Yesterday morning, my friend (call him Ed, a fake name) invited me to hang out at his house in late afternoon; to watch 90’s movies, with 5 people in total. A nostalgia thing of sorts. Out of goodwill, I took the time to find a 90’s beer: Red Dog, which is very rare nowadays. Along with old-time snacks, like Bugles, and nacho cheese to pour over them. However, he later texted me and hold me that one other friend (call him J, for “judgmental”, which you will see below) will be there too.
That’s when I had that “uh oh!” feeling, since I’ve met J before, and did not enjoy his company. While he’s been mostly civil to me, save for a verbal jab or two, his body language just radiates arrogance. And those are the kind of people I avoid whenever possible, with or without pheromones. Unfortunately, Ed admires him and hangs out with him quite often, so I try my best to get along, if I can’t exclude J.
Before heading out, I made what later turned out to be a mistake. I guess my intent was to see how J reacts to the pheromones, maybe stupidly so. I wore the following:
TUTH: 2 sprays, 1 on each side of neck
IShine: 2 sprays, 1 on each temple
P130: 1 spray, on forehead
It started out OK
I requested Uber and came over to Ed’s house. He laughed at the 30-pack of Red Dog I brought, and complimented me on finding it. Other guys had positive reactions too, even though the beer tastes kind of nasty. We set up the food, and sat down to drink beer and watch movies. We got through only one movie, “Shawshank Redemption”, until people got bored. And drunk.
Then aggression came out
We decided to change things up and play video games. Modern ones, not 90’s. While we were playing “Call of Duty” on Ed’s Play Station 2, J said something that sounded dirty. So I came back with “That’s what she said!”. I use that joke semi-regularly in my other social circles, and people react either positively or neutrally to it. One girl even seems to love it, and gets flirty with me when I do it. (I may post a separate thread about her at a later time.)
J was different. He went ballistic on me, going into a massive barrage of verbal diarrhea about being "mature and a “good man”. I countered that I was just doing normal guy humor, but that only made things worse. He kept saying that he wanted to help me be “more mature” and a “better man” like him. But I read in psychology literature, that anyone claiming to “want to help” while being aggressive about it is a textbook example of an abuser.
I tried to change the topic: to the irony of using a smartphone while watching a 90’s movie, eating a 90’s snack, and drinking a 90’s beer. I even promised J not to say “That’s what she said!” around him. I just wanted to end the conversation, and let J vent his aggression into Call of Duty instead. That only made things worse: J went off on me again, saying that call I can think about is beer and video games. Ed tried to calm J down, but without success. Other three guys acted as non-intervening bystanders.
Conclusion
I finally got fed up with J, and decided to promptly leave. I told people I wanted to be alone for a little bit, excused myself to step outside for a smoke, and never came back. I went walking around the lake in a park three blocks away for over an hour until I calmed down, and ignored all calls and texts. Then I requested Uber. Once I got home, I blocked J on all social media accounts I have. God help me if he finds me on here.
Theory on what happened
I think two things did me in here: TUTH and P130. TUTH made J overtly aggressive with me, and P130 made me look weak. Which created a perfect s_itstorm for J’s behavior.
What does everyone else think?
