My Road Trip- FROM HELL (1 Viewer)

[Gary->dee]

So last Thursday a friend of mine said, "Let's go up to San Francisco!" And I thought hmmm, ok why not. I hadn't been up there since 1981 and I liked what I saw back then. The reason for going up there was to pick up someone. So it was me, my friend and his friend, a guy I hadn't known that long, but he seemed ok. For the purpose of this story lets call him FRED. We would be driving up to Frisco in FRED's car. FRED and my friend had apparently known each other longer than my friend knew me.

Initially we went to FRED's mom's house. She lives up in what they refer to as "Palibu" or what is essentially Pacific Palisades and Malibu. A very nice area with plenty of nice and expensive houses. Me and FRED talked, he said I would supply a full tank up to Frisco and for that I would have 'fun'. I had my hesitation and concerns, especially when it turned out that we were picking 3 people not just 1. But in the end I agreed because I didn't have anything else to do and I might have some fun.

Let me make a long story short. Or at least a lot shorter than it needs to be. On this road trip FRED turned out to be a COMPLETE jackass beyond the point of dealing with. He was basically a 5 year old boy raised by wolves in a thirtysomething body. He didn't care about anything or anybody. I ended up spending almost $100 within the first 24 hours. No one else had any money. I was buying all the gas and food.

When we were in Richmond we ran out of gas and I gave up my last $5. While my friend fetched gas from a nearby gas station, FRED persisted to annoy and bother me with his patended immature and jackass-like ways while in the back seat. After more than a day of this I snapped.

In a blind rage I got up out of the passenger seat while in the car and reach back to the back seat where FRED was and I began to BEAT MY FISTS AGAINST HIS HEAD AT HIGH RATES OF SPEED. I was punching him and trying to find better ways of knocking him out. He retaliated by trying to kick me or at least block me from getting to him. That worked for about 2 or 3 seconds. Then I grabbed his legs by the ankles and moved them aside and returned to socking him in his head as much as I could as fast as I could.

And you know what? DAMN IT FELT GOOD!

It felt so good administrating pain on FRED the jackass. He summoned my dark side and I let loose on him like I have on no other person. It was a complete rush and I was enjoying every moment, every nuance of my kicking of his annoying and aggrivating ass. FRED finally was able to grapple me and hold me in a semi-head lock but not before I was able to also apply my grip on his neck and head. So basically we were at a draw, except I had just kicked his ass and he was trying to stop me. While attempting to make me stop I was also making him hurt by applying my squeeze to his neck. He asked "Are you going to stop?" I told him yes I would, just back off. He finally let go and I let go of him and we backed up. He immediately began yelling "Get out!" I thought hmmm ok he wants to fight outside, let's make this more interesting. But no, he just wanted me to leave his car. I apologized for attacking him but he insisted that I get out so I grabbed my bag from the back and I left to walk up the street where my friend was. I saw him filling up a jug of gas and I called him over and told him that I had just attacked FRED, his friend. He quickly walked back to FRED's car to see what happened. I was loitering at the gas station in Richmond on a Friday night, a place I had never been before and I doubt I would return. I collected my thoughts and began to ponder how I could make it back to L.A. without FRED and his fucked up old Ford Explorer. I had a credit card and a bit of money in my checking account. Realistically, I thought, I could catch a plane and fly down to L.A. if I really had to.

My friend drove FRED's car over to me at the gas station with FRED in the passenger seat and he told me that FRED didn't want me back in his car, which I could understand. My friend talked to me a bit, told me he was stuck in between us and didn't have much choice. He would ride back down to L.A. with FRED. I had to figure out another way to get back home. So I asked the people at the gas station to call me a cab and I took it to Oakland Airport where I was hoping to catch a flight down to LAX. Turns out I just missed the last flight(10:30) that night and the next one would be at 6:40 the next morning. So I hung out at the airport for about 11 or so hours and very early this morning I boarded my plane and finally made it back to L.A.

