People You've Known Pt. 2

SSSSSShe was sweet. Just as sweet as honey. Bubbly, bouncy and birdlike, hopping around and cheeping endlessly. Dumb as rocks and always blind, cross-eyed drunk. Well into adulthood, she still came off as the slowest pupil in 6th grade.

As she knocked over another row of drinks, she slurred another unintelligible apology and flashed that million-watt Down's Syndrome smile. Everybody looked the other way, embarrassed.

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He had an open and honest face, and a personality that followed suit. He made no pretense about his dreams and desires in this life, and was not ashamed of them; nor was he ashamed of any failure to attain them. Every time you hung out with him you felt free and unfettered, like you could tell him anything. He was lonely and sad, and that was part of the reason why you spent so much time together. You did not take it for granted.

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She considered herself to be Rock Royalty, having participated in some dubious band whose 15 minutes had elapsed nearly two decades ago. She still expected to be let in free at the clubs, to be doted on, to be coddled. She had plenty of arse-kissing acolytes who propped up her outsized ego, and she was affronted when you didn't fawn.

She never played a note of real music in her life, yet was convinced she had the keys to what was really "rock n' roll", whatever the fuck that means. People still tell her she's a-maaaaa-zing.


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Everybody loved this guy, EVERYbody. He was warm, fun, unpretentious and seemingly genuine -- you almost might call him angelic.

But as is often the case, closer inspection revealed a disappointing reality. His loyalty to longstanding friends was subject to up-to-the-minute obsessions with the flavor-of-the-week, empty calorie types that constantly flitted in and out of his life. Whimsy reigned supreme -- how easy it was to be trumped by the latest trollop!

All your life you'd hoped people would get more mature. But if you didn't know better, you could swear you were still in the junior high cafeteria.

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A volatile person. Opinionated. Impish like a New York Times-quoting, 21st Century Pan. He always thought he was right, was Right with a capital R. Often this assuredness came with a smug know-it-all smile.

But he was loyal and strong, and constantly worked toward a sky-high ideal in everything he did. He had a voracious appetite for life and he made you check yourself and raised your pathetically low standards to a height they might very well not have reached without having known him.

He also adored you.

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