An Essay About Nothing in Particular

Best not to read it

My friend Bob likes to tell the story about how he and four other guys were headed out to a nightclub one evening, far away from our sleepy suburb. Bob was 20 at the time, as were two others (I was still underage and not with them). They were on their way to pick up Tony, the last one to join them for the evening, so Bob, Mario, and Joey decided to hide in the back of the van for some reason that made sense only to them that night. John was driving, and told Tony upon him climbing in that “Joey can’t make it tonight”. Tony immediately replied: “Fuck yeah. I can’t stand that loser, anyway. He’s just really, really annoying.”

And with that one sentence, the night was completely ruined.

How do you, as Tony, come back from that? Tony apologized sincerely and profusely, but what we say in confidence to someone else, not knowing that others are in earshot, betrays what we truly feel about some one or something.

How do you, as Joey, recover from that? I never found out and never had the chance to ask him, not certain that I ever would anyway. Tony was a very cool guy then, and cool is the currency of the 19 year old that both Joey and Tony were that night.