I ended up spending A LOT of money on this debacle of a road trip, close to $400, and I still hadn't really seen San Francisco, only from very far away. But for the chance to beat up FRED after he kept taunting and annoying me to no end, it was worth it and I am not mad whatsoever. Ok maybe I'm still mad at FRED and if I ever see him again I'll probably attack him again and kick his ass again because FRED is a bitch and perhaps my role in his life is to beat him up whenever I see him.

Normally I am not a violent person. On the contrary, I'm usually the one that tells everyone to chill and think about it. But on this special occasion there was someone completely worthy of getting beat up and I was in their vicinity. In this life there are people that just straight up need their ass kicked. No words, medication or the like to cure them of their ignorance and selfishness. Just a healthy dose of punches and brute force applied in large quantities.

 

[Mike Graham]

What was Fred doing to you that made you want to beat on him? Examples, please!

 

[Robert_Gaither]

This is why I believe in the death penalty, there are people who unequivocally deserve to be the casualty of Darwin's law (child molesters, rapists, and people who don't wash their hands after using the restroom...). The only bad thing about civilization is that there are no exceptions to assault but I agree with you some people are just so irritating beyond belief that if this person ends up in an "accident" it becomes more of a "What took so long?" or "Who finally took out the trash?" vs "Why?" without a statement of "it was so senseless...".

Btw, are you amazed "Fred" lived long enough for you to meet him and experience the magic that is he (you'd think he'd be an "accident" statistic by now)?

 

[teapot2001]

So your friend and Fred never went up to San Francisco to pick up the people?

~T

 

[DaveGTP]

That's a hilarious story, Gary. You should tell us more. Make the story longer.

I never end up in these situations, but my wife does sometimes. Where people take advantage of her.

I am a little bit of a control freak when it comes to driving places - I feel uncomfortable when in someone else's car. So I almost always drive. It's so that I can always get home! I like to have the power

I understand where you are coming from, Gary. I'm not a violent person, but every now and then you can't help but snap. I'm the cool-headed, rational, see-both-sides type.

I've come pretty close to decking a couple of people in recent years myself. I'd probably get my ass kicked if I did, though (I'm a scrawny geek). But they would have deserved it, and it would have felt good (I still regret not doing it, one of the times)!

 

[Scott L]

This is why I am EXTREMELY picky on who I hang out with. My brother by contrast is my exact opposite. Many of his friends are drunk frat boy-type jackasses that hit on high schoolers (they are out of college now). I hate when he invites them over and they are using my Home Theater in the basement. I could go on and on but I'm sure you get the picture.

There are just too many annoying stupid people in this world.

PS- Gary you're my hero.

 

[Richard Travale]

So, this Fred guy...his family is relatively wealthy? I always thought that Malibu was a wealthy area to live.
You beat him without any physical provocation?
Dude, I'm no lawyer but I would not be surprised to hear in your next post that you've been charged with aggravated assault and/or are facing a civil suit.

Sounds like you enjoyed it though. There are many times I've wished to do that.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

Now both you and Fred have exciting stories of adventure to talk about! And hopefully he ran out fo money & gas and was eaten by vultures.

 

[Gary->dee]

Considering the house his mother lives in, hell yes I'd consider this spoiled bastard rich. His mom owns a house just up a hill that I go driving past on PCH just before Malibu. The view from the deck is simply incredible. And yet I can't believe this beautiful home with these beautiful surroundings produced such a brain-dead asshole like FRED. Granted FRED grew up in the house but I don't believe he lived there any more. I think he mostly just crashed out at other people's places. I dunno, I don't have much info on the guy. But I do feel relatively confident that there will be no lawsuits and such in retaliation to my flying fists of fury. The guy is an ass but I doubt even he would take it that far. While at his mom's house I threw out the idea of renting a bigger SUV for the trip. FRED insisted it would be much more expensive. So be it. FRED had no real money and apparently he didn't want to ask his mother for any.

