Fren

[Content warning: sensitive subject]

“You haven’t changed a bit! I was hoping you would.”

Yeah I hated Dammy. I thought his jokes were dead- or just not funny, spending time with him was long, and the way he always followed me around specifically was just sad. I have no idea why the boys let Him join the group when all he did was pick on everyone’s insecurity to make fun of, yet whenever one of us mentioned his lazy left eye, he’d stare us down as if we’d just cursed out his mum.

“I can see you started eating larger portions.” He’d say. Or: “You’re going a bit grey- looking tired, but that’s okay. It’s all part of ageing.” And then man even got vexed when we skipped him in our group chat roastings. What a character.

I was in denial when I heard he died. We all were. Gordon told us that Dammy died in a house fire and that none of his family survived. But we all ran to Dammy’s joking while Gordon tailed, warning us to take him seriously. Fola stopped running when he saw the smoke. I still didn’t want to believe it. Even when I got to Dammy’s. The crowd of neighbours. The fire engine. I thought Dammy would flag us down from one of the ambulances, laughing at how worried and breathless we were. But deep down I knew Gordon never joked like that.