a younger crowd

She joined us for dinner 45 minutes late. She sat down and kissed me twice on the cheek then said hello to everyone she knew at the table. Ignoring my two friends she hasn't met, she asked who picked the seating arrangement. She was flustered. She was wearing a bright red dress and extremely high heels. She didn't make eye contact with anybody but me. She said "I'm so EXCITED! to SEE you" with a high-pitched voice and took pictures of herself with Fred's camera, erasing a few she didn't like.

My friend reached across the table and touched my hand "Who is this? How do you know her? She's completely crazy!" he said in French.

"It's my new best friend" I replied in English and laughed. He laughed too.

She's young. And stupid. And useless. But what is life if it isn't just about the effort. It works for her. She meets people. Mostly useless people, but some interesting ones sometimes make it in the mix. And I make friends with them.

And they like me. More than they like her even.

"You know Shannon?" She says reading my text messages on my phone
"Yeah, she's getting me a job" I reply
"How do you know her?" She asks
"Through Richard"
"But you don't even know Richard!" She exclaims
"I don't even know Shannon!" I reply

I think that this is why she's my friend.

"It hurts, Kat" She said to me last Thursday
"What does? That I have a boyfriend?" I reply - she would rather I'd be single
"No, seeing you two together in school" She says about someone very different form my boyfriend.
"What do you mean?"
"I love you to death Kat, but it hurts. Like seeing your best friend with your ex-boyfriend"

I guess... only I'm not really her best friend, and he's not really her ex-boyfriend, and I'm definitely not with him.

It's all only relatively true.