Friends Are Friends Forever If They Insult Each Other

One of my favorite parts about making a new friend is when I insult them for the first time.  To be honest, their reaction is pretty indicative of how well our friendship will progress.  If they take offense, there's not much of a future.  If they laugh, it's gonna be fine.  If they whip a witty retort back at me, we are gonna be BFFs so fast it hurts.

I say this because Jennie and Dusty are the absolute best at insulting me, and I love them for it.  To be fair, I gave them a LOT of material to work with when I lived with them.  Let me take you back, gentle readers, to the summer of 2008.  Recently finished with my sophomore year of college and in need of a place in Jackson to stay for the summer, I crashed with the Hughes family.

I had only been there for a couple days when Jennie and Dusty had their friends over for dinner.  I was still getting used to this advanced stage of friendship, since before living with them we were best described as close acquaintances.  With the appearance of their friends, I was suddenly reminded that they were, in fact, quite a bit older than me.  I was intimidated and quiet throughout dinner.

Smiling politely at what someone had said, I raised my glass to my lips.  The ice was stuck to the bottom of the glass so I only got water.  Just before I was about to set it down, the ice broke apart.  The tsunami crashed into my face and soaked my shirt.  I set the glass down and stared at everyone with a brightening red face.  Everyone stared back at me, then glanced away as if it hadn't happened.  Everyone except Jennie.  She pointed, actually pointed, at me and burst into loud peals of laughter.

I was absolutely mortified.  I beat a hasty retreat after dinner, feigning I still needed to do those Very Important Things on the internet, but I never forgot how Jennie laughed at my misfortune and treated me like a friend rather than a guest.  They never forgot it either, those wonderful jerks.