Initially I’d penned what was essentially two page short story to establish context, but upon rereading, it was the most incomprehensible wall of text to ever disgrace this earth, so I’ve moved to just rewrite the main points with bullets.
- Best friend of 6~ years, had been friends/acquaintances since Elementary school.
- Best friend has a job at nice, sit-down restaurant, eventually recommends me to his manager for a “host” position (which he also had.)
- I get hired, we work together for a number of months with absolutely no issues.
- Boss implements policy changes I found disagreeable–namely, only running one host per shift. (Working with my friend was a big draw for this job.)
- Boss insisted that hosts memorize the entire the 40 plus menu of Sushi rolls and all ingredients so that we may respond faster to customers asking about them on the phone. (despite having a menu in front of us at all times that we could open and read off of, even insisting we do homework to study for our 12.50 an hour job.)
- Get fed up with this and eventually walk out in the middle of a shift and quit my job. (Not defending my actions, I acknowledge was a immature, petulant action and I certainly could’ve handled it better. I don’t mean to psychoanalyze myself but I had a significant lack of control in my life at the time and this this was something I felt like could actually dictate but yeah.)
- See my friend the next day at school, he asks me about it and I tell him. He doesn’t seem upset whatsoever and essentially brushes it off. He never brings it up again.
- Fast forward to December, about two months later–I fulfill my graduation path and am able to graduate early. He continues schooling, will graduate in May.
- He starts to become less responsive in texts almost immediately. Responses range from cagey to nonexistent. Even still, he expresses interest in “hanging out” at some point and we make multiple plans that he ultimately bails out on. I’m not too bothered, since I’ve never bothered much with texting and he’s always been a silly kind of guy. I myself am busy with college classes.
- Graduation ceremony in May, five months have passed. We see one another again for the first time in person at the graduation ceremony, where we literally spend the entire time we had together laughing and hanging out like we used to. At this point, he’s invited me on a trip that was to occur in July with a few other friends.
- Graduation ceremony is over, month passes. We don’t text at all. I follow up just a few days ago, saying I wanted to come to his house to come see him and talk, and he tells me after months of caginess that he doesn’t think we’d make good friends anymore. That I’d broken his trust when I’d walked out of the job he’d “stuck his neck out” to get me. End of relationship.
I know I was wrong to do so, and I don’t excuse my actions, but the fact that he’d never bring it up to me again, until this point? This is something we could’ve easily had a discussion about and came to an amicable resolution. And the fact that he’d end such a long relationship over a few simple texts just kind of bums me out. I mean, I understand why he would rightfully be upset with my actions but it doesn’t make this sting any less. I’ve sort of been anticipating something like this for a while, so it didn’t hit me as hard as it might of (especially because we haven’t been seeing one another,) but still. I’ve just felt totally bummed the past few days. I tried to tell myself it doesn’t really bother me, but it’s just sort of been gnawing away at me. Like, it’s not like I’m some inconsolable mess, but I haven’t been all that bubbly either. Just kind of numb. I’m really only distracted by it when I’m out with my friends, but I haven’t really told them about it past the basics because I don’t think they’d understand. I will say that writing this out has been rather cathartic, though and I’m starting to feel a little better alone with my thoughts. Ultimately, I do respect and understand his decision, but I just wish that he could’ve told me some way else, so I can actually get closure for a friendship that has lasted the majority of my life instead of just some blobs of text.
TL:DR Walked out of job friend got for me, friend doesn’t seem to care, friend proceeds to essentially ghost me the next few months, tells me a few days I broke his trust and he doesn’t want to be my friend anymore.