My friend was pretty much a human lie detector until he met the girl who lured him to his death

My friend "Tom" was always good at reading people and trusting his first impressions of them. If he hated you, he would keep a safe distance, politely smile and be nice, but he would never like you. If he liked you, he would befriend you for life, unless you did something to lose his respect. In that case, it was over. He could always read people, and was never wrong.<br><br>Tom grew up in New York, but he moved out to Chicago for work. I heard through the grapevine that he met a nice girl and they were in a serious relationship. We weren't that close anymore, but we'd talk every couple of weeks about old times. He was doing very well; living in a beautiful place in downtown Chicago right on the lake, doing very well at his high paying job, and just overall living a great life.<br><br>Tom had a bit of a dark side though. He was a lot of fun, but he was always a bit of a troubled soul. He had a problem with Xanax and Weed, which he'd smoked a lot of during our college days. However, he had quit all that and was doing very well for himself and he was on the road to success. He told me he was in love with this girl he met, and that he was going to settle down and live a happy life. I heard through the grapevine that he cheated on her with some chick he met at a bar, and she took him back but under the condition that he'd never do that again and that he'd go to couples counseling with her. He started smoking weed again, but not all the time, just on weekends. I guess they were having some problems and she accused him of still cheating on her but he denied it and said she wasn't being faithful to him and was trying to make him feel bad.<br><br>One day I got a call from one of Tom's co-workers. He asked me if I had heard about what happened to Tom and I told him I hadn't. Apparently Tom and his girlfriend got into a fight at a bar and she stormed out of the bar and left. Tom was upset and decided to take a walk on the lake to clear his head. The news said that he had been drinking and wasn't wearing a jacket, and that he walked out onto the lake and fell through the ice. Tom's body was recovered the next day, and it was ruled an accident. His funeral was massive. Over 200 people attended, and I met a lot of his new friends from Chicago who all had nothing but kind words and stories for me about Tom. Tom's dad approached me at the funeral and told me that he had a feeling that something was wrong with Tom the last time he spoke to him. He said he had a hard time sleeping and was very anxious and he felt like something was telling him that something was wrong. Tom's mom was in tears. All she could say was that she was just grateful that they got to spend Christmas with him because they never saw him anymore.<br><br>A couple of weeks after that, his girlfriend contacted me privately on facebook. She told me that she felt guilty because she knew he was having a hard time and then she left him at the bar. She said that she had never been in love with anyone like that before, and she just hoped that wherever he was that he was happy. She told me they had gotten into a fight over her using Adderall, and that Tom was taking some too. Apparently Tom and his girlfriend were having some problems that they hadn't told anyone about. She told me that he was having a hard time and she just hoped that he was at peace and that she'd always love him even though she wasn't a good girlfriend. She said she just wanted to hear some stories about when Tom was happy. I was a little surprised. Usually you hear about people like Tom from the news or from TV shows like Law and Order. But this girl was from real life. I listened to her vent and told her some stories about Tom from back in the day when he was happy. I remember when he first got his license and we'd drive around in his car, smoking blunts and doing donuts in parking lots at night.<br><br>She told me that she just moved to a new apartment and was doing well. I asked her what she did for work and she told me she was a dancer in one of the clubs in Chicago. I figured she meant some classy place but she told me it was more of the gentlemen's variety club. I was a little surprised. She asked me if I wanted to be friends on facebook and I told her I already was. I looked at her profile and it said that she was in a relationship. I asked her who it was and she said it was some other guy she met. I told her that I hoped she was doing well and that I'd always be happy to chat with her. I never heard from her again, but I'd occasionally see her posts on facebook about how much she loved her new boyfriend. Tom's parents are still in contact with me. They tell me they're doing better but they're still heartbroken. They live in upstate New York in the mountains. They just live a simple life surrounded by nature. I'll never forget Tom. He was a great guy and he deserved better.