false

"Fuck you and the horse you rode in on!", Tom heard himself saying on the phone. No, wait a minute. He did not say it. He just thought it. Well, he said it alright but only to himself. As usual. He kept it all in. Most of the times at least. Too many times anyway. Well, that was his style much to is regret. He hung up reflecting about that particular style. "I should've said it out loud!" he thought while at the same time laughing at the notion.
He knew people were very different from one another, but damn it, someone should've created a common basis somewhere, somehow. Even now he couldn't help but to feel amazed with what some people thought, said, or asked for. "Maybe i'm expecting or demanding too much from everyone?" he reflected as he threw the phone to the sofa while lighting up a cigarrette. "But what the hell! People seem to expect and demand so much of me, why the hell can't i do the same? It's the weirdest feeling: people seem to ask, so carefree, things that i wouldn't even dream of asking. I mean, no man is an island and we do need each other for a fact. But damn it if i'm wrong, but sometimes one should avoid asking the other things that will put him in an awkward position. Awkward because sometimes people ask the darnest things of people who really have trouble saying no, a loud and simple No! And it can be so difficult at times".
Tom half smiled half cringed at the memories of certain situations he got himself too that could've been so easily avoided if only he had had the presence of mind to just say no. It's indeed a fine art, finding the right balance in order to feel confortable to just say no.

Maybe he had a glitch in his personality that made him to want that everyone likes him, leading to his difficulty of saying no to some people. Maybe. But at least he aknowledged that glitch, and he tried the best he can to fight it, or, at best, adapt it. "Yeah, that's me alright, can't deny what i am, but for sure i can adapt. It won't change my core, but it would do me good..and, who knows, maybe the others too, who, probably need to listen a few "nos" once in a while. It's part of life after all. People who get it all made for them tend to get bad habits towards life...they tend to get used to the ever present yes. Maybe it's better for them to hear a no from a friend, than from someone else".

Tom put out the butt of his cigarrette in the ashtray, grabbed his coat and left home. "Alright, let's get it on then!"

Gunther Dünn