Your friend in the movie business

I have two friends.  One girl and one boy.  They have no interaction with eachother and have no knowledge of eachother outside the brief mentions I give of the other while in the presence of one.

David first.  David finds joy in little things.  Laughing as fart jokes and groin injuries he has no interest in politics or science or any current topic of interest not directly related to guns, cars and naked women. With the exception of myself the company he holds consists of nothing but rednecks, crackwhores and people who haven’t ever quite been able to let go of Metallica.  He is the portal to what I should call my “douschebag personality”. 

He is who I go with to see action movies, to discuss the waning glory of Jessica Alba and if she’ll consent to nude scenes soon, and whom I consult when my Buick starts going “clunkclunkclunkclunk” whenever I let the wheel drift. 

David has always been a good friend and very tolerant of my excessive amount of arrogance and personality quirks but I fear this side of my personality is coming to an end.  We simply have no real shared interests.  Whenever one of us starts a conversation about something, the other grunts noncommittally and quickly changes the subject to something else where the cycle repeats itself.  We now rarely stay around each-other for more than three hours at a time and flimsy excuses to leave are common.

But I cannot abandon one of my two friends.  Despite what I write I know that David is an intelligent person.  He does himself an injustice by limiting himself to previously stated areas and associations but I admit I am jealous of the single matter that he always knows what he wants.  He often lacks the motivation to achieve his goals but if you ask him what his career goal is, he’ll immediately reply that he’d like to be a specialized auto mechanic.  His relationship status?  Happily single and not looking.  Political stance?  Screw Bush. 

He never changes and this is one of the reasons I will make our friendship endure.  Because he is the stability in my relationships and provides nothing more and nothing less than I expect which is exactly what I need when my other personality gets lonely.

Which brings us right around to my other half.  Mel.

She is the catalyst to my change.  Openly critical of anything she thinks should be criticized she is the single greatest factor in my life to date.  If she were to read this she would be very critical of that fact…

I started dating Mel the summer directly following my High School graduation.  Coming off of a depressing break up I was not as good to Mel as I should have been.  Back then I don’t even think I liked her.  She was an actress but her best performances by far were those off-stage.  When she was with me she acted the perfect girlfriend.  Docile, pretty, almost shy.  This is the polar opposite of who Mel is and I unknowingly(at first) forced her to live in denial of herself.   Later in the relationship she even told me exactly what she was doing but I ignored her pleas to give her dignity back. 

In those six months I cast aside many of the moral concepts I had adhered to up until then.  Afterwards, she broke up with me on the mentioned basis that she couldn’t be herself with me but desperate as I was at the time I maintained a distant acquaintance.  Eventually I wriggled my way into a closer friendship.  It was time for her to repay me for what I did to her.  Thoroughly rebuking my advances whenever they showed themselves she unabashedly used me.  At this point I had realized the pains I had caused her and through remorse and a lingering attraction I took the abuse in with little complaint and was soon bereft of my own dignity.

We were even.

Two years later our friendship endures.  The last year in particular has been the most gratifying relationship in my life.  We call each-other whenever the urge presents itself, go to lunch or dinner and see a movie or play.  The conversation we give each other is filled to bursting with amusing dialogue and through pure unexplainable coincidence two people who were nothing alike with nothing in common and opposite personalities have managed to become comfortable fitting additions to each other.

But like I said, Mel changes me.  For example, she point-blank refuses to allow me to speak during a movie.  She even decks me if I do so.  It aggravated me to no end not being able to express my derogatory opinion of Ashton Kutcher during utterly mindless dialogue, but not only do I not mind it any more(the silence, not Kutcher), I actually enforce the same rules on David when I see movies with him! 

Deeper, she changes distinct parts of my personality.  Where before I was reliant upon flattering relationships, I now have no inclination to look for one at all.  Where I used to feel continually sorry for myself, I now see in perspective.  Because of her I can now FIX MY OWN PROBLEMS!  She is also the reason I am drifting away from David.  While David rolls his eyes at my arrogance, Mel bolsters it.  She criticizes me when I need it, to be sure, but our ego’s are one in the same I think.  When one experiences a success over a lesser individual and is shared through our conversations, it is a victory for both.

Am I still romantically attracted to Mel? 

…..

I’m unsure, but I don’t think so.  Despite my slow evolution into her thought process I still remember the things she did to me and the things I did to her.  Time has not closed them.  She is more beautiful than she ever has been and her real personality far outstrips the accommodating actress I once demanded, but I think we would hate ourselves.

Dast will forever be a word to me.