Friend Merge

Ideas for Fiction, Writing Exercise #2 in Writing Fiction Step by Step by Josip Novakovich

I've never had many friends but there's always been a few people I could call on for social events that require companions.  Sometimes they are friends from work, other times they are friends from school.  However, the most stressful times are when I invite friends from each separate group.  A friend merge is not an easily accomplished feat.  

My birthday party required an unavoidable merging of the friends.  I usually do separate birthdays.  Nothing special.  This year however, was my 21st birthday.  This meant an unavoidable night on the town insisted upon by the three people I knew that were over 21.  Two from work and one from school.  I wanted to condense the suffering into one night and this required the dreaded friend merge.

We started with a dinner at a run of the mill restaurant chain.  When I arrived my two friends from work were already there.  My friend from school was running late.  I breathed a sigh of relief.  This would allow me to do some damage control.  

As I approached the table the two girls stood up and gave me big overly excited hugs.  

"You're 21!"

"Now, you have to come out with us all the time.  No excuses!"  This made my stomach hurt a bit but I just nodded along.  A smile frozen on my face.  I enjoyed my alone time.

"Yeah..thanks for coming"  I say with forced enthusiasm.  This restaurant isn't one where we can avoid conversing the entire time.  There's no televisions and our corner is fairly quiet.  "Listen, I have another friend coming.  I didn't really invite her.  I just mentioned that I was going out tonight and she kind of invited herself."  I feel sick about this feigned confession.  However, it has always been my method to lower all expectations.  

"The more the merrier!"  Rita says.  "I'll be so drunk that I'll probably make out with her.  You should warn her"

"She's not joking, she turns into such a lesbian when she drinks"  Heather giggles.  I don't like where this night is going.

"Well...I have the heart of a dancer.  Maybe the liquor will allow me to finally show you my awesome dance moves."  This is a stupid joke and I feel awkward for saying it but they show appreciation with a couple of laughs.  We are soon talking about the night to come, about how much we hate our b***h of a boss and about our crazy customer interactions for the day.  Rita went into detail about a vacuum cleaner return and by the end of her story we were in a rage.  

Working in retail gave us all minor P.S.D.  It bonded us in a way that we never would have bonded before.  The girls from work had very different personalities, not only from me but from each other.  Heather was the cheerleader, Rita was the bad girl, and I..well, I was the nerd.

Just as I was beginning to feel comfortable.  I see my friend from across the restaurant.  I get that clenching feeling in my gut.  I point her out to my friends and they wave at her.  My friend looks like a deer in the headlights as she heads over.

"Hello!"  She says with an awkward hand movement that looks slightly like a wave.  She is my people.  We are cut from the same cloth.  I am worried that there is only room in our group for one awkward mess.  It took me a long time to loosen up around Heather and Rita and most of the work was done on their end.  I take a deep breath.  

"This is Jessica, we've been friends since middle school"  I say filling the sudden silence.  "And this is Rita and Heather from that hellhole that I work at".  Rita and Heather give an appreciative laugh.

"It's literally the worst place in the world."  Heather exclaims and Jessica smirks.

The waiter approaches the table at just the right time.

"We're gonna need a round of Long Islands to start."  Rita says before the waiter can utter a word.  The waiter laughs and asks for I.D.s.  Rita and Heather make a big show about my birthday while Jessica laughs along awkwardly.

After the waiter heads to the bar Heather turns her attention to Jessica.  "So, what bars do you like to go to?"

"Well, there's only one bar in particular that I go to.  It's a karaoke bar.  Sometimes I go with my family."

I shudder.  Are my school friends really this uncool.  However, Heather nods excitedly, "I LOVE karaoke!  The bar we're going to tonight has karaoke night every Thursday and I can never get anyone to go with me.  We should go sometime." 

Jessica looks surprised, "Yeah definitely.  Although I may embarrass you.  When I've had a few drinks my singing sounds terrible."

"Oh, I can't sing worth a damn either, that's not the point"

"Exactly"  Jessica lights up.

From that point on the night was easy.  There were a few times where Jessica mentioned her cat a bit more than she should have and a few times where Heather and Rita talked a bit too much about people at work.  However, as the night wore on and we made our transition to the bar, the liquor put us in good spirits. 

I did some embarrassing dance moves to popular songs I claimed to despise and Jessica got a guy's number to everyone's surprise.  It was a much better night than I had expected it to be.

I realized that I wasn't really worried about Jessica.  I was worried about Heather and Rita.  They were different from anyone who I had hung out with before and I assumed they would be mean and cold to anyone who wasn't as cool as they were.  However, they all had one thing in common, me.  

That was my first successful friend merge.

Author's Note

This is the exercise this writing is based on:
"2. Begin to write a story from your own experience. For example, dramatize a social get-together; suppose you visited a family with your family (or alone), enjoyed a meal, and talked. Record conversation, observations, and thoughts in a scene." (Novakovich, p. 12)

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