Oh, that's the president?

My friend, I will call her Laura, is dating this person who, for the purpose of this story, I will call Fred.

She and Fred met last year sometime, at a bar I think, and proceeded to have copious amounts of sex and general debauchery. At first I was enthusiastic about her dating this person, as she was feeling lonely and sad about a number of things going on her life.

My enthusiasm soon changed, as my friend began to change and as I heard more about this person over time. Somewhere in between Fred's proud acceptance of not reading books or the news, racist comments made, anger management issues, possessiveness, double standards (their open relationship meant open only on one side, and the side was not hers), and her downward spiral into drug use (e, c, s, etc., introduced by this person), it felt like my friend was slipping away and I very much resented Fred.

Of course this caused a great strain on our friendship, as I just didn't feel equipped to deal with it. I know that sounds selfish, but there were a great number of strange dynamics going on here that would take me hours to type out.

Their relationship was on again, off again, for about two-three months, and each time I would bust out the comments that one generally busts out when you think your friend is dating an asshole. These comments, of course, drove an even greater wedge between us, and I became the friend that you call when you are dating a jerk, but you really love the jerk (read: the sex is hot), so you don't want to hear about how much of a jerk this person is until you get in a fight and then you call your friend, who knows this person is a jerk, to talk about how much of jerk this person really is.

Long story short:

She decides to quit the drugs (and so does this person....right) and move across the country to live with Fred, who just so happens to be in the military, and had served in a recent *W.O.T.* support mission(this point becomes relevant in a second). I was very upset by this decision but tried to be supportive because at this point I knew the friendship would be over if I wasn't, and I happen to like her a great deal.


Always the believer that she could change this person, she decided that maybe a trip to see Fahrenheit 9/11 would at least work on making this person more aware of politics/debates/concerns going on in the world (they fought about peace/war/justice issues frequently).

After the film is over they leave. He turns to her and asks, "oh, so is that the president of the United States?"


Did I mention anything about the military and recent service overseas?

Yes, yes I did.