An Old Friend Found

During junior high, I made a friend with Terri. Terri was a dorky guy with bad skin. I forgot how we became friends. Back then I was pretty good at math and English (in Hong Kong standards), a lot of kids will copy homework off me and since I have lived in a foreign country and I love listening to foreign music, it also gave me some cool points. Terri must have sat next to me and find me easy to talk to. And very soon we started to hang out after school.

We would go to record stores during the weekend and browse, our favorite spot was this British sandwich shop chain that serve this fruit salad made with mayo, that was more like his thing than mine. As in every teenager in Hong Kong, we'd go to karaoke a lot. We both like singing and we were not that bad.

The thing about Terri is that he came from a rich family in which I was quite oblivion of, I still have a terrible sense about money and class differences. As long as I have money to get to where I want to be, I'm content. But back then, I thought everyone has the same living condition as I do so I never felt inferior or anything like that. One time, we set out for me to buy a new pair of jeans. We went to some big department store and he found me this pair of dark purple bootleg jeans. He insisted for me to get them. Being easily swayed and not knowing anything about fashion, I bought them merrily. Until my family got all shocked and awed that I would spend $300 on a pair of jeans and told me to return them. (I didn't)

A year later, we got into different classes and we stopped hanging out. I still saw him sometimes getting into trouble with his colored contacts and earrings. I guess our teachers and principle couldn't stand our teenage expressions. A few years after graduation, I've heard that Terri came to the States and became a learning center teacher but I could never get in touch with him. I tried contacting him with an email address that I've gotten from a mutual friend but that didn't work.

A few days ago, I got a contact request from Facebook from a name that I didn't recognize. After reviewing the pictures it turned out to be Terri. I thought I would never heard from him again. He now resides in LA and he got himself a very strange name now. And his girlfriend or wife is mysteriously named Terri and also another friend of his as well. From his picture, he still has pretty bad skin. I guess some things never change.