Me driving us back from Walmart, and Marcus taking a selfie for us
I’ve known Marcus since I was 6 and we’ve had a lot of fun times together. We used to sit next to each other every day on the bus to and from school and swop between the window and aisle seats. He used to get really bus sick so he’d bring a little plastic bag on his journeys in case he felt like recycling breakfast. But on one of our trips to school his little plastic bag was…too little…and his breakfast ended up on his schoolbag. He learned from that and brought a bigger bag the following day.
Occasionally, we’d get into petty arguments because one of us looked at the other person’s laptop screen while we played Halo or Urban Terror on the bus. Everything would be fine the next day though, no point holding in a grudge and losing a gaming buddy. We were best bus friends, best gaming friends, and eventually became best adventurer friends.
Throughout our long friendship we developed several traditions, the longest and most outstanding of which is gifting rather awkwardly sized gifts that had little function, but not useless enough to throw away. These included me giving Marcus a 8-inch long elliptical M&M themed tin box that was curved on all sides so it doesn’t stand on its own, and Marcus giving me a 6-inch by 3-inch puzzle box that I still can’t open but occupies space on my desk.
In 2016, we were supposed to go to San Francisco together and visit the prison on Alcatraz. Marcus decided he wanted to take summer courses so he bailed on me weeks before the trip was about to begin. Two years later, he visits Alcatraz on his own without telling me and buys me a keychain with my name on it and the image of Alcatraz on the reverse.
“Marcus…Alcatraz…not cool…” ~ Me, after opening the gift.
“I’m glad you got the joke!” ~ Marcus laughing at me
Then there are the many wagers, promises, and bets that we’ve made over the past years. He said I should start writing them down before we forgot them, so here are a few of them (all monetary value expressed in Hong Kong Dollars):
- Whoever gets a girlfriend first owes the other $100
- Whoever gets married first owes the other $100
- If we go to each other’s weddings, we’d put in a nominal $10 as a wedding gift in good humor
- Whoever has a kid first owes the other $100, if they a twins or triplets, $100 per child
- We have to go to White Rock and Fort Langley together again in June 2028
- We have to visit SFU and UBC in Vancouver together in June 2026
- We have to go back to our old high school together in September 2024
- More will be added to this list as time goes on…
