This happened a few years ago. Life eventually found a way and I'm doing good. But from time to time I still remember this and get angry/sad.
A few years ago I found a great group of friends. It was one the happiest times of my life and I still cherish those memories. Not long after I joined it I started going out with a girl and we were together for about 4 years. The group eventually settled in all couples and a single friend who I'll call Peter (the incel of this story). I call him an incel but he was far from being one back then. He often went out with girls and had a few flings though nothing serious (by his own choice).
Peter smoked a lot of pot and, with time, it took a toll on his social skills. Often he was too high to have any kind of "game" and he ended up in a rut. After a year he found himself orbiting a younger girl who wanted nothing with him. Lets call her Mary. Mary made out with him once when she was drunk out of her mind and regreted it. She told him she was not interested but he never took the hint. At about the same time my girlfriend broke up with me and my world fell appart.
To say I was devastated is putting it mildly. But that's not that story I'm telling today. While I was devastated I did accept it was over and desperately wanted to move on. And by moving on I mean sleep with a lot of women. And as recently single, me and Peter quickly gravitated to become each other's wing men. We often stayed out late partying and bonded through our common single life. I vented about my ex while he also vented about Mary. To his credit, in those first few months he was very supportive and a good friend.
Not long after, though, something started going very very wrong. Peter always had this major crush about a girl in our group, Patty. It was very weird. Patty had stopped hanging out with us often not long after I came by. She lived with her long-term boyfriend and slowly stopped going out as much. She and Peter were great friends and he would drop everything whenever she came out. Not surprisingly he was very cold with her boyfriend. He never went out though, to my annoyance since he's a great guy.
Not long after I became single Patty started going out a bit more (not because of me). I enjoyed it because I always liked her and she was always a very easy person to talk to. I never saw her as anything other than a friend and vice-versa. Well, you can see where this is going. Peter started getting extremely paranoid that I was putting my moves on her. The mere insinuation I was putting my moves on a girl in a relationship (with a guy I like, no less) offended me. Once he totally went on on me because I was talking to her for 30 minutes straight and he felt, and I quote, that my body language was of someone flirting with her. Mind you, this guy wasn't even worried about her boyfriend, he was just pissed because he somehow though I was stealing his crush. This came to point where he actually made an ultimatum that if I was his friend I would never speak to her again. Yes, you read right. And I actually acquiesced since I was so emotionally fragile to protest. By this time I had gone into a deep depression because of my ex and started doing therapy.
It didn't stop with Patty. After that a pattern emerged. We would go out and he would get infatuated with girls that weren't interested in him and basically call dibs on each one. He would approach them high out of his mind and creep them out and when he saw them actually enjoying my company he would get angry. One of them, lets call her Lisa, I met her a bit before he did. I practically introduced them. She was actually the one that convinced me to go to therapy for my depression. Once we were going home after a night out and chatting about politics and I mentioned I had talked about that with Lisa and he completely lost his mind. In his words, I was a shit friend because he had told me he liked her a lot and as soon as I knew that I should've never talked to her again. Mind you, while I was interested in her at first, I had realized I was in no condition to have anything with her the way I was, and I had gave up on that idea long before I introduced them. I still was her friend though. This time I stood my ground and when he started getting agressive I turned my back on him and left.
The next day, after sobering up, he messaged me apologizing. He was honest and admitted he had a unhealthy fixation with some women, especially Patty but now also Lisa. That he didn't mean to lose me as friend, and yada yada yada. I forgave him. It was fine for a while. Until I started slowly realizing he was trying to keep me appart. We met new people (among them Lisa) and they would invite us to go out with them. They would talk to him first and tell him to pass the message to me and he would...forget. I started catching him on those lies. I would meet them around and they'd be surprised to see me and ask why didn't I come with them if I was in town. Until one time Lisa invited me directly and came to pick me up. When Peter saw me arrive with her he looked like he ate a lemon. I didn't take it personally and moved on.
