Johnny and Nick

Johnny and Nick were close friends with each other throughout middle and high school. They hadn’t seen each other since they graduated however. Both of them went on to go to college, but in different places. Johnny stayed at home so that he could save money and not have to live on campus, but Nick was getting sick of his home state of Maine and wanted to go to school some place else. He chose to go to Massachusetts since he had family members there. Johnny was really sad about this when he heard the news in August since he hoped that he and Nick would still be able to hang out during the school year. The day came for Nick to move out to Massachusetts for the following school year, and Johnny helped him pack up for his drive over “Hey man, good luck to you this year. I hope you have loads of fun in Mass. I’m gonna miss hanging out with you every week dude,” Johnny said to Nick. “Thanks dude. I feel bad that you can’t come with me dude. It’ll be nice to get out of Maine for a little bit,” Nick responded. “Good luck to you too man!,” Nick also replied back, after a brief pause. “Thanks dude,” Johnny responded. Nick got in his car, backed out of his driveway, and rolled the window down to say one last thing to Johnny. “I’ll see you when I get back in May dude,” Nick told him. “See you then man,” Johnny responded. As Nick drove off, Johnny waved at him until he couldn’t see Nick’s car anymore and then drove himself home.

That night, before Johnny went to bed, he went to his CD collection and took out the Dio album “Holy Diver”. He listened to this album, and even played guitar to a couple of the songs, before going to bed that night. This was one of Nick’s favorite albums, and Johnny himself got into this band after Nick introduced him to them back when they were in middle school. As he listened to that album, he also looked through some other CD’s in his collection. He looked at album covers for many other bands in his collection like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Black Sabbath, all while feeling a little nostalgic. Though many of his favorite bands he discovered on his own, a good chunk of his CD’s, at least most of the heavy metal albums anyway, were all gifts that Nick got him throughout the years. While he was sad that Nick had to go to Massachusetts for 8 months, he was excited for him to come back in May and bond with him over music again.

Though Nick told Johnny that he would be back in May, he never said when in May. So on Johnny’s last day of finals, he didn’t even find out that Nick was back until running into him at around 6-ish while he was out skating. They spent some time that evening catching up. “Nick! I didn’t know you were back already man,” Johnny said to him. “Yeah dude! I just got back today man! I was about to hit you up when I got home,” Nick told Johnny. “Well since I just ran into you, what are you up to man,” Johnny asked Nick. “Just going for a walk. I was gonna go to the playground near my old grade school and film a funny ninja video for my YouTube channel. Wanna be in it,” Nick proceeded to ask Johnny. “Yeah! Sure why not,” Johnny responded. They then proceeded to go to the playground and film a couple of scenes of Johnny trying to jump Nick, who was dressed in a ninja outfit, and they ended up filming a cheesy, yet humorous fight sequence for his YouTube video.

A few days later, Johnny and Nick met up again to hang out. This time it wasn’t to make another video, but rather to just chat and catch up some more since last time it was more of a spur of the moment type of thing. They decided to hang out at the football field near their old middle school since it was nice enough out, and it was close enough to Nick’s house. “Man, I haven’t been on these bleachers in like 5 years,” Johnny said. He remembered back when he and Nick had phys. ed. in middle school was where he and Nick first met. Now that he was back there years later with his buddy Nick, it gave him a somewhat nostalgic feeling. “You know something dude, it’s nice to be back here hanging out with you and such,” Johnny said to Nick. “Thanks dude. In some ways it’s nice to be back, though I have to admit, this place is nowhere near as nice as Massachusetts. This might sound kinda rude, but after having hung out there for almost a year, coming back this place feels like kind of a dump,” Nick responded. Johnny thought it what a little rude, but he shrugged it off because Nick at least acknowledged that it might, which to Johnny felt like something of an apology.

Throughout the course of the summer, Johnny and Nick continued to hang out with one another whenever they could. Every time they did hang out though, even though Johnny enjoyed it (or at least that’s what he told himself), he started to notice things about Nick more and more. For one thing, Johnny started to notice that Nick had become a vegan since he left Maine last year for college. Normally this would be something Johnny wouldn’t really care about one way or another, but something about the way Nick talked about it just really annoyed him. For one thing, Nick kept referring to Maine as “rednecky,”which Johnny found really insensitive. Johnny kept trying his best to act like it wasn’t a big deal because of how good of a friend Nick had always been to him, and Nick still complimented Johnny a lot of the time saying things about how cool he is.

