248 – Betrayal

Imagine you have plans. Fun plans to play games with your friends on a Friday night. Not the most glamorous way to greet the weekend, but a good time nonetheless. Now imagine one of your friends has a job that keeps him working late. So you build the entire night around his schedule. And then imagine that three hours before game night kicks off, you are informed that this friend can no longer attend. Betrayal!

I have been lucky enough to live my life free of traitorous scoundrels up until this point. I say “lucky”, but it’s a skill really – befriending people who won’t turn around and stab you in the back. I may not trust many people, but those who receive it truly earn it. Or so I thought.

What kind of a man makes plans and then cancels them because of “work?” A man without morals or loyalty, that’s who. I have skipped work for the tiniest of reasons in the past; you would think this gentleman could worm his way out for something as important as rolling dice and flipping cards with a few good friends. But he could not. Because he is weak-willed. And a coward.

I am ashamed to say that I have been accused of these charges myself. It is no secret that I work in special education at a local south central high school, though that school’s identity is a secret. One of the young men that I work closely with often declares me a traitor – usually because I have conducted tangential interactions with another student or adult that he deems unworthy. This young man’s reaction always seemed comically overblown. Until now.

Alright now that I’ve envoked a special ed student in my faux anger I am done with this pretend diatribe. Obviously my friend’s reasoning is legitimate, and he will certainly have a worse time working into the early hours of Saturday morning than I will doing whatever it is I do when the sun goes down. I don’t blame him – in fact I feel bad for him – but I had already decided to phone in a review of game night tonight, so I needed to find a new topic to quickly write a few hundred words about. Mission accomplished. Have a good night, everyone.