There was this popular kid in my senior year of high school. Class clown, well dressed, one of the star athletes. We'd been friends in 7th grade but he'd apparently forgotten and didn't talk to me. I was occasionally fodder for his loud jokes in front of the whole class, although the gay kid got it a lot worse than I did.

One day I was fixing one of the computers in the office and he happened by. Nobody was around. He saw what I was doing and apropos of nothing he launched into something like, "You know, this place doesn't matter. Nothing here is real. Out there, a few years from now, you'll be in college, or working for fucking Microsoft or some shit. You know where I'll be? I'll be driving a forklift or changing somebody's oil if I'm lucky." No jokes. No smile.