Until one night I was supposed to meet him and he ghosted me. I didn't think much of it. As far as I knew he got lucky and I should just count him out for the night. I went out by myself and, guess what, we crossed paths again and once again was greeted by confused "I thought you were staying home". I was having a bad night and this time I couldn't hide my hurt. I turned my back and just left. A friend (not from that group) found out and went to my place to comfort me. She told me not to stay home moping and just go to the bar I was planning to go (where Peter would most likely end up) and just have fun. And that I did. When I got there Peter, Lisa and the others were already there. I just calmed myself and went there and asked to talk to Peter. I calmly told him what I was feeling. That I was feeling left out and he was giving the vibe of trying to keep me out himself. I expected to hear a "nooo, that's all in your head". I didn't. He admitted everything. He said to my face I was ruining his chances with Lisa (which only he thought he had) and he was trying to drive me out since she gave me too much attention. He also told me to go fuck myself and flipped me off to my face. I immediately turned my back on him and went to another group. I was done. He went back to Lisa, drunk out of his mind, all hopeful tonight was the night.
You see, what he didn't know is that Lisa knows what she wants. And it wasn't him. She likes to party. But she especially likes to party with Tony. Tony is this great good-looking guy whose smile could melt a glaciar. And he also happens to be a pretty cool chap. Lisa likes to get on with other guys casually. But Tony...Tony makes her legs shake and I had watched that happen a few times before. So, Peter is looking at Lisa like she's his future wife. He's shinning like the sun and smiling like it's the best day of his life even though he just told one of his best friends to go fuck himself. She's having a nice time too. I'm having fun with another friend and watching this scene unfold from the corner of my eye. And Tony comes in looking like a million dollars. In less than 5 minutes Lisa is grabbing him like he's food and literally throwing herself at him. Peter face just fell. And I almost felt sorry for him. Almost. I actually laughed though discretely. I got myself a drink and just like that Lisa and Tony where gone. Probably went to church. And I never saw anyone so defeated and so ridiculous as Peter at that moment. He tried to play it off but I could tell his heart had just broken into a million pieces. He bet everything on Lisa, even his friendship, to see it blow it on his face while he saw me watching it. I almost felt sorry for him. Almost. And then Mary comes in. Remember her? Yeah...now I did felt sorry for him, no matter what he had just did. I remember saying out loud "ooi...that's much, that's cruel". If could've helped him then I would've.
Naturally, in his despair he tried to get lucky with her and she brutally rejected him. She wouldn't have if she had seen what had happened with Lisa. Mary is a doll but she was done with Peter and he had almost stalked her a few months before. He ended up drinking himself comatose and had to be carried out in the end. I actually helped carry him.
He probably felt very stupid the next day. A few days after that I messaged me if I was going out but I left him on read. But we still had common friends (not the Lisa group, the old ones) so I never actually stopped talking to him. But he was mostly relegated to an acquaintance. I was civil, even nice, but always kept a safe distance.
One friend in particular, John, was the main reason we still hanged. John was a childhood friend, he was actually the one who introduced me to that old group. John and Peter are best friends. Peter idolizes John. John plays in a band, is VERY popular with the ladies. He was one the few people who had seen Peter's obsession with Patty and he was actually present when I was given the ultimatum. While he though Peter was going too far he advised me to do what he wanted to keep the peace.
You guys can see I like telling details...but there aren't much in the end of this story. The pandemic came. We started gathering at people's places when it ease up and Peter started inviting everybody to his place. Obviously I was left out. He even started inviting my ex out of nowhere when they hadn't talked with her since the break-up. Because of that I had a fallout with John and we never talked again. I just let it go. It caused a relapse in my depression but I jumped right back up. Word out on the street is...I fell out with Peter because of a girl I liked. Yeah. I don't care that much what people think. Truth eventually comes out. The people who mattered stood by me. I found I had a few great friends I never knew about. Most people aren't angry with me but since they were friends with John and Peter longer, they stood by them. They still say hello when we cross paths and are happy to see me. But I let myself stay away and maybe it was for the best. I still think about it sometimes and that's why I end up writing shit like this. I hope Peter burns in hell. He's vile and he'll be as miserable as he deserves. I miss John and still defend him when people talk shit about him. I've been with someone else for years now and life moves on.
Yes! A Ferrari, a prostitute (male or female) and a psychologist for every citizen. Also, wine on tap in every home.
You either get the joke or you don't.