A Friendsgiving Bet

I have a story about a bet I made with a friend. I lived in this guy's place, the McKibbin Lofts, where he has resided for ten-plus years. This apartment is strikingly beautiful as soon as you walk in, with a huge wall of windows in the living room that lets in a lot of light, perfectly illuminating the 40 or so plants my friend houses. I met this friend because he lives in an apartment with seven rooms. He lives in one of them, of course, and rents out the other six to people wanting a cooperative Brooklyn living experience.

The beautiful apartment that my friend lives in.

I ended up living in this house after being introduced to it by a lady I met on Tinder. It was a really cool living situation. My favorite room I lived in (I lived in almost every room in the house during my short tenure) was when I didn’t live in a room at all. I actually lived in this little area affectionately called the nook. The nook was like the penthouse to Harry Potter's stair cupboard room. Anyways, this post is about a wager I made with this fellow, and I'd like to tell the story.

A roommate of ours, who has since moved into another apartment in the same building, threw a large Friendsgiving party that was finger food themed. She is Filipina, and she wanted the theme of the dinner to be all finger foods laid out on banana leaves. It was very cool. I invited my brother to this event, and he'd never been to my apartment. It was a really fun event. Notably, my friend, the main guy of the house (I’m struggling to not say landlord, but he’s not), was not present at this party. I remember finding that notable. Later, he arrived at the very end of the party with his girlfriend. My brother met him, and after a short while at the party, my brother and I drove back home to New Jersey where my parents live.

A few years later, this friend of mine completely denied the fact that he was at this event. I asked everyone who lived with us, but I did so with a leading question that wasn't fair; I planted a memory in their heads. Even so! The host of the party said she didn’t think so. She’s wrong, I thought, as her answer came in first. My brother met my friend; we talked about him on the car ride home. It was much easier for my friend to forget than for me to have a false memory, I thought. Anyways, there was a plethora of responses, and all of a sudden, it was leaning heavily yes. There was a group photo found that my friend was not in. I was not deterred as I knew he arrived after the photo.

Above are memories from Friendsgiving that my friend did not make. (He was actually not there yet, though). Raw-men I made with my friend. Dolmas I made with my friend and a raw tiramisu (that got flipped) that I made with my friend.

My friend stubbornly refused to believe me. I wanted to bet him $500 that he was there, as I was to be subletting his room for two weeks and I wanted to live there for free due to his unbelievable lapse in memory. Eventually, weeks after this all happened, I ended up making a bet with him where he would have to attend a brutally difficult hot yoga class. It was a beginner-friendly class but very difficult. I thought this would be good punishment as I did not want to take his money, but I wanted him to suffer, and to grow as a result of it. How could he forget our wonderful Friendsgiving event that had meant so much to me! I’m kidding, it’s not that serious, but I wanted him to go through that difficult class, and I wanted him to revel in my mastery of it.

By the way, this Friendsgiving event is where I executed the raw tiramisu cake flip. The article is linked here

To make a long story less long, eventually my friend revealed he might have an external hard drive with photos proving he was in Boston during the date of the Brooklyn Friendsgiving event. He was not. He ended up saying he lived in the apartment and it didn’t mean he was at the event, despite my emphasizing that he arrived at the very end.

He owed me a hot yoga session as agreed upon. I had a very difficult time scheduling this; we were trying to coordinate with another friend of ours who I'd gone with to this same studio. She had found the studio very difficult and wanted to come back to conquer a class that she felt had defeated her, and it did; she got wrecked. I alerted these two that the studio was shutting down (that’s how long it had been) and that there was one last opportunity. Everyone agreed on the date. My friend, the loser of the bet, agreed after I had said that if he doesn’t come to this last class, he would have to pay me the amount of money that the class costs. I did not want the money, but I knew the financial consequence was the only way to get him. On the eve of our class, my friend invited me to a party-like event. I told him to hydrate heavily if he was to be drinking alcohol as this class would result in a ton of sweat; being dehydrated would make it excruciating.

He informed me that he wasn’t coming, at which point I Venmo requested the $40 for class. By the way, when I made the bet, the class would have been free for my friend as a first-time visitor. It had taken so long that there was a change in management and this was no longer an option. My friend does well with his apartment venture, so I felt a $40 fee for being flaky, wrong about the bet, and neglecting his health would suffice. "Can’t we do like chill yoga before I'm gonna die yoga?" he’d plead. That wasn’t the term of the bet, was it now!?

Anyways, a couple of days later, I was with this gentleman at an event. I told him I'd go and I went, kept my word. Prior to the event, I was looking to buy weed; my friend hadn’t left, and I asked him if he could bring me weed.

The previous day, he had denied the $40 fee that he had implicitly agreed on in our text message conversation (I have receipts). Suddenly, he said, “If I bring you a nug, are we good on the debt?” Being the degenerate I am, I agreed. “A fat nug,” I say. My friend says he’s bringing a nug that can get him high ten times. Already I’m skeptical of this setup.

He gives me a nug I would value at... maybe $4.75... in the pre-legalization days... Nah, haha, it was fine, very underwhelming but it hit the spot. He did me a service, but I don’t feel at all that his debt was settled, not materially, not spiritually. I also had a very nice time with him that evening.

Anyways, thanks for reading and please let me and my friend know below in the comments what you think of this situation and what you think.

If he wants to voice his side of the story, I am willing to publish any response or objection he has to anything I’ve said.

My friend WAS at Friendsgiving. See above for where he ACTUALLY never was.

What does he owe?

(another leading question)