postr/StutterFebruary 29, 2024

I made a friend, but he was a total jerk to me during our first interaction and I don't quite know how to feel about it

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Content

I made a friend, but he was a total jerk to me during our first interaction and I don't quite know how to feel about it It's true that we're all multifaceted, with good and bad sides to our personalities. To make a long story short, I was in Mexico, and I saw some white American teenagers playing volleyball. I wanted to play, to befriend these kids. I wasn't playing well, and one of the boys "John", started making indirect comments about me to his brother. I could infer he was talking about me from the way he was saying it. But eventually, he figured out that I spoke English, and he started showing me how to throw the ball. Even when I didn't get it right, he was still being nice to me and saying encouraging things. A few days later, I had befriended another girl, and she was hanging out with the same group of kids at the volleyball game. I really didn't want to hang out because of John specifically, but I wanted to get closer to this other girl. However John was flirting with me, and he took care of me when I got really drunk. Like, he helped escort me to my bed. And after that day, he genuinely tried getting to know me better. He laughed at all my jokes, even though most of them landed flat.

Themes

Anticipation & AvoidanceEmotional Experience

Subthemes

Experiential AssociationShame & EmbarrassmentAnxiety & Social Judgment