I had a friend in middle school who had just moved to my town. She happened to be living right behind my family's house and because of that the school principal asked me to show around and help my friend feel comfortable. I of course was all the willing. I loved new people cause they were an outsider like I once was... I felt I knew how to help people feel comfortable and to fit in easier. We became summer friends. I think during our school year the group she ended up hanging out with was not my crowd. I didn't like the talking behind someone's back and then acting all friendly to someone's face, I didn't want that for me. I wanted people to let me know how they really felt... I proudly showed her around the school and town to help her get acquainted and settled in. It made me feel really important.
Anyhoo, summer's went by, I would take my friend sailing with me on my boat and we would talk about life. I would teach her how to sail and we did a lot of laughing together... She had the most contaigious laugh and it helped me to survive being me. In fact I find that most of my dear friends have had that type of laugh. We one day went sailing and she asked to use some carmex that came in those containers with the screw top, well the top came off and the heavy container fell into the water... she tried to get it with her hand but it sank pretty quickly... I wasn't worried or upset cause those things happen when you sail... you don't bring anything you can't replace or won't float. She felt really bad and was apologizing over and over... I said it was okay and that I knew what would make us feel better... I pulled out a ziplock bag... she immediately freaked out and asked what I had. I said it's a little debby snack. It is something sweet, sweets always made me feel better and I was sharing one with her, except that this one was really squished, but I knew it would taste just as good and we would most likely forget about the carmex til we needed some more. This is not the end of the story...
I was living in florida and at some point my friend decided to move out and live there, she needed a change cause she didn't want to stay in Wisconsin. She was concerned about her drinking. She had wanted us to live together, I had agreed at first and then I decided it felt too scary cause I knew she was pretty connected with a lot of our old class mates and I didn't want to be in the know of these people that didn't exactly treat me the best. I refused to be talked about. I also was aware of how much she would probably drink and I couldn't handle it. She also was wanting me to live with her and her bf. Another situation I didn't feel comfortable getting into as I had just recently come out to her. I was still exploring what it ment to me. I didn't know her bf and didn't know how safe it would have been for me to stay out. She was also really close with her parents. Our parents were and still are neighboors. I didn't want our parents talking too much about us. I told her that I couldn't do it and she got upset, rightly so. I just knew it was best for me to not get involved and then not be able to move out or have a huge falling out. I did help the best I could with helping her once she got into town. We talked about things and she understood that it probably was for the best that we didn't live together. We hung out quite often in the begining. She did start drinking a lot and I wasn't interested in hanging out as much. This is where it all comes back together...
At some point during this time she admitted to me about two things related to the above stories... The first being that when she first met me for the first week she thought I was a boy and was given special priviledges cause the principal asked for me to show her around. She believed it cause I went into the girls bathroom with her. Then she realized that I was on the role call in her girls gym class and it dawned on her that I was in fact a girl not a boy. I did have short hair above my ears through out middle school.
The next realization was that when we had gone sailing and she saw the white bag... she assumed it was cocaine she was trying to figure out how to tell me that she isn't into cocaine, until she saw me actually eating the little debby snack. It's funny now cause out of our school I really would be seen as the least likely person to ever do cocaine. I guess it also makes sense cause the rumor was my sister was into drugs, and drinking so of course I would have some drugs available to me. It's kind of funny and shows how small of a town I came from.
