she call you Mr. G?"

"It's because my last name is difficult to pronounce so my parents just tell my teachers to say the first letter of my last name."

"Oh ok."

My 6th grade year with Glenn wasn't all that bad. We didn't hang out all that much but we would talk from time to time. He actually invited me over to his house the summer before we started 7th grade. 

 In 7th grade we had the same class for math first period. It was going good at first, until he started bullying me. Although in his mind I don't think he considered it as being bullying more than just messing around with a friend. It became a daily routine of when during our lunch period he would drag me into the boy's bathroom and poke me with a pencil. And it wasn't like one of those little pokes your little brother or sister does to you to irritate you. It was more like being stabbed full force with a pair of scissors, not to mention that it was a sharpened pencil too. And he wouldn't let me out until lunch was over or until I was able to free myself somehow. One time as a joke, he started poking someone else with a pencil and said that it was a knife instead. I wasn't there for the first part of it. I was actually looking for Glenn around the school and happened to walk into the boy's bathroom because I figured that's where he might be. Once he caught sight of me he let the other boy go and came after me. I guess you can say that I was like a voluntary sacrifice. Of course the boy told, if I was him I would've told too. When we were called up to the principal's office Glenn wanted me to lie and say that the kid was lying on him. Once I didn't do that he didn't talk to me for about a week. Over time we made a new friend and he wasn't any better than Glenn. Although Glenn used to mess with him as much as he would mess with me. Almost everyday of my 7th grade year they would make me feel insecure, whether it was the clothes I wore, the way I looked, or them spitting on me--one time they spit in my eye--and they would always embarrass me in public. As the year continued I had people constantly advising me, "Oh you need better friends," or "Oh be careful because Glenn is no good" and so on and so forth. There was even a person who didn't like me tell me, "Don't hang around that guy man. He's just going to get you in trouble." I guess he hated Glenn more than he hated me. I probably should've listened to them and heeded all their warnings.

When 8th grade came around Glenn and I stopped hanging out all together, but not because I wanted to, it was because Glenn wanted to go hang out with his cooler friends and decided to ditch me, to be honest they were all a bunch of wanna be cholos and potheads. I guess you can say that that was an easy year, not hanging out with Glenn, but I went through a depression stage and eventually wanted to kill myself. My 8th grade year I had no friends, just associates, so I felt alone, like I wasn't important or like I didn't matter at all. My parents tried to make me feel better, make me feel loved, find friends for me but it was utterly and hopelessly useless. One day, however, in 9th grade during passing period Glenn and I bumped into each other.

"Nathan!"

"Glenn?! How are you?" I asked.

"I'm good bro, how are you?"

"Good."

"That's good. What have you been up to lately?"

"Nothing much. You?"

"Nothing either bro. Hey what are you doing Friday? Let's hang out!"

"Ummm...ok, let me ask my parents and I'll get back to you."

"Sounds good bro. You still got the same number right?"

"Yeah, I do. I'll let you know. Don't want to be late class."

"Alright bro. For sure. Later."

My parents didn't like the idea of Glenn and I hanging out. The summer before 8th grade he came over to go swimming and it was good until we started wrestling in the pool and let's just say that he kept dunking my head under the water and almost drowned me in my own pool. He said he went easy on me, if it was anybody else he wouldn't have let their heads up out of the water. After that my dad didn't want us hanging out again. My mom and dad thought one out of two things about Glenn, that he was bad association or he was trying to kill me. After some convincing and them wanting me to be happy they finally agreed to let me hang out with Glenn. It was good. We talked for a while, catching each other up on things we missed in each other's lives and we hung out more after that.

In 10th grade we had the same P.E. period and history class. Sometimes at lunch he would invite his friends to come hang out with us which I wasn't too fond of because they were all a bunch of pothead, horny, cholos. So when they did hang out with us during lunch I would either go somewhere else or just be quiet. During the springtime of 10th grade Glenn hooked up with this girl, Jeanah. Once that happened Glenn started to neglect his friends, all of his friends. Yes that includes me too. Soon after that we stopped hanging out all together for the second time, but this time I would make sure that we wouldn't become friends again. It was obvious that Glenn wasn't who I thought he was. If he wasn't a wanna be cholo then he damn sure was fake in all aspects. He was never a friend at all. It was ok though, by that time my life started to change for the better.

In 9th grade I met a 10th grader named Adrian. It was at back to school night. I was with my parents and he was with his. Our parents worked together so when they saw each other they introduced us to each other because we had never met before, even during their annual "Bring Your Kid to Work Day" that their place of business always hosted. Pretty soon after we saw each other at back to school night we started to hang out. Most of the time during snack and lunch we would play against each other in the card game "Speed". We had a lot of things in common. Much of the stuff he was going through I went through also. Within time Adrian introduced me to some of his friends. They weren't like Glenn's friends. They were better. They actually treated me like a human being and not like trash. It's funny, while my life was getting better Glenn's life was getting worst. He wanted to be friends again. Said that things weren't going good between him and his girlfriend, but he was just using me. He was always good at using me. I rather have died than to be friends with that jerk again. The friends I have now are more than just friends to me, we're all family--an actual family.