I’m striving for a vision of what I want to achieve in life that I work to express by how I carry myself to be. When it came time for me to go to that place out west-just like the one in the movies, where I can sit back, go to the saloon, order a shot of whisky at the bar, wait for trouble to arrive, shoot them in cold blood, bang a waitress upstairs, and then sit back down in my chair and watch the rest of the football game like nothing happened😂; a surreal vision, of course, where all sorts of decadent life experiences fill every point of view with a cloud of pleasure-this was the virtual reality-like daydream I found myself in, of which I had no premonition or gut-feeling that it would come to a sudden stop like the idiots who slam on their brakes all of a sudden in rhe left lane on Interstate 10 in Los Angeles. 
That’s when I felt the cold touch of a hand that grabbed me-jerking at my arm even!

I could have sworn it was someone I knew. Someone who had an emergency and needed my help. Someone who looked around, couldn’t find anyone, and now came to me as a last resort-knowing that their chances of getting assistance-even at a time like that!-were super slim. Hahahaha. Boy was I wrong (as usual).

It wasn’t too long before I saw someone I had not seen for a long, long time. How and why the hell was he here? We were never friends. We were never even what could be considered “remotely cool associated acquaintances”: whatever that is, or what it means, it doesn’t mean friendly at all (ok y’all?😂). I mean, we were about as friendly as you’d be with someone who asked you to wipe their ass for them. “No thank you bro! I think you can wipe your own ass-after all, we’re GROWN ASS MEN!” 
That’s when the hand came out. He looked at me with the disdain of a spurned panhandler in front of a brand new Starbucks smack dab in the middle of a freshly gentrified zip-code; in other words, he was expressing the sting of the rejection of his financial request with the uneasy gaze of his bloodshot eyes. 

So then, the attempts at manipulation started. Something I hate. Seemingly out of a nowhere, this clown begins to recant (a lengthy recounting if I may say so!😂) the total number of puchases and amounts of money he spent on my behalf as a friend (“Man, I was lookin’ out for you homie!). He was emphatic that he had done this-although no such thing had ever happened in reality (he went on and on whining about how he had made many large and small purchases-all on my behalf, and that I should be more appreciate-blah, blah, blah-and that I I had never reciprocated such loving kindness from a true-blue friend like him. SIDENOTE: If we are keeping track honestly, than I must point out to the audience that these purchases were mostly of the EXTREMELY SMALL variety-but anyway!😂). 

His voice continued to get louder and louder. First it was no big deal, but 15 minutes later, I could feel the ringing in my ears like loud music in a car played by someone who has horrible taste in whatever music they choose. And as if enduring this “sound-abuse” wasn’t bad enough, an undercurrent of rage began to rise to the surface and stink up the room along with the ear-ringing noises. Beneath the facade, the passive aggressiveness, and the fake & phony politeness he tried to wear as mask started to fade in the sunlight of my face.
And that is when everything went blank. 
I don’t remember much, but I remember waking up on my futon, and he was gone. All that was left was a pair of his broken headphones; he left a trail of hair like a dog-but at least the smell had dissipated. 
Ever since then I have been careful of who I keep around myself, and I watch out for people who misunderstand the term “friend”, and in whose warped mind this word evokes the image of a constant life-long benefactor. Those you love and care for sometimes come by to show off their extreme makeover, and try to catch you off-guard and unawares when they flip sides to a darker, sinister, and more sociopathic self than their usual verbally, emotionally, and physically abusive personality. Behold your abuser, and do you not recognize him? Soon enough, you’ll end up used and abused.