So I had been done seeing his wonderful house above PCH, I had met his nice mother and his big old dog, which was really beautiful too btw. Allegedly a Nikita or some kind of mix of Nikita and wolf- or so FRED says. I'm outside with my friend and we're talking about this trip up north. I mention to him, "So you know we're picking up 3 people, right?" And he became ambivilent, he wasn't sure he wanted to commit to this trip. I'm like yeah man 3 PEOPLE in this already crammed, old and dirty SUV. We were still close enough for them to take me back to my car, which was parked at yet another friend's house. That parking spot would cost me an additional $30, but I'll get to that later.

FRED comes outside to where we are in his car and he's trying guage our attitude towards the trip. Me and my friend are hesitating at this point. We didn't know if we wanted to go but FRED successfully sways us to just go ahead and do it.

Btw I had known FRED for about a month or two before this. I had chilled with him before, a handful of times. He had been over my place once. He actually seemed pretty cool. Not cool as in 'I admire or respect him' cool, but cool as in 'he doesn't trip or flip out' cool. I hadn't known him long enough to admire or respect him. We shared some common interests, liked the same movies, etc. We even talked about kicking it together to see a movie or attend a sci-fi convention or something. That's probably why he was so willing to have me along, he was open to the idea. No prior experience with FRED alerted me or gave me any indication of what he can really be like under certain conditions like a road trip.

Ok so we take off from FRED's mom's house up PCH towards Frisco. Everything is cool, we're listening to good music having a good time. :star:FRED talks a lot. Too much in fact. He babbles on and on. We stop at a gas station and I put $20 in his tank and get some snacks for us. While me and my friend are taking care of things FRED takes out his skateboard and rides around the gas station. Once we're done with the car FRED skates back and gets in. We proceed to drive north. A while later, near Santa Barbara I think, we stop at an In-n-Out Burger, I pay for food naturally. We get back in the car and continue out trip.

My friend was driving but he was getting tired so FRED takes over for him. Here's where the fun begins. This is the point of which my hell began.

It's late at night, I'm in the back seat(where FRED would be later in the trip experiencing my flying fists), my friend is riding shotgun. Btw my friend insists that he ride shotgun throughout the entire trip if he isn't driving. He won't get in the back seat. Fine, whatever. I'm in the back. :star:FRED has his window rolled all the way down or mostly down and very cold air is hitting me as we drive on the freeway headed north. I'm freezing my ass off and I ask FRED nicely if he would roll up his window. "BE A MAN! TAKE IT!" FRED yells. Cute. Be a man he says. Ok. I was in Sweden earlier this and that was COLD, this is relatively warm by comparison. But not by much. After about an hour or so of me in the back seat and his window being down rushing large amounts of cold air at me I'm like a popsicle. I ask again, FRED doesn't pay attention. I try to sleep, it barely works. :star:FRED wants to listen to his Rage Against the Machine CD. Great. Hey it's his car. But I'm feeling COLD RAGE at this point. And it doesn't help that FRED's speakers suck. He's pushing out loud music at loud volumes on shitty speakers. FRED is essentially conditioning me to become the monster that I will later in the trip.

At this point in the trip my attitude is becoming sour, especially towards FRED. He can't compromise. He wants it his way and fuck everybody else.

We stop at another gas station for more gas. FRED takes out his skateboard and skates around. I get out of the car and walk away to smoke a cigarette. I'm stressed out. I give my friend $15, he puts in $10 and uses $5 for something else. Although I'm not even sure of those amounts. He might have put in $5 and kept the rest. :star:FRED checks the gas guage. He insists that if the needle isn't on F then he's not going any where. I finally add another $20 to the tank and we're off.

I'm still in the back seat at this point. I should mention that FRED's old SUV is a stick shift and I can't drive stick. I don't want to drive a stick shift. :star:FRED makes fun of me for this. Haha. Actually it goes beyond the point of being made fun of. He can't let the idea go that I can't drive a manual vehicle.

