Sad Posts Say So Much

Cake! posted:

Of course, being out past 11:00 is a bad fucking idea. Even in "good" neighborhoods.

Me and 3 friends are just kinda chilling around in a park about 2 blocks from my house and on my route to the bus stop, shooting the shit, you know, the usual, when three girls come over and start talking to us. They're obviously somewhat drunk, the leader had a retainer or something and one of my friends said something like "Did you just get your braces off?" (why he said it, no idea). She responds as though it's some big insult and says "no, I don't have braces." Someone mentions how she seems like she's 12 years old and she goes all "teh lolz, i'm going to pour my coffee on you" and just gets really pissed off. She's drunk, so I guess that's kinda acceptable.

Her and her friends leave, and a few minutes later, come back with a big group of guys/girls, two of the guys come forward and approach us and start talking about how we were talking shit to these girls. One of them gets in the "are you 12 years old?"-guy's face and is all "how old do you think she is?" he says "uh, about 18." and the assailant says something like "apologize to her..." he does.

Then the same guy goes over and starts getting in the braces guy's face, telling him to kiss his shoe and shit, and of course he refuses to do it (good idea, would've put him in a vulnerable position) and it escalates to a pushing match (my friend continually asking "why do you want to fight?" while the other guy keeps talking about how "it's fun" and "it's a skill" and other bullshit), at this point I run away, and one of my friends runs away.

I get far enough away and decide to call the fucking cops. Adrenaline's taken 100% control of me, etc. I'm totally out of it, and I'm just really hoping my friends are okay by this point. I see two kids coming towards me and assume they're part of the same group (by now, it seems like they probably weren't) so I go hide in an enclosed community (bad idea, no escape) - running through people's backyards and stuff, again, bad idea. About 40 minutes later the cops finally show up, and I come out and talk to them, get in the back of the squad car and drive around looking for the assailants, with no luck, of course. I call my friends, one of them ("kiss my shoe" guy) will probably have a black eye in the morning, everyone else is fine.

So the cops do nothing, which is expected since there's no suspects, nothing, and it's not exactly a serious case for them, while now, I'm scared shitless of my own neighborhood and am not going to be willing to walk around alone even in the daylight. :-(

Calm me down, or make me laugh or something, so I can go to fucking sleep.

I don't understand the difference in treatment between 'sex offenders' and people like 'murderers' and 'robbers'. Why shouldn't murderers and those who have been convicted of armed robbery be mapped if sex offenders are? I get confused on this point. I suppose 'sex offenders' can never change their ways in the eyes of people unlike other criminals.

Sure it's a crime and disgusting sometimes but so is a lot of crime. I feel somewhat bad for the sex offenders who are branded, mapped, and tainted for the rest of their lives for stuff like "indecent exposure - showed wee wee to underage (high schoolers)". Sure nice going creepy ass dude here's a sentence, but damn that blows.

I got a phone call this afternoon telling me that one of my close friends abruptly passed away with very little warning. I knew she had been pretty sick, but I didn't know it had progressed so that a flu was enough to cause her to pass away. Naturally I'm very sad and in shock because of the loss.

I've been "invited" to the service which is to take place next Tuesday. The thing is, I do not know if I can attend the service. I have severe anxiety and depression issues. The last memories of my friend are from two weeks ago when we went to the movies - very happy memories. I don't think I can't take seeing her in a coffin.

Also, and somewhat more profane, that day is the day that I am supposed to attend things at my job which will cause me to get promoted. The job/promotion is very important because it will provide me with health insurance which I need severely.

What should I do? I want to send flowers definitely. Should I just go to the service and pay the possible consequences? Just note that the consequences I describe above are very, very serious. But I don't want to tell her stepmother that these are the reasons I can't attend. What should I do?