There was a kid from Santaquin that I didn't like that much. He was
friends with the coolest kid in school and was a jerk as far as I
could tell. I knew him but we were not friends and if not for the
neutral nature of the term acquaintance I would hesitate to use that
word. When we went to Junior High somethings changed; first of all,
anyone from your old school was more friendly based solely on the
fact that we had been on the same team; secondly, we had not had any
classes together in elementary school and none that I can recall in
middle school but we happened to be alphabetically very close a G and
an F ended up sitting close in every class. We would also ride the
same bus and just by the sheer weight of all that proximity we
started talking some. I didn't want to like him but he was actually
really funny. So we started talking more and hanging out on purpose.
We found that we actually had a very similar and very dark sense of
humor and that we both liked lots of the same things. It is important
to note that while we both had fairly mean senses of humor it was in
the appreciation not in the commission of meanness that we got
pleasure. For example we were once both running late to an assembly
where the cheerleaders we rallying the school's pep. We were watching
from the doorway when one of the girls was thrown high in the air and
then allowed to plummet to the ground. The crowd was full of decent
human beings and all gave out a concerned “Oh!”. My friend and
I's response was a shamefully antisocial and simultaneously
spontaneous gout of laughter that we tried to stifle as we ran out
the door before anyone could see what a-holes we were. We did not
wish that girl harm, she did break her ankle, and we didn't cause the
accident but we were just really tickled at the absurdity of the
situation. Another selling point for our friendship was that he was
from a family that believed in keeping the fridge well stocked with
Pepsi and that was appealing as we were not from that tribe. At some
point we transitioned into being full blown friends and then we
stayed that way for the rest of high school, college, single life,
married life and who knows for sure, but maybe to the death.