Finally around 2 or 3 in the morning we arrive at the home of the friend or at least one of the friends. It's a small but nice house in Napa or Sonoma, no wait CALISTOGA, that's right it was Calistoga. I should remember since we were asking each other "Isn't there bottled water from this part of California?" JIM and BOB are at this house. They would be 2 of the supposed 3 people we would be taking back. JIM and BOB are cool people. So we chill with JIM and BOB at their place for many hours, at least until 9 or 10 the next morning. A lot of the pleasure I derived from the trip would be from the experience at this house. I mean it wasn't like "Wow I'm having a great time!" but it was more about just being comfortable in a nice part of northern California and not being in a confined space with FRED and his freezing window skills.

Eventually we learn that BOB might have bus or train tickets back to L.A. so that would be one less person on the way back. Yippee! Just me, my friend, FRED, JIM and another mystery person, a female who we hadn't met yet. A girl comes over to the house around 10-ish, but apparently this isn't the girl needing a ride to L.A. This one had her own car, a nice and new Nissan SUV. :star:FRED wants money for beer, so naturally he asks me. I give him $5. All of us eventually left the house and went driving around in 2 cars. We mostly chilled in an area called Santa Rosa. This is Friday morning.

I was riding shotgun in FRED's car with FRED driving and BOB in the back seat. My friend and JIM would be in the girl's car. The plan was to meet at the Greyhound station or something to drop off BOB or at least figure out if he had tickets to L.A. waiting for him. We lose the girl's car with my friend and JIM pretty quick because FRED insists on driving like an asshole around other cars regardless of what speed they're driving. :star:FRED is very close to running out of gas, but yet he's taking a scenic tour of Santa Rosa despite the fact that he and the girl in the other car have cell phones. I finally get fed up of looking for them and suggest FRED uses his phone to call the girl and find out exactly where they are. He caves in and uses his phone and eventually meet up with the other car. BOB says his good-byes and leaves FRED's car. My friend gets out of the girl's car and rides with me and FRED. The plan was to meet up with the other car in San Francisco or as it was being referred to; 'the city'.

FRED keeps asking me, "Don't you need to use the internet? Check your email and such?" I'm like, "No." See FRED wants to burn some CDs at Kinko's and of course he wants me to pay for it. Don't even ask me wtf he wants to burn CDs for. He just figures that if I used a computer at Kinko's he could burn CDs. I don't budge, I don't need to use the internet. We park and we all walk off in different directions. I take a nice stroll around the block and eventually run into my friend, although FRED isn't around. I tell my friend I'm hungry and we walk to a nearby mall. After that we walk back to FRED's car, he's no where to be seen so my friend goes to look for him while I sit in the shade. After a while FRED shows up and sits next to me, we talk and such. Then a woman comes and sits next to us, she looks rather like a homeless person. She begins talking to us, but mostly to me, all the while trying to roll a cigarette or what looks like the remains of a cigarette. My friend comes around and we all pile back into FRED's car. So it's my friend driving FRED's car again, FRED in the passenger seat and me in the back. We stop at a gas station, I give him another few bucks for gas.

By this time of the day it's hot. I'm shedding my layers of clothing I had piled on hours before. We drive down a freeway, occasionally getting off to eat(I'm paying again), getting back on, off and on, off and on. My friend and FRED are using their cell phones to call people they know. We get back on the freeway and we soon see a sign that reads "Lucas Valley Rd". Wow is Skywalker Ranch really around here? FRED insists we check it out, seems he wants to take a picture of me standing in front of the sign or something. I'm like cool! Let's do it! This would be one of if not the only time FRED actually caters to me. We exit the freeway at Lucas Valley and begin driving up this long stretch to find 'The Ranch', all the way passing things like the Lucas Community Church and Lucas Estates which is a small community of houses or something like that. Lucas' name is all over this part of town. Christ I should open up a bar there called Greedo Shoots First.

