This may sound a bit odd
but stick with it - all will become clear.

The nice thing I did for other people? I told a long standing friend that I never wanted to see her again. We'd been friends since the first day of high school and this was when I was 25.

On that fateful first day of high school, P and I made friends in registration (or homeroom as we called it) by dint of being seated beside each other. The teacher was a bit OCD and made us all sit in alphabetical order, regardless of whether or not we knew each other. We were told that we had to sit in the same place every morning for the next year, so I reckoned I may as well make friends. Better than sitting in silence every morning, right?

I did notice that when the first break came around and I headed off to meet up with my primary school friends, she tagged along. I had kind of expected her to meet up with her primary school friends, but didn't exactly give the matter any deep thought. Over the next few weeks, she got to know all my friends. Fair enough. I never met a single one of hers. The adult me would wonder why, but at 12 I never considered it. Some weeks later, one of the girls asked me why I'd described her new hairstyle as "horrendous". I hadn't said any such thing, and told her so. We nearly fell out. It felt a bit odd. Soon after, another friend asked why I'd said something nasty about her brother (who was the most obviously gay 14 year old I'd ever seen, but who I liked). Again, I denied it, and again avoided a fall out. The pattern was repeated many times, and thick little sod that I was, I never worked out where all this was coming from.

I drifted away from my primary friends to a new group in second year, and P stayed put with the old bunch. A few months down the line, I had a bit of a revelation regarding these new "friends" and distanced myself. The old gang seemed glad to have me back, and all was well. There were no more "why did you say such-and-such" conversations and I forgot all about it.

The years passed, and we all left school. Some went to Uni, most went straight into work. One or two headed for the dole queue (this was the 80's, it wasn't exactly unusual). I kept in touch with the ones I liked best, as you do, and somehow P was one of them. I made new friends at work, and some nights out ended up with both groups meeting up. At far too many of these, I would end up denying I'd said something nasty about someone. Still the penny didn't drop. I'm not always the sharpest tool in the box, and am far too willing to see the good in people.

Finally, I worked it out. A girl I've been friends with since primary school asked me at my "leaving work to have a baby" night out, why I'd said I wished I'd never asked her. I stopped dead, and asked who'd said that. P had said that, she said. In strictest confidence, and only because "If it was me she said that about, I'd want to know." It dawned on me (belatedly) that every time P was on a night out, I'd end up denying something.

Well, I may not be the sharpest tool in the box, but by god I've got a temper. I stormed over to P and told her in no uncertain terms that the game was over. This was my night out and I didn't want anyone hanging around who was lying about me behind me back. I blame the hormones, but I actually threatened her with extreme violence if she didn't leave rapidly. She left, rapidly.

I then had the most horrendous half hour as all these friends took turns to recall horrible things she'd said about me, lies she'd told to them and me, and I'd been oblivious. Not one single friend of mine had liked the girl, and when I stopped and thought about it, neither did I. All my friends had been tolerating her because they thought she and I were close. I'd tolerated her because I thought the others liked her. I'd done us all the most tremendous favour, however late in the day, by finally seeing through her.

We all raised a glass to "Never seeing P again in this lifetime" although mine was fresh orange and lemonade. In a pint glass, for that extra touch of ladylike class.

Fast forward several years, and I put my name on Friends Reunited. God knows why. Anyway, she sent me a message via the site, and I replied, also via the site. She got two words.

Fuck off

Like I said, I may not be the brightest star in the sky, but when I bear a grudge, I bear it forever. Besides which, I've still got the same friends and they'd lynch me if I brought her back into the fold.
(TheWeeWitch hasn't been here much recently .., Fri 3 Oct 2008, 19:09, 3 replies)

I had a friend a bit like that...
...who played 5 of us off against one another, one of them being my gf (who she sort-of stole off me)

It was only when we all left school and met each other separately, without her, that we reminisced on 'the good old times', and eventually pieced together all the shit she'd said about us separately, and that the minor grudges we had against each other were bullshit.

4 of us are still friends, 1 of us left for an odd part of the country. But we all went from thinking she was our 'best' friend, to not wanting to see her ever again.

I'm glad you asserted yourself, but I think your should get in touch with her again with a more verbose response. Chances are there's some suckers out there now thinking she's their friend too, and she genuinely hasn't realised that people WILL talk outside her company and eventually cotton-on to what she's up to. Mind you... I suppose that would almost be doing her a favour.


*clicks*
(nobuttocks last besmirched the internet on, Fri 3 Oct 2008, 22:06, closed)

Have another two words:
'Creative psychopath'.
I've had dealings with a few, brrr.
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Sat 4 Oct 2008, 8:31, closed)

I've also met
a few of these kinda people, but in all honesty I'm still in secondary school so that's expected. I had no idea that people like this existed out in the adult world, where you're supposed to grow the fuck up and get on with it (generally speaking). Let me know if P ever comes back as I would love to attend her lynching, if that is how you/ your mates choose to top her!
(TMAce needs to enter another image challenge sometime, Sat 4 Oct 2008, 16:01, closed)