I'm really not planning to return here regularly, but I need to get this out of my system and I'm not going to be a gossip monger. So seeing as how you are internet people, you don't know us, and whatever conclusions you draw don't really matter in the long run, I'm going to vent here.
One of my friends, Jack, a guy I thought was really great, has basically taken the ultimate plunge. I don't use words like sweet very often, and never to describe a guy, but he was a sweet guy. He was fluent in Japanese, he had a passion for the arts, and he loved his kitten. He was the kind of guy who'd see a beautiful bed of flowers in your yard and knock on your door to tell you how wonderful they are. Admittedly a bit off, but I always thought he was okay. As you can imagine, he also got a fair amount of female attention.
He's been my wingman for a while. He's perfect at it. Charming and sweet, but as soon as things heat up he flops. Meaning I usually get my pick of the litter. I guess I knew he had issues. He abused drugs and alcohol thoroughly. Part of the reason he'd flop with women is he'd get excited and kind of aggressive. He'd drink too much, babble nonsense and start shadow boxing or climbing the rafters. (He's an amateur rock climber). He'd weird out the girls and I'd be there to comfort and soothe them. I was the rock to his crazy and it worked wonders.
Again, I thought he was harmless. Just a sweet guy who can't talk to women. Well, I hadn't seen or heard form him in weeks. A friend of mine told me he'd heard from a friend who heard it from some guy's mom that he'd been arrested for assaulting a police officer with a deadly weapon. Outrageous bullshit rumor, right?
I just looked up his criminal record. On August 31st he was charged with attempted murder in the first degree, assault in the first degree, reckless endangerment and finally discharge of a firearm in an urban environment. So it's true. His court date is at the end of this month. I have no way of contacting him. If the charges stick I doubt I'll ever see the guy again. So in essence he's disappeared off the planet.
This isn't some low class idiot out of Compton. He's from Potomac Maryland, an affluent neighborhood. He's educated and smart but goofy. I'm just kind of shocked and sad. He rode his motorcycle with me for three weeks, all the way to Wyoming. During the trip he became the closest thing to a best friend I've ever had. We risked our lives together, we fought back to back, he goaded me into free-climbing in Yellowstone above deep ravine, in Ohio we crashed a college party and lured two girls into cheating on their boyfriends (the cause of the aforementioned fight). For three weeks we lived on the road. I thought I knew him, but I guess not.
The thing that's really driving me nuts is I don't know any of the details. I only know the charges. If there's one thing I know about cops, they like to blow shit way out of proportion and bend the truth to the breaking point. But those charges are so outrageous they must be true.
His court date is the 30th. I'm tempted to slip in to see what happens. Probably best if I go incognito. I'm sure he doesn't want his friends knowing about any of this.
