Never lend money to friends

I’m so frustrated right now, a person that I consider a friend is raking me over the coals and it is pissing me off. This is only rant, repeat, this is only a rant.

Let me give you some background, about a month ago a friend calls me up about 7:00 on a Friday night, I had just settled in for the evening because The Boyfriend had other commitments and I was planning a nice evening at home with a bottle of wine which had just been opened. The cell phone rings and it’s my friend who frantically says “Oh my god, my dog is sick I don’t know what’s wrong with him, will you go to the Vet with me I don’t want to go alone?”

Well I had already consumed a glass and a half of wine and I tell him, yeah I’ll go, but I can’t drive (I will not drive when I’ve been drinking or smoking – period) but I’ll go with you for support. He tells me, yeah that’s ok, I’m using my room-mates car.

So he picks me up and we drive off to the vet, the whole time I’m sitting in the back seat with the dog petting him and holding his head. The entire time I am continuously reminded that it is this exact reason why I don’t have pets. When I was growing up we always had animals – dogs, cats, cows, chickens – because I grew up on a farm….but what did it for me was when I saw our pet dog get run over and killed and the driver just kept on going – I don’t want to have to watch my pets die again.

We get to the vet we’re there about 2 hours they fix the doggy up and the bill comes…..we’re standing there and my friend says “I only have $260 in my checking account so I’m just going to write them a check and deal with it later.” The total was almost $400.00

Now mind you, he had just gotten paid (and I know how much he makes) so he writes the check out hands it to the girl who proceeds to run it through the machine where it is immediately rejected because there aren’t enough funds to cover the amount written on the check…..my friend is like “oh shit, what do I do.”

Well I had just been home for my Grandmother’s funeral and my Mom had given me some play money so I told him, you know what I’ll pay for it and you pay me back.

So a few weeks go past and I hear nothing regarding his ability to pay me back – but during this time he’s told me that he “got” $1000 to help pay down some of his bills, so I assumed that he was figuring me in on one of those bills, but I was wrong. So I asked him earlier this week “hey, any idea when you can pay me back the Vet bill?”

He gives me this look of “what you talking about Willis?” And he stammers along, “oh well I can give you half of this week when I get paid.” So I push him “and then the other half?” “oh the following week.”

So Friday rolls around – payday – and I ask him again “Hey, do you have a check for me?” “Oh I’ll have it for you next week.” “Next week,” I say, “you told me this week.”

“Well yeah, but work short changed my paycheck by $100 and they’re not gonna cut me an extra check they’re gonna add it onto next week’s check, so I can give you some of the money then.”

“Half, right?” I say “Oh…..yeah….I guess so.”

So now here’s my question that I’m asking myself because I consider this person a good friend – Do you think that the only reason he asked me to go along to the Vet with him was because he knew he didn’t have enough money in his account to cover it and he knew I would pay for it?