M.T.S. The Best Friend I Could Have Ever Lost

I figure it's time for a side note from all the carnival talk. As I mentioned before in the story about my car getting hit by the short bus, I have a bigger story about the events involved in me eventually being interrogated and threatened with a felony charge of accessory to armed robbery. Sounds pretty rough huh?

Let's start from the beginning. Back in December of 06 i started working at Microdyne in Orono, ME, it's an outsourcing center and I was employed by Dell customer care. I met many great friends, some of which I am still very close to today. Around March or April I met Micheal, he worked for Dell as well but on the sales floor. Micheal and I soon became extremely close friends. It was to the point where I was at his house more than my own so soon enough we decided since we were both in the market for an apartment why not be roomies. We started out in a nice but fairly expensive place in Hampden then after some complications with our 3rd roomie we decided to move into a house owned by one of Micheal's friends, Chris.

Now many people did not understand they relationship we had, we lived together but not dating. Sure there were the one night stand slip ups when we first met, but other than that we were truly the best of friends. Where ever I was Micheal was there, where ever Micheal was I was there. Any thing that was mine was his, and vise versa . The one small problem we had that seemed to cause endless fights was Micheal's drug problems. When I first met him he only had a small problem with pills,vics and percs and what not. Soon it was more frequent and spread to other pills like oxys and such. I have never, not once in my life, ever swallowed, ripped, snorted or anything, any pill that was not prescribed to me. I actually have quite a problem with any and all drugs and those who use them, with the exception of marijuana of course.

Once Micheal and I were sharing a common living space I realized how severe his problem really was. When it came to the simple pills that were prescribed to him I never was too bothered, just that he chose to take them in a different manner than directed. But once the oxys came into play, and then the day I caught him smoking crack in our kitchen, well that was the day everything started to fall apart. Soon he was asking me to bring cameras, rings, and laptops into the local pawn shop for him since he didn't have a ME id as he was from Pennsylvania originally. Every time I inquired about where he had gotten the items he usually had an explanation like someone owed him money and they didn't have it so they gave him this instead. I had witnessed Micheal lending large sums of money to friends so it seemed plausible to me.

Now even though mine and Micheal's relationship never went past friends, there was always a sort of strain on it as we had at one point been very intimate with each other. It was often a back and forth game of who could make the other more jealous on nights we went out or who could be the most responsible with dealings at the house.

In late June I quite my job at Microdyne and headed to the coast of Maine to enjoy a week long 4th of July celebration with my family and some old friends. When I returned I was refreshed and happy to have Micheal as my best friend and the realization, finally, that we were amazing as just friends. Well it didn't hurt that I also returned with a new boyfriend on my mind. I will never forget the way things changed after that vacation. I had started dating a guy I had a crush on since my freshmen year of high school and I had the very best friend in the world, life was perfect. Yea, like that ever happens. Micheal of course started acting different, it was almost like the thought of me being happy with someone instead pining after him was driving him nuts. The affection level on his part went through the roof.

Soo anyway, around the middle of July was about the time I should have caught on to something fishy going on. Micheal paid our rent up about 3 months in advance and handed me $400 to "have fun with". A week or so later he flew out to Pennsylvania to visit his parents. In the mean time I had gotten caught up in the carnival and had decided to travel down to Skowhegan for the 10 day spot. While in Skowhegan my phone got disconnected due to $500 in roaming charges from Micheal being in Pennsylvania, so my friend Jen was letting me use her phone to stay in touch with my mom. This is where the fun starts.

The day my mother called and told me the lead Detective from the Orono PD had come to her house looking for me was one I will never forget. I have the cleanest record you have ever seen, I have NEVER been in any trouble or even questioned by a police officer before, so needless to say I was slightly scared. I sort of had an idea it had something to do with Micheal, after all the past few weeks he was getting into some bad crowds and inexplicably had thousands of dollars that he told me he got from his ex's engagement ring he pawned. Once I got to the Orono PD I was interrogated for a little over three hours, they searched completely through my car, and told me I was looking at a felony charge of accessory to armed robbery. WHAT?! ME?! Wow, all I could do was break down. Once they showed me a sheet of six photos and to pick out Micheal's I lost it. Just seeing my best friend in a mug shot, and these officers telling me he was a con man and was using me and my car to carry out his crimes. I felt like such an idiot. This person that was my best friend, that I had put every ounce of trust into, that I loved with all of my heart, this person was conning me?

Even after I left the station I did not want to believe anything the officers told me was true. Driving back to Skowhegan I felt like I had just woken up and the past 4 hours had been a dream, or nightmare. Micheal just happened to call that night. I told him what had happened, I didn't go into detail about how much information I had actually given the police. The way they went on it sounded like I was the last they questioned and they pretty much already knew everything there was to know. Come to find out every time I ever let Micheal use my car he was committing a whole array of crimes, from assault to armed robbery. Because it was my car spotted at the scene was the reasoning for me almost being charged.

After all was said and done I headed out on the road with the carnival and didn't hear from Micheal all summer, until the end of October. He had called my mom's house and got my new cell number and called me while I was staying in Seabrook, NH. I was so happy to hear from him I broke down in tears. That was the last time I ever spoke to Micheal. He always promised no matter what he would stay in touch.

At the end of everything there were many changes in my life I could attribute to Micheal; two negative bank accounts, two over $1,000 cell phone accounts, my car getting repoed, oh and don't forget about my 42 inch plasma I was renting from Rent A Center that he sold for crack, as well as the X-Box 360. The really messed up part about the whole damn thing, I still missed my best friend and just wanted him to be ok and come back.

I guess now I have finally realized that Micheal is never coming back and he realyl was nothing more than a very talented con artist. Last spring I found a Pennsylvania number I must have saved when he was still around, when I called it and asked if they knew Micheal I was told he was in prison in York county PA. It was Micheal's brother that I had reached. We spoke for an hour or so, he said Micheal had told him alot about me and he thought when Micheal got out in a few months I should come out to visit. He said he would pass my message on to Micheal and have him call or write me. Almost a year after that call I still haven't heard anything. Sometimes I wonder if it is really for the best to let go of the whole thing, or did I really loose touch with one of my best friends ever. I guess I will never know for certain, but for now I see it best to move on to bigger and better things, as much as I want to wait to see how long it will be before I see Micheal again, I don't really believe it will ever happen.