However, one incident that made things really ugly was this one week where Nick and Johnny were going for a drive around town. Nick of course kept saying a lot of the same things he had been saying for about a month and a half now. One particular thing made Johnny snap though. At one point during the car ride, Nick said this to Johnny, “You should move to Massachusetts dude. It isn’t a shit-hole like this place is”. It was at this point that Johnny just got sick of Nick’s behavior, and abruptly hit the brakes on the car. “What the hell did you do that for,” Nick asked, as he raised his voice. “Will you stop it,” Johnny shouted at Nick. “Ever since you came back form Massachusetts it’s all been “Maine sucks. Massachusetts is better. People are way smarter over there. There’s more to do over there.” It’s driving me crazy,” Johnny shouted at Nick. “Besides! I happen to really like it here man. I know it’s not perfect, but it’s my home. And I’m proud that this is my home,” Johnny continued. “Why would you be proud to have a place filled with ignorant people as your home? That’s just dumb,” Nick shouted back at him. “Oh. So people that don’t appreciate the things that you appreciate now that you’ve spent a long time in a big city is automatically ignorant? Real nice Nick. Real nice,” Johnny angrily told Nick. “Why do you care man? You know I don’t think that you’re like everyone else here,” Nick responded. “That doesn’t mean I don’t take offense when you say mean things about things that I happen to like! What happened to you man? You used to be so much nicer and chill than this,” Johnny replied. “I don’t know, when did you turn into such a wuss,” Nick yelled back. “Just take me home,” Nick continued. “Wow, real mature,” Johnny responded. “I don’t wanna be around someone that gets so offended that easily,” Nick told him. This hurt Johnny a lot. He couldn’t believe that Nick would ever say such a thing to him. He also couldn’t believe that he said what he did to Nick. “Fine,” Johnny said in a calmer tone of voice. During the drive back to Nick’s house they didn’t say a word to each other. Johnny felt awful about what he had just said to Nick, but didn’t bother to try and apologize because he didn’t think it would be enough to fix things. As soon as Johnny pulled up to Nick’s house, Nick didn’t say anything as he left. Neither did Johnny. Nick just walked out of the car, closed the door, and headed inside. Johnny just drove off, feeling like he ruined the best thing of the last 6 years of his life. Nick also spent some time thinking about what happened throughout the next few nights, and he too felt awful for how he had acted and for the things he said to Johnny. He wanted to apologize just like Johnny did, but he wasn’t sure that Johnny would accept his apology after the way he had behaved.

A week after their argument in Johnny’s car, Johnny was skateboarding downtown, when he ran into Nick, who was riding his bike. “Hey wassup Johnny,” Nick asks him. “Oh… hey Nick. Didn’t see you there,” Johnny responds. Johnny’s reluctant to forgive Nick at first. Both of them are silent for a few seconds, as they both still feel bad about what happened last week, until Nick finally speaks. “Listen Johnny, I’m sorry that I’ve been such a jerk this summer. You know, since I got back from Massachusetts,” Nick says. “I’m sorry too,” Johnny replied. “What do you have to be sorry for man,” Nick asked him. “I’m sorry that I blew up on you,” Johnny told him. “I know being in Massachusetts made you learn things about yourself that you never knew before, and I know that you miss it there,” Johnny continued. “The thing is, I was kinda in denial about how much you had changed when you first came back. I was in denial because I didn’t want to fight with your or ruin our friendship, but that only made things worse. I feel like this is partly my fault,” Johnny said. “I wouldn’t worry about it. You were right. I have been a bit of a jerk, and I’m sorry,” Nick responded. “I hope we can still be friends, but if you don’t wanna be, I understand,” Nick said. “Are you kidding dude? You’ve been my best friends since 6th grade. I don’t want that to stop,” Johnny said. Hearing this made Nick smile a lot. Johnny was also a lot happier that he and his best friend were able to get past what was getting in the way of their friendship. “Thanks man. It means a lot,” Nick responded. “No problem dude,” Johnny told him. “Hey I heard that Amon Amarth is supposed to be coming to Portland in a couple of weeks. I heard tickets are still available. Did you wanna go,” Johnny asked him. “Yeah! That would be fun,” Nick responded. “Cool,” Johnny exclaimed. “Anyway where are you headed,” Johnny proceeded to ask Nick. “Just gonna ride around for a little bit. You can hang out with me if you want man. I see you got your skateboard,” Nick said. “Yeah! Wanna race,” Johnny asked Nick. “Sure! Where to?,” Nick asked Johnny. “To that park we always hang out,” Johnny responded. “You got it dude,” Nick told him. They proceeded to race, feeling more confident about their friendship.