You know when you do something so dumb that for days afterward you still call yourself stupid when you think about it, yeah I think everyone does. I have more of these moments than I’d like to admit to. I have ruined perfectly good friendships and what could have been still haunts me to this day. This is the story of what happens when you jump to conclusions and end up hurting someone by assuming they did something more than what you thought they did could have hurt you.

When I was a young kid in second or first grade I was pretty good friends with this kid named Eli and we hung out a lot. One on day of that year Eli wasn’t at school and I thought nothing of it until I heard a rumor that made me question our entire friendship. The rumor involved a secret that I was pretty sure I had only told one person, Eli. Now at the time this was a big deal as the girl I liked was a very good friend, (she’s not really anymore).  And when people asked me if I liked this girl I vehemently denied that I did, I completely disregarded the easiest way of finding out who the snitch was. Instead of asking the people who had told them such lies. I walked around fuming at Eli for the rest of the day. In my head I was already planning the confrontation the following day.

When the next day arrived and Eli walked into the classroom I immediately confronted him about the rumor circulating the school. But before I could ask him if he had told anyone my secret the teacher rang the bell signalling for everyone to sit in their desks and be quiet. Fortunately for me, Eli and I sat on opposite sides of the room so I couldn’t ask him if he was guilty of spilling my secret. And when it was time for our first 15 minute break of the day I resolved that I would confront him about it outside. When I got outside I was sidetracked from my quest to find Eli by one of my other friends, Lily, asking me if I wanted to play football. Now since football was my favorite thing to do at recess, I momentarily forgot about my quest and joined my friends for a good old fashioned time of throwing the pigskin around. It was only when I got inside that I realized that Eli had not joined us for football as he usually did. At the time I took this as an obvious sign of his guilt. So I waited and bided my time until lunch when I decided I would confront him.

When I arrived at lunch I saw Eli sitting at the table where we always sat talking to his friends. When I saw this I immediately sat down next to him and proceeded to talk about anything but the rumor, and when he was least expecting it I sprung the question, “So Eli I heard a rumor the other day,” I said.

To which Eli responded,”Oh who’s it about.”

Then came the bombshell,”My crush.”

And Eli immediately knew what was happening,” Wait, you don’t think I would have told everyone who you liked, right?”

“Well who else could have told everyone, the air, or maybe it was the invisible dude in the classroom.” I said sarcastically.

The response was just as sarcastic,“Well maybe it was the girl you like, you’re always talking to her.” And he got up and walked away with that last cutting comment. I was in disbelief, if he hadn’t told everyone who my crush was, who had. The answer came only a few short minutes later.

On the playground about 10 minutes later my second grade mind decided to put its keen detective skills up to the test, I was going to find out who had blabbed my secret. The first person who I asked required no bribe and straight up told me who it was,”It was Grady.” They said. I immediately thought how could my nemesis have gotten ahold of such sensitive information. So I located him and asked him, his response was simple,”Jack you’re not very quiet when you’re whispering.” I was so ashamed to hear this, not only had I blamed a friend for something that wasn’t his fault but what had happened was all my fault.

This incident left an ever widening rift in our friendship and never really healed. Our friendship was in tatters up until he moved away. Because of my own jumping to conclusions I had offended my good friend and killed our friendship. So there you have it kids, always make sure the person is guilty before you accuse them of something.