Enemies Reunited

I had an email from Friends Reunited this morning, inviting me to join. Call me unsociable, but am I the only person who just isn’t interested in knowing what my old school friends mates enemies bullies colleagues are doing now?

When I left school, I cut myself off from the whole thing as quickly as I could. It was the best day of my life to date. I had my tutor sign off my leaving slip, handed it in at the office, then walked out of the front door and lit a cigarette. I can still remember the exact taste of that Marlboro Red as the smoke hit the back of my throat and the tears of relief stung my eyes. I exhaled the smoke and it felt as though I was finally breathing again after seven years of holding my breath.

I kept in touch with two people from school. One of them I had sporadic contact with over the next couple of years until it became clear that she was never going to evolve past the person she’d been at school (which I already had). On the night when I went to what the Americans so quaintly call ‘third base’ with her boyfriend while she was passed out in the next room, I realised that the complete lack of guilt might be an indicator that it was time to let the friendship slide.

The other is LadyDi, who I remain friends with to this day. I truly believe that the main reason we are still friends is that we both hated school as much as each other, and therefore our friendship was always based on who we were, not where we were.

So if you don’t mind, I won’t be responding to the call of Friends Reunited. I have no friends from that period to be reunited with.