The Faux Going Away Party

The countdown to my move back home has reached the single digits. I have two days to enjoy the full beauty Orlando has to offer me; and I have to spend those days taking A to the airport, fixing and finishing homework assignments, help the new roommate move into my place and write a fiction piece on a school shooting.

This wouldn’t be a problem, you see, if everyone didn’t insist on seeing me before I go. Everyone is pushing for a going away party, and I’m pushing for a “I’m only going three hours away so I’ll be back every now and then” party. Maybe an “I’ll be seeing everyone the day I leave party so who else do I have to say bye to” party. No one is taking my party suggestions so the roommate made tacos and invited everyone over for a faux going away party.

A, mystery, Tennessee and smoke (who happens to be the new roommate.) Other classmates, some I haven’t seen since I started and some I thought dropped out. As I looked around, I wondered, if I could be sentimental for just a moment, how it would’ve been if I never met these people. Would I still be in school? Would I have The Homo Whisperer (the roommate told me to make one and I took her advice.)? Would I have met numerous writers and teachers who read my work, liked it, and gave me pointers on how to fix it? Would I be published on the site my teacher told us about?

I wondered all these things, ate tacos and chatted with my past classmates. One of them went to Puerto Rico for summer break and fell in love. She told me all about him, I wasn’t really paying attention I was focusing on my taco, when the roommate came up to me. She tells me that her old friend from high school was supposed to come up, see me off and then take the roommate to a concert at the House of Blues. But the old friend never answered the roommate back. Never told her what concert, how much the tickets were or when she should be ready.

It was when the roommate checked her Facebook when she learned the truth. Her old friend went to the concert with her new “boy-toy” and brushed off the roommate like a new sweater from Goodwill. The roommate didn’t look devastated but I knew what she was feeling like. Why is it when someone gets in a relationship his or her character completely changes?

I couldn’t help but wonder, Relationships: Friend or Foe? We’ve all had friends who finally get boyfriends or girlfriends and leave their friends “out in the rain.” They forget about us until the inevitable happens. Should we forget about them like they did us? They are still our friends, even if they don’t act like it. They were there for us so why can’t we be there for them?

In all honesty, I wondered about this until the roommate brought out cake and then all of my attention was placed on the cake.