Favorite bar, Austin texas. A concusive blast rocks a man's life one year before. An iron clad rule is formed: Do not go out with people in your friend group. And he sticks to it. He is given opportunities. But he sticks to it, until one day...against all that his friends have advised, not one, not two, not three, but five people say "Don't do it, it's a bad idea." And he has an opportunity. That rule is about to be broken, not out of need, necessity, but for science. Are you ready?

At another time, I am going to write a story called the iron clad rule. But, for now I shall instead explain what this iron clad rule is.

Do not, under any circumstances, date your friends.

So, I will be the first to admit that this iron clad rule is...well it's more of a guideline. There are people it's fine to go out with within your friend group, but only do so if you know beyond a shadow of a doubt you can trust that person to not be cray cray. Do not under any circumstances do it because..."Break glass in case of emergency" because you want to practice babies and haven't done it in a long time.

But...but...me being me...well if you haven't learned by now my life is more of a long list of hilarious mistakes that result in stories that tell themselves in their own form of bizarre divine comedy. And all I really need to do? Sit back and endure it. Hurt me more, it makes the book better. Because even if I fail...it is a moral victory right?

Right?

...

F%$# Mε...alright here goes another one of them.

Now, there are times when I make a mistake and it's like...well it's understandable. There are times where I make a mistake and I'm like...well I can learn something from this.

Not this one. This is more of a..."You learned this lesson and then decided to do it again because you knew it was a bad idea, for science."

I remember flat out telling friends of mine while this was ongoing that it was "Going in the book." Oh god, I knew. And it was glorious. As a friend and I discussed.

Me: "She has no idea who she is dealing with."

My buddy: "Oh, you are on a whole other level from her."

So I met this girl and I thought, man she's cute.

I of course when I meet anyone I'm about to go out with *Drum roll* do research on them. I want to make sure I know everything there is about this person before I proceed forward.

And over the course of my brief research I discovered two things. One, she had already gone out with one of my friends...and it ended badly. Two, she was already talking to another one of my friends, while talking to me.

And when I say talking, it's overt flirting. Not, "Could it be? Maybe? I don't know bro..." It was more like *Clang!* Mallet over the head style flirting. Cutesy messages, pictures from snapchat, so on so forth.

So, here' where it gets hilarious. Of course, because she went out with a buddy of mine, my first reaction was to call him up. I asked if it was cool and he was bursting with details describing what she had done with complete candor. Then, gave me his blessing.

I didn't find out until I went to my favorite bar that night that she was talking to another friend of mine. Now here's the thing. He and I are friend friends. Not just a random dude I know, we are buddies and I trust him quite a bit as a member of my close friend group, so he and I are far tighter together than she'll ever be with either of us. And *Drum roll* he knew she was our other mutual friend's ex, but hadn't hit up our mutual friend about it. Here's where it gets funny, after a short discourse I convinced him to avoid drama and just call our mutual friend.

So...our buddy got two calls in one night about the same girl asking for permission to hit on her...with both people being fully aware that the other was aware. This is quite possible one of the most ridiculous things I could say about a situation and yet it is entirely true.

I also found out later this guy and she had dated for only s few days, so it wasn't "That big a deal" which added to this individual's mythos of "It's other people, not her". And so easily explainable too! Except, I later found out she did the same to another friend...and I could see the clear signs that she was leading on ANOTHER one of her exes who hung around her like a protective puppy.

You can't make this shit up.

So, here I am, watching all of this happen in front of me and my immediate reaction is "This gon' be gud." And while a normal and sane human being would likely look upon a situatino like this and see warning lights flashing in neon bold...your's truly...the hero of this story says "yolo". And dives in anyway.

So this was an absolutely bizarre situation, because my friend and I are both equally aware she's hitting on both of us, we are texting each other the entire time about her hitting on both of us, laughing internally about it, but outwardly we are doing everything we can possibly do to remain neutral (which was quite literally impossible) and not reveal what we were thinking. Of course, we both also engaged in conversation.

Now, here's where it gets funnier. Everyone else that was there was 100% aware. Why? Well quite naturally, I told them.

So there are like 10 people watching this unfold before their very eyes and each and every one of them is bemused by the antics going on by an amateur player. I later actually even saved her number as "Playa lvl 1" and I'm deadly serious.

So, here are four people. A girl fawning over my friend, her foot on my leg passively flirting with me...thinking our buddy doesn't know, and her ex behind her with both hands on the back of the chair trying to act like he knew what we were doing and that he had any power to stop us from hitting on her. (Hint, he didn't).