Anyway we never make it fully up to Skywalker Ranch because once again we're running out of gas and won't make it, so we turn around and head back down towards the freeway. I wasn't terribly disappointed because I honestly didn't care that much at that point. None of us had slept any and we were all on edge so taking a photo of me was not a priority. FRED insists that I take a picture in front of the Lucas Estates sign at least, I'm like NO let's just go. My friend who is driving is becoming livid. His patience is running out. So we get back on the freeway heading south. We exit shortly thereafter to go to some strip mall.

FRED ends up in the back with me shotgun while my friend goes shopping. This is where FRED begins to test me. I mean REALLY test me. :star:I'd be in the passenger seat and FRED from the back seat would extend his legs so that his big old smelly feet would be a few inches from my nose. Or he would pick his nose and hover his boogered finger a few inches from my face, threatening to wipe it on me. He would taunt me, "Oh are you going to hit me?" I just would look at him with a straight face. In disgust I would get out of the car and take in the brisk fresh air. I also needed to cool down.

Repeat this process another 2 or 3 times and you've turned Gary into a monster.

But you also have to add in the fact that :star:FRED is having fun with this stupid immature humor. Things like using that old tried and true tactic of using gay jokes even though I'm not gay. I remind him about several times in which I've hit on girls(most recent being the girl with the SUV earlier in the day) and likewise girls have shown me love, but no to him it's more fun to just mock and taunt me. He's in his own world, forever lost in his psyche. At one point I get really fucking pissed. I tell him look, what you're saying isn't true, funny, witty, or intelligent so just shut the fuck up ok? No he persists to continue.

So I'm basically dealing with this huge moron who not only is using stupidly immature humor to degrade and taunt me, but is using his gross brand of humor like threatening to wipe snot on me and putting his feet all in my face.

Gary doesn't deal with these things for too long.

Gary must either remove himself from the situation or deal with the situation first hand.

When we finally run out of gas just down the street from the gas station, I give up my last $5 for gas. I'm still riding shotgun and FRED is in the back. FRED being FRED continues. Mocking, taunting, harassing, endlessly talking. Between me giving up all of my money, the gay jokes, the gross humor, the pointlessness of this trip, the dirt, the grime, probably more factors I'm forgetting- something had to give and it was me.

I don't remember exactly what triggered my eruption but I had had enough. In my mind the only sollution was to beat him mercilessly as if there was an invisible fly on his head that I had to kill. I switched to pure evil from 0-60 in .5. My face turned into an angry grimmace with a mask of rage. I turned and got up very fast and began to go for his head managing land a few punches before he was able to fend me off with his legs. This seemed to piss me off even more because he was putting his socks all over me. I managed to hold his legs move them aside and continue beating the shit out of him.

I was in the zone. One which I hadn't really explored before or if I had it had been a very long time since I was in it.

So the rest goes down as I explained in my first post. FRED eventually manages to grapple me to stop me from hitting him but I also got my arms in a position which he couldn't completely overcome me. He couldn't do damage to me withouht me also doing damage to him. He asked if I would back off I agreed since I could see this was going nowhere. Maybe if I were better trained I could have kneed his head enough times for him to let go and I could have continued my whirlwind of hits. But as it was we both agreed to back off each other. As we did he began to shout to me to get out, I thought he wanted to fight outside, he just wanted me out of his car. To me this showed how much more of a bitch he was because he didn't want to continue outside. I would have liked that because there was no way I wasn't going to further kick his ass.

I gotta take a break here. I'll be back with further details of my night in Richmond and at Oakland Airport.

 

[DaveGTP]

Dude, I don't blame you at that point. Once someone invades your personal space, and a direct comment with swear words doesn't get the point across enough...

Some annoying people seem to need to have a point physically beat into them before it penetrates their immature brains that, seriuously, you are actually F*#&!!! serious, don't F&#*!(!! touch me, leave me the F&*# alone.

