Short Story

Shadowing Holden

Sometimes you wonder, who made up all this stupid friends stuff? I mean it's like a pack of lies. Like having another job or something, having to listen to their ridiculous problems and all. After awhile you start to envy those depressed loaners, because after you look at your life, their lives don't seem to depressing. I mean me and James were best friends. In the same classes for 3 years, after that long you get to know someone. It was all fine, besides the "minor" disagreements and all that stuff.
It all started when James got his first girlfriend Lexi. Sure, it was fine at first us and the gang we all great friends. We were all fine. Then one out of the blue, Erika – James' friend – comes up to me and starts rambling this stupid idea. day
"Greg, Greg, Greg!"
"What!" She sounded like she found evidence of God or something.
"I think that you shouldn't flirt with James' girlfriend, cuz I think he's getting angry."
"What do you mean, I'm not flirting with her." Its like whenever you even talk to a girl everybody thinks you are "flirting" with her. It just kills me when some stupid person comes running up, just to tell you a pack of lies.
"Well it sure seems like you are."
"Well I'm not, and I don’t see anything wrong in just hanging out and talking to her. Do you?"
"No, I guess not but I'd watch out if I were you." She said as if she was my mother. She walked off as if she said nothing to me, as happy as she could be. I thought that since James was my best friend and all, he wouldn’t get angry at me. Well I was obviously wrong, especially when lunch began. It's like James was paranoid or something. That kills me when someone is always on their toes like that. Its as if they can't let their guard down. As if they're in a war or something.
"Lexi would you like a napkin?" I asked, "I'm going there anyways."
"Yea, sure that'd be great." She said. But as if by instinct James jumped up and quickly muttered,
"No, Greg I'll get it!"
"James I'm going there anyways." I countered
"No, don't waste the energy." He told me as if I had no legs or something. I hate it when people think that your incapable of doing something as simple as getting a fork and napkin. Its like, I can do it myself you know. I think that some people just get blind with distractions.
"Fine, I'll stay." I said in my sarcastic annoyed voice. That’s just one incident, the paranoia didn’t stop there, it continued, later that week in the library it happened again. I hold the door open he runs up and takes the job from me, letting us in. He turned simple courtesies into a battle. I think a person who gets to the door first holds it open. The person that offers first delivers, none of the stupid, "Oh it's O.K., I'll do it!" stuff that just kills me. James was acting like a complete fake; he was always on his best behavior in front of Lexi, never acting up, except for the boyfriend show off stuff. It's all just a show for the girls, trying to empress them with smiles, and manners; that just another stupid thing in life, that no one will ever see. Nobody sees it! But they are able to see the single guy being courteous, but of course they misinterpret it as something else. Some people are just idiots. James was a class A one too, of course he made himself an A+.
A month later he accused me of being with his Girlfriend! It shouldn’t have been such a surprise though, I should have seen it coming. He was staring at me always keeping a second eye when I was around Lexi. But it didn’t stop there, he had other ways of letting me down.
"I'll meet you at the hang out after school O.K.?" James yelled across the hall
"See-ya there." I was rushing to class, after forgetting my book in my locker. At the end of the day I went, as planned, to the hang out. I waited ten minutes then remembered that I had to write a paper for English and decided to start on that. Although usually I would wait till the night before, stress out, and turn in the most ridiculous paper every made. But I figured I had the time so I continued working. After the process of brainstorming, thesis making, and the completion of the introduction, I looked at my watch, it had been 45 minutes since we planned to meet. But like a good friend, I continued to stay there. But as usual at 4 o' clock my phone started to ring in my pocket.
"Hi Dad, yea I'll come down now." Packing up my things I thought, do I have bad taste in friends or what? To add to the drama later that night I get instant messaged that James and Lexi broke up that day, and they were really angry at each other. Later that month is when he accused me of being with his girlfriend, that we were secretly together or something. Well that’s just stupid, he was just trying to pass on his own stupid mistakes to someone else. I feel really sorry for him though. It was obvious, everyone could tell Lexi and James were having problems. James was being a class A idiot and Lexi was just trying to deal with it. It's pretty depressing to watch. With all of the heartbreak and all, it's like watching a sinking ship with two people on board destined for the bottom of the sea. At the end of the day, that kind of stuff just kills me.