Derrick and Wallace had been friends since they were toddlers. They went through primary school together.
They started secondary school. At secondary school they met and made new and separate friends. That’s the way it was. No harm in that. It’s not as if they had become enemies.
Derrick’s new group of friends were smokers. They’d go down behind the handball alleys between classes for a quick surreptitious puff. On the other hand, Wallace’s friends were into debating, and would be forever arguing about the pros and cons of their next debate’s moot point.
Wallace the debater was elected to the school’s Student Council. He advocated and got safer drinking fountains installed for the students. Meantime, Derrick continued to go down to the back of the handball alleys for a quick surreptitious puff. He didn’t give a fuck about safer drinking fountains.
Wallace the debater left school and went to university. He got a degree in chemistry, and then found a job working in a laboratory that designed ergonomic outdoor furniture. Derrick left school and got a job driving a forklift for a timber merchant.
Good Boy Wallace got married and had three kids. Bad Boy Derrick got married and had three kids.
Wallace murdered his wife and now belongs to the low-security prison’s debating club. Derrick continues to smoke and lead a fairly ordinary life.
Funny how there’s often no sense in directions travelled.