[OFFTOPIC]
Gary, for some violent ranting kind of anti-annoying people humor, I recommend Foamy the Squirrel to help burn off some steam

http://www.illwillpress.com/vault.html

I suggest any of the Foamy's Rants (esp. the first one). Foamy goes off about annoying people and how they should die. I think I am going to start a Foamy thread. No one on HTF seems to have ever mentioned the site. I think I'll do that right now.

[/OFFTOPIC]

 

[Robert Anthony]

I love this part.

Okay..damage report. Did this fuckstick have bruises? Cuts? Scrapes. did any skin split open? did you get to urinate on him after you defeated him? Expectorate on him?

 

[Citizen87645]

FRED sounds like a co-worker I used to have. I had minor encounters, but one of my friends simply could not stand him and probably would have snapped like you did if he had to be around him any longer. This guy would definitely be a Darwin Award winner as eventually he got into a bad car accident in the company vehicle, doing something totally stupid. It would have been better if it had been just him, but he also put another (decent and normal) co-worker's life in danger for his antics. Needless to say he also got fired on top of his injuries. When my friend and I found out I won't say we were happy it happened (well, maybe a little), but overall we were simply NOT SURPRISED.

 

[Gary->dee]

Well I'm not entirely sure because after I got out of his car I only saw him from a distance. When I first saw him after the incident he did have a shirt across the top of his head and then he later put on a cap. I talked to my friend a little while ago on the phone and he told me that FRED was complaining of a headache, so I hope that was a result of my punches.

My friend also told me that it actually got worse after I left them, although he didn't give many details. But apparently FRED dropped off my friend in Bakersfield and he had to call his ex-girlfriend to pick him up.

Ok back to Richmond on Friday night. After putting gas in the tank, my friend driving the car and FRED drove up to the station where I was. My friend told me FRED didn't want me in his car. At this point the adrenaline rush is still in affect. I was literally shaking as I smoked a cigarette. My friend told me he was stuck between us and that he couldn't do anything. He told me that him and FRED would leave to conduct some business and they would return. So I sat there at the gas station, although around the bend a bit so I wasn't exactly near the pumps or anything. I wasn't trying to attract any attention because I didn't really know where I was but judging from the amount of seedy characters I was seeing and the kind of cars I saw drive by, I knew it wasn't exactly the best neighborhood to be stuck in. Two young teenage girls came walking by and I asked them where I was and if the airport was nearby. They helped a bit. Then I just waited for my friend to return, not really knowing if he would, wondering how the fuck do I get out of this situation. I had hope though because as I had mentioned I was travelling around Europe earlier this year with no plans or reservations. If I could get around Europe with no problem and get back home I sure as hell could get from northern California to southern California. The other difference was that I had no cash on me only plastic.

More than an hour later I went walking down the street a bit to explore the area and I heard a car beeping behind me: it was my friend with FRED who was laying down in the passenger seat. My friend then got out of the car mad at me for starting some shit and he said something that pissed me off and I responded with "Do you want your ass kicked too?" I told him that I apologized to FRED but nothing was settled. My friend asked if I had any credit cards, I told that yes I did. I realized that the best way for me to get out of this was to get to an airport and fly back down to L.A. My friend thought that was the way to go too. He handed me an extra cellphone he had, although it didn't have any minutes on it. He said I could use a credit card to activate it. Then I walked over to the gas station attendant and asked if they could call me a taxi. They were just about to close down for the night but they were nice enough to make the call for me. Then some guy walks up wanting to buy gas and my friend starts to explain to him exactly what happened. I'll refer to him as BUD. I also told BUD how I flipped on the car's owner I was in, etc. I was kinda concerned though because here we are telling a complete stranger that we need help and who knows if BUD could be trusted or not. He could pull out a gun and jack all of us or worse for all we know. BUD asked if I needed a hotel. No, I told him, I need an airport. I wasn't about to stay the night if I could avoid it.

