29 Friendships That Fell Apart For Shocking Reasons

20.

“One night when we were teenagers, we went to the lake. There were four of us, and we ended up at this party. Nothing happened at the party — we drank, and like idiots, the older of us decided we were going home , and we left. We were probably 15; none of us could drive except him. As we’re curving around the lake, we came up on the campground that had these women at it. between 18-20. There were three of them, and they were alone with them for a brief minute and then went on our way. …says, ‘We should go back and rape those chicks.’ He was not joking.

“At that time, I was in shock. I didn’t really know him that well and had only hung out with him a few times. The people I normally hung out with were very much hardcore people, and I’d seen some shit by this age, but this shocked me.

I pulled my pistol out of my waistband and, in my head, said, if he turns this car around, I’m going to let him pull into the campground they are at, and then I’ll know how serious he is, and I’ll shoot him in the fucking head. (I was in the backseat directly behind him.)

Thankfully, no one in the car other than him was on board with that bullshit, and so he played it off like he was kidding. I know he wasn’t. Who says that? Who but someone fucked up enough to do it.

I never talked to or saw him again, and I wonder if he ever went on to do something I could’ve stopped that night. I don’t know his last name, and I know that I could get it if I really tried, but part of me is afraid, afraid to see what may have been.

That’s my incident, and it’s stuck with me ever since. I’m in my forties now, and I can’t go camping or drive by a campsite without thinking about it, even if it’s a brief, fleeting thought. I just hope he never did anything we could’ve prevented, somehow.”

—u/Flatland_Poetics