And so, me losing my mind with laughter internally, I finally decide it's time to leave cause I have work in the morning and so as I exit I made absolutely sure to ask her out. And of course, she said yes but had to run because she had to make sure my buddy didn't see. (I shit you negative)

He and I caught up afterward and were laughing our @$$e$ off about it.

Anyhoo,

This rule was forged in the fires of adversity, drama, and great pain. As with all ironclad rules...ones that should not, not now, not ever, never ever ever...be broken. But, as you may have surmised after reading previous stories...I am really really really dumb and for some reason get excited to do stupid shit.

So, I got excited...and you guessed it...did something really goddamn stupid which was breaking my own rule.

Now, I will be the first to admit when I first broke this rule it was without the intent of creating a story, because let's face it...my life writes its own divine comedy and to be quite frank, I need do nothing but sit back and endure it.

And, well, to be honest, I don't often throw people under the bus regarding relationship problems, if ever.

If you don't get a response, you are being ghosted. If you get a short response followed by silence, you are being ghosted. If you get told "I'll get back to you." (Which is by far the worst because it keeps that person on the hook)

Some people receive tons of texts a day and may have just missed your's. It happens.

If you date someone and you are not interested, take the time to be honest and let that person know you are no longer interested.

And what does this do? In the future, it will leave the trauma behind of nervousness of texting. It ruins trust of the opposite sex and

their name is kept and later someone else from the organization

recruiters often get into arguments with people on the forums about white supremecy and can convince them to start doing research and go down the rabbit hole, eventually joining "The cause". It's some really creepy stuff if you ever want to read into the how they do it. But it starts by triggering an extreme emotion and targeting someone who is already leaning in the

Without going to in depth, it starts by saying something provacative or doing something that excites emotion (In the case of dating it is the attraction, for white supremecists it's saying some racially charged hate). Then, they get into a heated conversation and reach a norming point where the two people are agreeing on generalizations (Such as idealogy for dating or in the case of whtie supremecy they state things that are statistical fact, even though these facts such as percentages, but translate them eroneously to fit into their ideology).

nd I...am an idiot.

So, when I say to you that breaking this rule is a terrible idea? Oh, it's a terrible idea. In the iron clad rule, I'm going to explain why it's a bad idea to date your friends. But until then, we will

A rule that is iron clad that it has not been broken in one year. And it is about to be broken. A man has sworn to only go out with girls he does not know, he was wrong.

A birthday party and a chance meeting, warnings blazed in bright red signs. She will ghost you...the warning signs are thrown and every friend laughs and laughs, they know...his heart will be broken. One thousand years later, he holds his phone in his hands, clutched close and curled up with a stone next to him that says the words "Why won't you care for me." ...yeah...except they did it to me. And I'm on a whole different level. It's time for another rollercoaster ride of stupid proportions.

Something you may know about me by now is that I am a glutton for punishment. I seek out situations I know are going to turn out badly just because there is going to be a story that comes of it. As a result, my life has begun to write its own comedy and I swear to you, this is one I have to share!

Now one thing you should know about me...my life writes comedy. I don't necessarily seek it out...it just happens. And sometimes, these events are so funny I have to share. And this my friends is one such time. Strap in, this is the greatest revenge on a ghoster you can imagine.

Now here's the deal, at first it was just going to be a funny anecdote about two buddies who knew she was hitting on us at the same time...but then it got hilariously complicated.

It was my birthday, I was not technically seeing anyone and low and behold this girl appears, and she is gorgeous. Drop dead, of course my first

Now, if you play the field against three people at the same time and two of them happen to be friends...well...friends talk.

I remember saying the words to my friend "She has no idea who she is dealing with here."

And his reply? "Oh god no."

So that should give you an idea of what is about to happen here. And no, she did tell me many personal details about herself and you won't be hearing about those here, keep in mind sometimes people open up a bit and then change their minds. It happens.

Now, here's the thing. If this had just happened to me...I wouldn't care. But no, this happened to not one, but two friends, including myself.

A friend tells me "A gorgeous girl with a history of ghosting. And then, another says, oh she crazy. And then another says, oh yeah she did that to me too!

And yet, he looks upon them and says "It's time to make a mistake."

They found his bones millions of years later. His hand, clutching his phone tight to his body. The only other object near was a single chord going to an unbegotten power source. He had scratched with his nailes to create a simple message of sadness, anger, fatigue, and so much more. Why did you ghost me.

I did this, as a test.

Ghosting, the titular term that refers to an individual

Ghosting, a popular term as written by urban dictionary:

Ghosting can mean the shutdown/ceasing of communication with someone without notice. This can include but doesn't always require the closing or shutting down of social media accounts or ports of contact such as email addresses or phone numbers. It can also be associated with ongoing contact in the form of minuscule replies.