Member-only story
Why I Stopped Being a Good Friend
I don’t want people around who see me as a “benefit.”
In 2021, when there weren’t enough vaccines available to fight COVID and some countries were using shields and double masks, a “friend” called Lia contacted me to ask for an extremely important favor: She needed to make a short film for her college degree, and needed a “pretty girl” with a vehicle to complete her script.
The borders had recently opened, and I was going to travel with my boyfriend for our dream trip in two weeks. But I still wanted to be a good friend to Lia.
She assured me that everyone was healthy and that in one night, she would record everything she needed from me. So I said yes.
The day arrived, and everyone was late for rehearsal and the first recording. I started to feel anxious because my country still had an 8:00 p.m. curfew, and the first recording location was a park where many criminals used to steal cell phones.
I didn’t even want to get out of the car for fear that the police would arrest me for violating curfew, but my friend assured me that she had “a permit” and that everything would be okay.
But everything went wrong that night.
The people involved didn’t do their part properly; we had several problems with the…
