「故事·听力」I Preferred A Guy To A Friend And Lost Both

I Preferred A Guy To A Friend And Lost Both

Hey! I’m Amber. Have you guys ever heard the saying that no one shall create an idol for him or herself? This story is pretty much similar to the meaning of this phrase. Together with my BFF, I created a special list that almost ruined our long-time friendship.

Everything started so long ago I can barely remember how. It was when Jinni and I were little girls, you know. We have always been so similar to each other, like two parts of one soul, literally. Even our families look similar, I mean, both of us were raised by single moms. This was probably the main reason we had for creating The List. The thing is, our moms had dated men from time to time. Unfortunately none of them stayed around, like, forever. But this experience led us to come up with a certain number of qualities, which, in our opinion, a real man should inevitably possess. Let me be more specific. If a John Doe was way too ugly or short, he definitely wouldn't fit on The List. Taking care of what he looks like is important, but not crucial. And he certainly has to love animals, preferably dogs. There were many other things like these, and this List was our shared secret, that no one should ever, ever know about.

Anyway, as we've gotten older, The List has also gotten longer, and now its latest version consists of 26 obligatory musts for a Prince Charming. Jinni and I were sure that these perfect men existed somewhere on the planet and we said that neither of us would ever date a guy who missed even a single point from this list. Once, we were asked on a double date. I met a guy on the internet and he was so excited to meet me, that he asked whether I had a girlfriend for his friend to hang out with. His name was Tim. When I saw him in real life, he was even more handsome than in his photo and after we talked for a while, I found out that he totally, like, completely corresponded to The List. Jinni was not that lucky with her date. Tim’s friend Erick was a total disaster and was a hundred percent opposite of Tim. He was rude and had a really inappropriate sense of humor. They were so different that I couldn't help but wonder how the two of them ever became friends.

As you might have guessed, our first date ended up with me and my perfect Tim starting our perfect relationship, while Jinni couldn’t stand Erick’s temper and personality. I remember how, once, when the four us decided to go to the movies, Tim suggested that we - the girls - pick out the perfect film. He’s a gentleman, you see? But Erick began complaining that he had seen too many girly movies already and insisted on us watching a horror movie. I didn’t mind actually, because I like that stuff, but Jinni does not. So she spent the entire movie with her eyes shut, having a terrible time. I knew she was only doing this for me, because I begged her not to leave me alone with the guys. I really wanted the four of us to hang out together all the time, but later that night Jinni said this was the last time she’d go out with Erick. 

Erick, on the other hand, continued to accompany Tim and I wherever we went. I didn’t mind at first, because I was still spending time with my boyfriend. But gradually he was becoming really annoying. You see, he was still single and didn’t bother with things like being polite or behaving according to the situation we were in, or even acknowledging that I was with them. He’d try to hook up girls, while I was like “Hello! I’m still here, with my boyfriend.” At some point I asked Tim whether it was really necessary to have Erick with us all the time. Tim said that he just felt bad for his friend since he had found his true love and Erick did not, that’s why I should be more tolerant and supportive of Erick. But he promised to talk to him and ask Erick to behave a little more appropriately. Erick didn’t really like that and accused me of being selfish. That’s when a slight tension appeared between the two of us.

The turning point in this entire story finally came one night. Tim was having a huge party because it was his 18th birthday. I came together with Jinni and we arrived a little bit late. At first, when I couldn’t find Tim anywhere, I thought he might have been busy with birthday stuff, but then I saw him being congratulated by a bunch of girls. There were plenty of girls, by the way. And when I saw him letting them kiss him and hug him while he was smiling at them, I felt this flame of jealousy burning inside me. I couldn’t even control my actions, and I just walked up to Tim and started angrily yelling something at him. I said that he shouldn’t have been that flirty with every girl around, since he had me to be flirty with.