P G BRASH

My closest friend since childhood once invited me to his wedding. At his shower, he gave all his friends a unique, hand-crafted video game cart with each person’s lifestyle inspiring the art he made for them. I didn’t get one. At his wedding, all his friends who played Xbox together with us for years were there as his best men. He had several. I was made an usher and left out of his photos. I even asked to be included in one, and he decided to have me peeking around a tree in the background. I thought it was oversight at the time because I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I realize now that he was trying to humiliate and punish me for disagreeing with him one night in an Xbox party chat online. That was it. That was all it took for him to throw away a lifelong friendship that meant everything to me. That was almost 10 years ago now. Those memories from childhood never went away, man. I miss my friend, but he broke my heart. That’s what the MAGA mindset did to this country; tore it all apart for a humiliation ritual.