Unexpected Alliances

We see it in literature all the time: the arch enemy comes in to aid the hero in his hour of need. Or at the very least stays his hand to keep from killing the hero. Vader saving Luke from the Emporer. Barbosa joining up with Sparrow. It isn't quite as common as "boy meets girl", but it's definitely not a rare thing. Like most genre fiction tropes, I tend to look at it from the "does this shit ever really happen?" perspective.

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Turns out...yes, yes it does.

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There is this person I know. We're not friends, never really were. At best we're acquaintances who have each other's phone numbers. For a while, our interaction was borderline hostile. Worst enemy? Probably not, but far from someone I ever expected to "save the day" if I fell into damsel-in-distress mode.

That was until last week. My mother-in-law was on her way to my house. I had thirty minutes until she was at my door, and someone had just thrown me into a screaming, crying rage. I wanted to break things and hurt people (yes, I have a violent temper--get over it). Considering my husband's mother was about to arrive...this was not a good place to be. I knew I needed to talk to someone, but every single friend I could think of would want to know what was wrong. In detail. And it would have just made me spiral deeper in the wrong direction.

So...in a fit of panic, I called the one person who I figured wouldn't give a shit what was going on. (See above) Why? Because sometimes I don't want my hand held. I don't want to hear that it'll be fine (which is bullshit as often as not). And I certainly don't want to re-hash everything. I just want a distraction. And what better distraction than randomly calling someone who you don't really get along with? Assuming they don't hang up (a risk to be sure), the worst that will happen is you'll end up in a fight...which is still a distraction.

Imagine my surprise when I said, "I just need you to talk to me; I don't care about what," the person on the other end did just that. By the time my mother-in-law showed up, I was not only laughing instead of crying, but I didn't want to get off the phone. We ended up talking for almost an hour before I felt like I had to go and be a civil hostess.

Sometimes, help does come from corners where you'd least expect it.

Oddly enough, as I started typing this post, that same person texted me today. Are we friends now? Maybe. I'm really not sure. For all I know, there are ulterior motives on the other end of things. Reality is I'm okay with that--I kind of expect it. But if there aren't? That'd be great too. I'd love to be able to say the enemy to friend thing does happen upon occasion.

Thanks for the positive energy. Hope I can pay it back sometime :)