I got your back

Growing up I have been friends with pretty much the same people for most of my life, what that means is that we all have a strong bond and we all get along and know each other pretty well. We know how to get on each others nerves but we also know how to cheer each other up, which is always good for friendships. This is a story about the time that a friend of mine had my back, and a time where I was there for my friends.

It was a late weekend night and all of the boys texted the group chat and decided that we would all go to Applebees that night, we got there and it was already pretty late after everyone was out of work and stuff so it was about nine and it was not super packed anymore. The six of us sat down at the table, Me, Brandon, Beryl on one side, and Matt, Evan and Caleb all sat on the other side. We all sat down and ordered our drinks, then we got those and we ordered our food. We were at the restaurant for quite a while just chatting back and forth after we were done eating, but… when it came time to pay the bill, Beryl messed up somewhere and his check was a bit over what he had with him, it was no big deal we just wanted to know where or how he messed up and ordered too much. Evan and I both gave Beryl a few bucks and he was able to pay for his total bill and leave a tip, which was fine by us because we didn’t want him to get in trouble or have to call his parents for money. Helping out friends in this way is not always like hey you have to pay me back, its more of a “If I ever need help, you better be there for me” which is how it should work with your close friends. You guys should always have each others back and help one another out if they ever need it.

A time where my friends helped me out, my friends are almost always there for me whenever I need it and with that being said there are a lot of moments I could choose from but I am going to choose one that relates back to when I helped out a friend of mine. It was a late night and Brandon, Beryl, and I were on our way home from Freeport, we just went there to see all the lights on the trees and walk around from store to store. I bought a few things there and used most of my money but they wanted to go out to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings in Topsham, which is where we went next on our way home. We got there and it was getting pretty late, around nine I would say and there was quite a few people at Buffalo Wild Wings. Mostly because of games and other things that were going on so people just wanted to watch them, but we got our seats and all ordered drinks and just talked until our waitress came back with our drinks. We then ordered our actual meals and I was pretty sure that I had enough money to pay for everything that I got so I went with it and got what I usually do. The waitress brought our food back out to us and it looked amazing, I was actually starving because I didn’t eat when we were in Freeport and we stayed there for quite a long time. I was eating all of my food and it was delicious, they both said that they enjoyed their food as well so it seemed like a successful trip to me. About ten to fifteen minutes had passed and everyone was completely done their food, the waitress came by and asked the usual “any room for dessert” like they do everywhere, and none of us got it. We were so full at this point that we just wanted to get the check and head home. We waited around another five minutes to get our checks back, but we knew going to Buffalo Wild Wings was not going to be a fast trip, they usually take a while for things. We took our bills and looked them over and got out our money, Brandon and Beryl both took out their money to pay, this is when I realized that I was about $5 short of being able to pay my bill, somehow I was short, even when I thought I had enough. Brandon offered to give me the few bucks I needed to pay the rest of my bill and I was able to pay the bill and leave a tip because he gave me $7 instead of just the $5 which was great. We all gave the waitress our bills and I just told her to keep the change, they both paid with cards so we had to wait a few more minutes. The waitress came back with our cards and she was super nice about everything, we left the restaurant, got back in my car and headed home. First stop was to drop Beryl off at his house, then Brandon got picked up at my house and went home from there.

These stories have taught me that having strong friendships mean that you are willing to help each other out when you are in the need of help, and in both of these cases that was true. I have some pretty good friends and I am glad that they have helped me and I hope they will continue to help me when I need it. I also enjoy that I can repay them by helping them out whenever they need it. Both of the stories that I told connect in the same way, and they both show a time where my friends helped me out and then I did the same for them at a different time, what comes around goes around.

Photo by phossil on Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND