Community - Short Story
I raise my plastic red drink cup to my mouth, swallowing the false happiness of VB, as it gushes down my throat Jim comes over and shouts above the dub-step "Mike, I heard that Andrea over there." He points towards the couch where she sits. "She wants you." "No way" I reply. "Nah mate she so does" and he shoves me over to her. Then it goes black and all I can remember is flashes of last night's party, hooking up with Andrea and then being bashed for being around her.
I awake with dried blood on my lips and bruised ribs, as I try to get my ground I realise I wasn't at my house, I wasn't at Craig's house (the guy who hosted the party) but I was on the street curb outside someone else's home, it looks familiar. I walk up to the front door and knock. "Coming" I hear a girls voice. The door swings open "Hey there Mike" Andrea jumps at me crossing her legs around me and kisses me on my sore lips "Do you remember last night?" she asks "Not really" I reply. "Well, let me go get dressed and I'm going to go meet my friends, I'll tell you on the way."
25 minutes of cleaning the blood off my shirt and face in the bathroom, soon after, I go and sit on the couch and she runs down the stairs in tracksuit pants and a cute looking shirt that I can remember her wearing last night. "Whose house is this?" I ask "My parents silly." She replies "Let's go" as she opens the door. While leaving and Andrea locks the door, she turns and grabs my hand. "We will be there in no time." "Where?" I question. "I'm going to go and see my friends." "Ok"
As we walk to our destination and she explains to me about last night and all the things I had done, I realise it may have been one of the best nights of my life, but some of the things I have done I may have lost a lot of my friends. The friend group I have or had never really accepted me much anyway, I mean physically they were nice but hidden away in there mind they feel some detest for me, the only reason they had let me in is that I played Rugby (which I had never really liked). The Rugby guys also had a lot of rules such as: No talking to the lesser people like the nerds and the 'class fillers', never hook up with the unpopular girls such as Andrea and you need to make everybody feel beneath you, basically you need to do everything they say and do just to make them more respected.
About 15 minutes of walking and talking with Andrea, recognising how kind, friendly, attractive and overall how much of a genuine friend she is, we finally get to the park where her friends are waiting. I look over at them and recognise that all of them are people we (Rugby Players) aren't meant to be around they weren't the nerds they were just the 'common people', I went over and sat down with Andrea and she introduced me to everyone. At first I had tried to avoid talking to them too much but enough so I wasn't being rude. Then one of them called Keith asked why I had looked hung over and about the bruises on my arm. I went to explain but Andrea cut me off saying "He looks hung over cos he was at Craig's party with me, he was being so kind and friendly then he asked me out, but then his friend Steven came over spat in his face started arguing about why he is hanging out with losers like them, then Mike punched his lights out it was so heroic". She moved closer and grabbed my hand.
After a while I got used to talking to these people, I could even consider them my friends. These people are very friendly and very genuine, they liked me for me and not for what I do, and then just like that it snapped these people are much better friends, a better society to be surrounded by, I'd rather be a part of this community than the Rugby Stars. This is a group who respects what I say and do, and doesn't make me follow them around like sheep. It was 6:30 at night and the dark, shadow filling blackness had slowly crept up, "I need to be home soon, can you walk me home Mike?"
As we begin our walk down the long road of Broad St, holding hands with my new best friend who had introduced me to other friends who I now consider my only friends, since my old friends seem to hate me as I have been told. We stop at 32 Broad St, "Thanks for a fantastic day Mike." She says "That's alright, I think today was better for me than for you." I reply "O-k" she awkwardly replies. With a hug and a kiss she leaves.
The next day at school was average, I saw Andrea and her friends, I avoided seeing my old friends (sigh of relief) and I was just warned of exams (sigh of resentment). But karma strikes back in a bad way, I have training tonight and the whole time of walking over there I spent debating whether to quit or not. When I arrive and training starts I quickly decide to quit, everyone was giving me the cold shoulder, while we were taking tackle runs at each other people would throw everything into it when they got to me, then we played a practice match and that's it no fights or anything or so I thought. After practice we got changed and all headed off but before I left the change rooms, Steven grabbed me by my shirt and slammed me against the locker shouting "What the bloody hell are you doing you poofter, hanging out with a bunch of losers" "Remember what happened last time you said that Steve?" I reply "Yeah I do, beating up your team mates and hanging out with a bunch of dead beats, you're making us look like a bunch of tools who hang out with weirdo's so stop hanging out with them or you can go hang up your boots" he declares. " Well you know what I quit I'd rather hang out with weirdo's who aren't but sniffers who follow each other around doing the same crap every day, I would rather hang out with people who respect me for me". I shove past Steve and make my way outside, walking home in the light drizzling rain.
What have I learnt this weekend, I learnt that have a good think of your surroundings do you like who you are around or do you need someone to lead you? Maybe you should be around people who appreciate you for who you are and not want you to be their sheep, the community which now surrounds me is a better fitting friend group than the Rugby stars because they fit me better not saying the Rugby guys are bad people but they didn't like me. And that is the end of the weekend that changed my views on Friendship circles, Community and myself.