Well it turns out BUD was a good guy. I mean I didn't want him to take me to the airport or anything, but my friend suggested we smoke some weed and BUD said that he also had some weed so he suggested that he roll up a joint that we would smoke just to relax. I was like cool, I need to relax, we all need to relax. So I waited for BUD to roll a joint, my friend sat in FRED's car with FRED. BUD came over to me with the joint, he blazed it and as soon as he did I saw the taxi pull up in the gas station. Shit I said loudly to BUD, there's the taxi. But I said let me get a hit or two before I take off just to honor this moment since BUD had gone to the trouble. So I took a couple of hits, said good-bye to BUD and walked towards the taxi. My friend was already talking to the taxi driver. First thing I asked the driver was if he takes credit cards because I had no cash. Nope, he does not. But he said he could take me to a nearby ATM machine. Wonderful. I then asked how much it would cost to take me to Oakland Airport. About 50 or 60 dollars the driver said. Fine, let's do it. I bid my friend good-bye, didn't say anything to FRED and I also yelled out to BUD, who was still sitting on the bench smoking the joint. I yelled good-bye and thanks.

The taxi took me to an ATM, I pulled cash from my cards and about 20-30 minutes later I was at Oakland Airport. The taxi trip cost me over $60. I explained my situation to the United Airlines counter lady, which I probably didn't have to but I did for whatever reason. Turns out I had just missed the last plane that flew out of there to L.A., which was the 10:30 flight. She told me the next flight was at 6:40 the next morning. UGH! I would have to wait. The idea of a hotel for the night didn't excite me and it's a good thing I didn't go to a hotel. I thought of taking a bus or a train. I called both phone numbers, turns out the train was out although the bus was possible. But the bus would take me 7-8 hours, I wasn't thrilled about that. As I loitered around Oakland Airport I kept hearing FRED's voice. I swear it was freaky. He had somehow so engrained himself in my psyche that everyone I heard sounded like him: an oafish dumbfuck. I kept looking around to make sure he wasn't there. I thought I was going insane. The hours passed into early Saturday morning, I would keep checking the flight schedule screens. Turns out that a new Southwest Airlines flight to L.A. appeared and it would be out of there at 6am. Well at least that would be 40 minutes less time there than originally thought. A bit after 4am I noticed people were already lining up at the Southwest counter so I grabbed my bag and got in line. The ticket to L.A. would cost me just over $90.

Eventually I boarded the plane, spent just over an hour in the air and landed in L.A. Wow I thought I hated this city now I was so fucking happy to see it again. Now, at the gas station I had asked my friend to call another friend to come pick me up at the airport. Turns out he didn't follow through and I honestly didn't expect him to. So once I exited the airport terminal and didn't see any familiar cars waiting for me, I headed straight for a taxi. After about a $40 ride to my car at a friend's house I arrived to find a $30 parking ticket on my car. Yahoo. I didn't care at that point I just wanted to get the hell home. So I did. I got home, took a shower and went to sleep!

The End or is it? I hope it is. Unless of course I run across FRED again at which point the saga will continue and take shape in the form of Part 2 of a brutal beat down.

 

[ThomasC]

The HTF Story of the Year.

 

[Max Leung]

Part 2: Freddy Gets Fingered.

 

[Moe Maishlish]

Dude...

Ouch. I can feel your rage - if I was in your position I'd probably be shaking from the fury. Of course, I'm a pretty strong guy and I know how to fight... so if I was to start beating on the guy I'd probably have knocked him unconscious. I'm a bit of a passifist though (the best way to win a fight is not to have one...), but everyone has their breaking points, and god knows I've had my snapping-points in the past.

On another note though, your friend (the other guy in the car) sounds like a bit of a dick too... I hate to say it, but if he was in the car with you he might have chosen to stick up for you as well, and give Fred a little bit of a 2 on 1 to stop behaving like a fuckhead. On top of that,


Well, if I was your friend in that position, I would have told the guy "Hey, you don't want him, you don't want me. I'm not leaving a buddy sitting on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere". He picked the most convenient angle for himself. The "Hey, I don't want to get involved." excuse is pretty lame - I don't buy it. He could have very easily stepped out of the car to stick with you, and let Fred fend for himself, instead of leaving you on your own. Soldiers don't abandon themselves in the field, and I don't think friends should be doing that either.

