You Don't Have To Be Crazy To Be My Friend...but It Sure Helps!

At some point every one will have a friend that makes you question why you're friends with them.  For me it was Renee (the names have been changed to protect the innocent).  We attended a summer program together in high school, but attended different high schools so I only knew of her through the program and rumors that floated back to me.  What I had heard was that she slashed her boyfriend's tires, bust the windows out his car before Jazmine Sullivan was even thought of, and was always ready to fight.  I had never witnessed any of that first hand and it just didn't fit with the image she portrayed when I did interact with her.

I attended a college with no less than 40,000 students and that was just in undergrad.  Renee attended the same school and as a small town girl it was comforting to see a familiar face on campus.  We stayed in dorms on opposite end of the campus, but it wasn't uncommon for us to make the trek to either's dorm.  Renee was the life of the party and the men loved her, sometimes just a little too much.

The first time I got a call from her saying, "I need you to go somewhere with me right quick" I didn't think much of it.  We could have been going to the mall, out to eat, whatever.  Oh, but no.  Where we were going was to the dorm across the street from mine to confront some dude who had apparently been cheating on his girlfriend with Renee.  The girlfriend came up with some STD and dude decided to blame it on Renee.  Chaos ensued and Renee flagged her "I'm clean as the board of health" paper from the clinic in the air, which led both women to realize that there was obviously a third woman involved.  After Renee windmilled him, she happily pronounced her work done and we bounced.

To this day I don't know how Renee knew the guy and his girl were there together, though I suspect one of his instigating frat brothers called her.  So while Renee and the frat boys were well aware of the situation, I was the only clueless one in the bunch.  All I could do was stand there dazed and confused.  After that I always learned to respond to "I need you to go somewhere with me right quick" with "And where would that be?"

On another occasion I was in Renee's dorm room when her on again, off again boyfriend showed up.  They were off again and he was there to pick up 'stuff' he'd left in her room.  We all know this can be a game.  The picking up of the stuff can lead to talking, trying to ease back in, whatever.  So like a third wheel, I'm sitting at her desk while they make small talk and his chances of getting back with her are sounding good.  Out of nowhere he makes a comment about her father and the next thing I know, the room has turned into the ring at Wrestlemania.  In the midst of WWE Smackdown, she throws all of his things out of her window.  He tries to run out of the room to go get them and the fight continues down the hall.  Her perky resident advisor comes to see what the commotion is and ends up with a black eye.  When it's all said and done, Renee is written up and has to go before the residency board.

Where was I in all of this? Still sitting in the chair.  When Renee asked me afterwards why I didn't step in and help, my response was, "You were winning."  What I was really thinking was, you two fools will be right back together next week so why waste the time and energy.  Sure enough, they continued this cycle until he graduated and I stopped responding to the calls to go somewhere real quick.

Today Renee and I are more Facebook friends than anything.  I'm the godmother to her oldest daughter and she would have been godmother to PoS if she had made it to the church on time.  I forgot to mention that she's chronically late and, in fact, was two hours late to her own daughter's baptism.

What lesson was I trying to teach PoS with these stories?  Some friends are only meant to be in your life for certain periods of time.  Don't let someone else's BS get you caught up.