Help me.

Well, I'm not the one who needs help, but no one thinks like me, and they're all convinced everything's all right. I don't think so.

I have a friend. Yeah, we're friends, so every time he'll make threats coated in sugary words and tones, I shrug it off. I mean, he isn't serious about that, right? He just wants to...pinch my face and rip it off in the process, or...kill me. But he's not serious, right?

We thought so too. No, my face is still in one piece, but since it's almost Christmas, we have this gift giving things in our class. It's a tradition, you know, that thingy when you pick out a name off a box and give a gift with certain characteristics to that person. Another person would give you a gift, too. Often the people don't know who the giver is, and the only reason why most people in our class know who their giver will be because the giver tells them.

My friend's giver didn't bother telling him. She wanted to break the chain of him knowing his giver every single year, and when he started asking, she kept her mouth shut because she didn't want to give him everything he wanted.

The giver is my friend, too.

So gift-giving came. We were to give a gift that was square and soft. My giver gave me a hankie, and I gave her (I'm her giver too) a shirt, because you can fold it into a square. :) My friend (the guy friend...let's call him Peter) got a small pillow with a window thing for a quote. Then he started going around asking everyone if they knew who gave it to him. Nobody answered.

Peter then got a list and filled it up with who's who. He told us that he really didn't like surprises ever since and even cried when his parents held for him a surprise birthday party. Well, I thought, now's a good time for a change. Can't you wait till next week? You'll know it by then.

He can't. I don't know, maybe he's used to having people give him what he wants and giving it right after he asks for it.

That was last Monday. On Tuesday, he was still filling up the list and all. Wednesday. Still on the list. Insulting the giver about how he gave him a useless object. Threatening to set fire to it in front of the entire class to see who reacts.

We seriously thought he was joking.

The next day he had a purple lighter. Somewhere mid-morning he bore a hole at the back of the pillow.

We had a big test on Computer Science 4 that day, and at lunchtime almost everyone was in the library pouring over their notes and handouts. Someone then came over and they started to huddle. I tried to keep my eyes on my handouts but couldn't help hearing since they were beside my table, and I asked my other friend (the giver) what happened. She told me about the hole at the back.

I was surprised. I didn't think he would go that far. I didn't know he could go that far.

Soon everyone was talking about him and how unstable he is, and asking about the pillow. I was so pissed at his reaction, at what he did - he burned the entire pillow, cotton stuffing, bean stuffing, EVERYTHING. It's all ashes in the trash can.

And the most insulting part was that he was proud of himself. He told the giver that he burned the entire pillow, then he came to me and asked me if she really was the giver. I was so mad at his immaturity that I screamed at him. If I weren't short and if I could reach his face without a problem, I'd have beaten him to the ground.

We heard the story from the people who witnessed him burn the entire pillow and they all said he seriously sounded manic, depressive, and psychotic. That evening I called my mom and told her I might have a psycho for a classmate.

All the others tell me I shouldn't ostracize him or think of him as a psycho, and that I should just understand his situation. But to what extend shall I? Shall I just turn my back on him if he brings a knife the next time? If he says he'll set fire to the school or make the generator explode, should I just understand him because we're friends?

And they say I don't care because I think he's psychotic. Oh, I don't care, now? If you ask me, they're the ones who don't care, because they fail to realize that he has a problem and they would just turn their back on him even if that problem was swallowing him up! And I'm the one who doesn't care because I'm the one trying to find the correct diagnosis and thinking of bringing over a psychiatrist to aid me! I don't care? I DON'T CARE?!

You think?