Ending as Friends

No, I haven’t friend-zoned him.

It is possible he has friend-zoned me.

Nor are we good friends.

Who am I talking about? Why, the man I couldn’t stop thinking about one night that made me actually post a rambling post. My current relationship with him is, as found in this one blog, in the status of Friendship: Acquaintance.

We both know each other (we’d better, we worked together for a year); we both communicate with hello’s; we’ve had a few conversations (mostly disputes on silly things like songs and which syrup dispenser is the dad and which is the mom); and we wave when we pass. We also are great at tag-teaming the munchkins of our bosses. We sometimes prefer to be around kids rather than people our own age. Him because he only really knows how to communicate about sports (from what I’ve observed) and me because I get ignored in adult conversations a lot anyways (sorry I haven’t gone and done anything crazy or got drunk off my butt at one point in my life).

He was one of the few on camp I could “creep” on. (I love to sneak up on people. Ninjas or pirates? Ninjas!) He handled it just fine. Might even have laughed even more internally at it. He kept a lot of things private. Don’t blame him. I tend to keep things private, too. Work is one aspect and home life another. He also didn’t work with me and live in the same house as me 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Many days passed where we wouldn’t even see each other at a time. Which means he never had to see how I fight change, other opinions, and whatever other negative aspects I have. Basically, we were decent to one another.

The last day of my work/living at Camp ended and he showed up to the impromptu bonfire in our front yard (Redneck style. Something we’d wanted to do before leaving). It was a whole group of us, just basically coming to pay respects to the end of a year and the beginning of a new one (new counselors were already on Camp and there with us). I made  a two snark attacks on things he said. Why? Because the more comfortable I feel around a guy, the more likely I am to snark. I like a witty repertoire. He handled my snark fairly well, but after each one I apologized because I wasn’t sure if I was injuring his pride. Which can happen. And I had already been made a fool of by him earlier in the year. Didn’t want a repeat. Anyway, when 11:30pm rolled around, he got up to leave. I had never hugged him before (crazy considering I worked at a Catholic camp and hugs abounded!), so I just gave him a hand to high-five as a final farewell. Then another girl, also leaving tomorrow, got up to hug him. I couldn’t be the geek who gave a high-five, so I stood to hug. And it was a completely platonic hug. He being a foot or two taller than me, there was tons of space between us and ended quickly. Minimal contact.

What is the point of all that? Just to point out that we left as friends. Fraqs, I call them. Two people who can chitchat upon sight, but won’t keep in touch. Two people who are going different directions and probably wouldn’t work out as anything other than friends at best. And you know what? For once, I have no regrets on it and am quite comfortable with our ending.

Which will pick up again in two weeks when I visit Camp for the first ever alumni weekend. But he’ll be PR-ing the whole thing with all the older folks. And the folks he usually hangs out with. So, we’ll shift back to introductions once more. We’ll see, but I’m calling it now.