That’s Stella

Well, it’s been an interesting few weeks since my best friend hooked up with GB. At first it started out as just a bit of fun and excitement. But it got out of hand when she couldn’t keep her mouth shut. The whole office found out. Then people she went to highschool with found out. People from her past called her out of the blue to get the story. Chicks in the office who never had any interest in hanging out with her all of a sudden were asking what her weekend plans were. It was ridiculous!!

I was away in Chicago for business and didn’t see it first hand, but on Monday when she returned to work and told everyone, her bosses and random colleagues were coming up to her every 10 minutes asking if he had texted back, some were even so blatantly rude/annoying and rifling through her bag to find her cell phone to check if she had received any new messages! INSANITY! What is wrong with people?!

All this attention and expectations really fucked over my friend. Her bosses said that if she was planning a rendezvous with GB, she could take a day off the next day and not feel bad about it - they just wanted to hear all about it. Which I suppose is cool that her bosses were encouraging of her to take a day off after shagging GB, but it’s not very cool that they were also constantly grilling her for updates.

A week later, after many lectures and crying and all that BS, she has learnt to keep her mouth shut. She’s told everyone it’s over - that he stopped messaging. Only me and another girlfriend (plus her mom) know what’s actually going on. The insanity has stopped, but the crafting of late night text messages has not!

In two hours, I am going to meet Jason’s new girlfriend. We were seeing each other intensely earlier this year, but now he has become one of my best friends. I’ve met his family and my dad has added him as one of his Facebook friends so there’s no backing out now. There are no romantic feelings whatsoever. How do I know this? After I realized the thought of shagging him repulsed me, I figured pursuing anything romantically serious with him was probably a bad idea. I should set things straight. He is one handsome guy - whenever I introduced him to friends they would harp on about how good looking he is, but what can I say? There was just no sexual chemistry.

He’s been seeing this girl for a month and called me on Friday to say things had progressed and were now using the “bf” and “gf” terms. Spew. I am really fucking nervous about meeting her. Jason said to me “She knows all about you - and she’s going to treat you like a princess”. Jason hasn’t said the most positive things about her so I’m slightly cautious.

I keep thinking… What should I wear? What if she hates me? What if I hate her? Do I tell him? Will this effect our friendship? Will he chose me over her? Is this going to last? Is it worth becoming friends with her? Oh god… I hope I don’t have to hang out with her every time I hang out with Jason. I hope she’s not too pretty. I wish I was slightly threatening looking….

The other day, our friend Johnny got back from a trip overseas and called me to catch up for a drink. We usually hang out in our group of friends that consists of me and five boys. I met all the boys through Jason because he went to college with them and I am super close to all of them but am definitely the odd one out being the only chick and foreigner. Johnny asked “So how are my boys doing?” But he quickly went to correct himself and said “Or should I say, how are your boys doing?”.

But am I losing a boy? Is Jason no longer one of “my boys”? I am insane.

There are a few relatively simple human things that still surprise me and give me warm and fuzzies. These are simple human behaviors that give me faith in the human kind. That is:

1. People in traffic using their common sense and giving way to flashing ambulances.
2. Seeing someone drop a penny or two or a few bills into a homeless persons cup.
3. Merging (in fact, this is a miracle if you ever see it happen in Perth)

I was at work this evening when I got a call from one of my boy friends Nick. He was all panicky and asked if I had heard about our friend Eric. I had no idea. He told me that Eric had collapsed on a side walk and was taken by ambulance to hospital. They had called the last person on his cell phone who was Nick’s friend and more of a business associate of Erik’s. So I am worried and I quickly call Jason - me and Eric’s best friend - but he wasn’t picking up. I call Eric and he tells me he’s in ER waiting to see a doctor, and that he just felt pressure in his head and blacked out and the next thing he knows he’s in hospital.

Half an hour later, Jason, Nick and I are sitting in ER hanging out with Eric. And you know what? That is fucking cool. In New York, friends are all you have. All my friends here moved away from their family and we’re all orphans in this city. You can always count on your family to do the hospital hang out, but knowing I have the friends that would do the same thing is kinda special.