The guy is either spineless or a dickhead. Take your pick. Sounds like you might want to re-evaluate who you hang out with. It's a pretty sad state of affairs when you can honestly say that your "friend" left you standing on the side of a highway while he drove off into the sunset with a horse's-ass like Fred.

Moe.

 

[Gary->dee]

Moe I agree with everything you said. I don't hang out an awful lot with my friend, we see each other occasionally. It's true that my friend is a spineless dick and I was feeling a lot of anger directed towards him too, although not near as much as to FRED. I guess the way I was thinking about it was between me and my friend I had put us in a foul situation. Actually my friend put us in a foul situation by asking me to come along on the trip, but anyway, my friend has the tendancy to strongly get on my nerves too. We both get on each other's nerves sometimes, which is why I don't hang out with him too much. As a matter of fact while we were talking at the gas station that night he had mentioned to me that there were plenty of times he wanted to punch me but he didn't, he held back. He asked why did I just go ahead and start punching FRED? I think it was at this point when I asked if he wanted his ass kicked too.

I guess because I saw a feasible way out of the situation, at least for myself, I didn't care whether he joined me or not. I think I saw it as a bit of a sinking boat scenario: "Save yourself! I shall survive!" I also think I just needed to be on my own and besides if my friend would be flying back with me to L.A. that's just more money I would have to spend.

There's also another more sinister reason: I think my friend deserved to be with FRED. The torture aspect. I still have to talk to my friend about what happened after they left me because as I said according to him it got worse. I'm interested to learn what happened.

 

[Moe Maishlish]

Gary,

I would probably be MUCH less forgiving of your "friend" than you are. You're constantly referring to him as your "friend", but I've gotta wonder if he really deserves the title.

(Please note that my perspective is based on what you've written... I obviously don't know him or you well enough to comment fully on your relationship with each other.)

One note I haven't really touched on is the whole "you're paying" aspect of this mess. When exactly did you become a bank? Can I borrow some money?

Given that you were bankrolling this entire trip, I'd gather that they BOTH would have owed you a little bit more respect than they actually displayed. The fact that they drove off in the SUV on a tank of gas that YOU paid for, while leaving you by the side of the road, is outright theft to me! I frankly don't think the fact that it was Frank's car makes any difference - the car was moving because of the gas that you put into it...

We're not even touching on the "feed me" aspect of the trip - where do they get off having you pay for their meals?

I'd be a lot less forgiving than you. In fact, I'd probably be asking for a portion of my money back (even though I doubt I'd be getting a penny), and then terminating my friendship with these clowns. You'd probably be better off without these mooches in your life.

Not very long ago, I ended a "friendship" with someone who I felt was a big leech in my life. I was sensitive to the fact that he didn't have a lot of money and wasn't able to pay for certain things, so I'd sometimes foot the bill for him (not that I'm loaded... far from it... it I was in a better financial situation at the time). Anyway, the camel's back broke one night when I payed for his meal, and he called me "cheap" because I left a 10% tip (service was horrendous). Yeah, this "cheap" guy just payed for your friggen meal you mooch...

...and it was downhill from there. Within 6 months the friendship was dissolved, and I can't say that I really miss his company.

Evaluate your life without these people involved, and ask yourself what exactly it is that they bring to the table? Companionship? A sense of belonging? A sensitive ear? Or is it something less like just having to hang out with? The former are a little bit more tricky, but the latter is completely disposable - you can hang out with other people. Find other friends who will respect you enough not to criticize your character for their own sick amusement, and who will stand with you when you're not at your best.

Moe.

 

[Dave_Brown]

And when you do I hope you'll share the details of the conversation here. I can't for the life of me imagination how it would get any worse.

 

[Malcolm R]

They had to start spending their own damn money.

That's what happened.