My Friend's Baggage Affects Me
This is the second post featuring my rocky friendship with Jake; check out Part 1 here.
After I let Jake sleep on my couch for a few days, he went back to his parents' house. We remained in contact. I knew he was trouble, but I saw something in him that made me want to befriend him.
Jake had an inner strength that was absolutely amazing. Even though he appeared totally out of control with his addictions, inwardly he seemed to be bravely fighting something. Maybe drugs and alcohol were just his misguided way of fighting whatever his inner baggage was.I was determined to get to know Jake and find out!
Being friends with Jake was a wild ride. Never boring, never safe.
Once around midnight, I got a frantic call from him asking me to drive him home to his parents' house. Instead of giving me the address where he was, he gave an intersection of two streets near my house.
When I got there, I didn't see Jake. So, I called his phone. He immediately jumped from behind some bushes where he was hiding and got into my car. I knew I was going to hear a wild story. As I drove him home, he told me he was buying drugs in a nearby parking lot when the police raided the area. He ran into the woods and lost the police who were chasing him. When he got to the other side of the woods, he kept hiding and called me.
Oh no! I thought as I dropped off Jake at his parents' house. I was just unknowingly a driver of a getaway car in a crime!
I wondered if this friendship would get me in big trouble, but I cared too much to back out.
Jake never seemed to have a girlfriend, so I started wondering if he also had same-sex attractions like me. As we got closer, he started opening up and talking about difficult situations in his past.
One day, I asked him why he had trouble dating girls.
Jake's first response went something like: "My parents and the church f***ed me up with all their restrictions!"
Then, he admitted more: "I also did some experimenting that I can't get out of my mind."
To be continued…
Have you ever had a friend whose emotional baggage affected you? How have a friend's addictions hurt you? How have your own addictions affected others?
