Came close to ending it all for the sake of a sick joke.

When I was in high school, there was this guy a year younger than me named Jake (not his real name) and Jake was the fuckboy of the school. He was always pulling pranks, and he was damn good at it. He was the kind of guy who would spend an entire weekend digging a tunnel in his backyard just to have a place to lay in wait to scare unsuspecting neighbors.<br><br>What's important for this story is that he would always, ALWAYS take things too far. Pulling off the most harmless prank, but stretching it on for as long as he could. For example, he once pretended to be gay for three months. I don't know if he did it just for the laughs, or if he genuinely liked to see how far he could push a gag before it fell flat.<br><br>One day, we all decided to go to a nearby shopping center at lunch to eat our sandwiches. It was a usual thing to do on that side of town. There was this one guy, "Alex" (not his real name), who was... not the brightest bulb. He would just agree to anything if you sounded convincing enough. One day Jake said "let's go rob a liquor store" and, well, you get the idea.<br><br>Jake started pulling his gay act towards Alex, which made the latter incredibly uncomfortable. I'm not gonna lie, I laughed, it was a pretty funny thing to see happen in real life.<br><br>To be clear, I do NOT condone bullying, and Alex was never the type to be mean to people, he just... wasn't very smart. He wasn't bullied because the rest of us felt like he was one of us. Bullshit, I know, and god knows what kind of hell he's going through now, as an adult.<br><br>I digress. Jake was hitting on Alex in a very juvenile, over-the-top way. He was makingFaces, kissing him, the whole shebang. This was the point where most people would've stopped, but not Jake. He took it too fucking far, and I saw it, I KNEW it was going too far, but I went with it. I have no idea why, maybe it was the laughter, maybe I just wanted to see how far Jake could stretch it before Alex snapped.<br><br>Alex was visibly uncomfortable. He was sweating and fidgeting. Jake took it a step further and started making out with him. TONGUES, and the whole shebang. This was the red flag, I should've stopped it, but I didn't. I was too busy laughing, with the rest.<br><br>I have no idea how long they kept doing it, but we were probably there for ten minutes when Alex started shaking and balling, right there on the floor. He started crying, and when Jake stopped, Alex started screaming at us. He started running in circles, and at one point he started puking. I swear to god, it was the most horrific thing I'd ever witnessed up to that point. We all ran like hell and left him there, alone, in the middle of the shopping center, puking and screaming.<br><br>I never saw Alex again. Never. I don't know what happened to him after that, I don't even know if he graduated with us. For all I know, he could be dead.<br><br>Jake and I are still friends. We talk every now and then. He went on to start his own business and he's doing well, and when we talk, it's always about the funny times back in high school. He never mentioned Alex, and neither do I.<br><br>I don't think Jake ever realized the gravity of what we did. I don't think he ever will. I never mentioned it to him after that, and neither did anyone else. We just kinda swept it under the rug.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>I don't think about it often, but sometimes it comes to mind, and every time I do, I feel a deep, intense pain in my chest. Like someone's punching me in the heart. I don't know what he's doing these days, but I hope he's doing well, and I sincerely wish him all the best. If I ever see him again, I hope I'm man enough to apologize.