It was September 17th, 2016 and on this day my friend Justin was having his 16th birthday party. For his party we were having dinner at a pizzeria and then we were going back to his house for video games and birthday cake. The whole party was going relatively fine (there were a few smaller arguments) until we decided to play "Monopoly Plus" on the Xbox One where the five of us were sharing one controller.

The participants in this Monopoly game of ruined friendships were Lewis (a person who doesn't take crap from anyone, has no filter, a potty mouth, very argumentative, and he is also My lifelong best friend and Justin's lifelong best friend and he is also how I became close friends with Justin in the first place), Cody (who is an instigator, annoying, very good at getting under people's skin, it was his first time at one of Justin's birthday parties, and I have had a bad history with Cody and I was kinda dreading the party knowing that he was going to be there), Dave (Justin's little brother who is also good at getting under people's skin but despite being 9 years old at the time he was the most mature of all of us in some ways), Justin(the birthday boy who is pretty easy going and doesn't really take these games seriously), and myself (the most competitive person in the group who is always in it to win it and I always make sure no one else cheats even though I may cheat sometimes).

So we were playing on the Xbox One instead of the actual board because it's such a pain to set up board and deal out the money ourselves. We played by sharing one controller and that's where problems arose. Each person couldn't have their own controller since we didn't have 5 controllers. We actually had to be mature for once and hand the next person the controller when it was their turn to roll, on an auction of a property, or when they had to make a decision of whether or not to accept a trade. Typically I was the one who had a problem doing this where in an auction I would make everyone else withdraw and I would get a property for $11. But what actually caused the fight is what Justin and I coined "The Trade".

So the game was pretty uneventful for the most part. Justin, Dave, Cody, and I didn't have any monopolies and we were just collecting properties hoping to set up a good trade within the next few turns. But Lewis had the yellow monopoly with a house on each property so you could say that he was winning. But then Cody's turn came and he wouldn't end his turn and give the controller to Lewis. Lewis said "Cody what are you doing" with attitude and Cody opened up the trade menu and he said "I'm going to get all of your yellows". It was at that point where the fight began but this fight should've never happened. Although since Cody had the controller he could accept and decline trades for Lewis but Lewis had houses on his yellow properties so they couldn't be traded no matter what Cody did on his turn. However, none of us realized this fact and thus we argued like idiots.

Lewis said "You better not. Give me the fucking controller" and he started to try to grab it from Cody. I tried to step in and I kept saying "Let a neutral party handle the trading, let a neutral party handle the trading" and I was trying to grab the controller from Cody too. Then Justin stepped in front of me, said "no" and he grabbed me and dug his nails into my shoulder. This hurt and infuriated me so I pushed Justin 8 feet across the room and he fell on the couch and hit his head against the window. Lewis and Cody were still arguing and Dave was just sitting there watching this madness unfold. Unfortunately when Justin hit his head against the window that alerted his mother again (she had to reprimand us already for being too loud and argumentative) and she came inside to yell at us. She kinda yells like Howard's mom from the Big Bang Theory so it's pretty funny in hindsight.

Justin's mom yelled "WHY DID HIS HEAD JUST HIT THE WINDOW"? Then all of us were speaking at once playing the blame game. Then Cody finally said "It was all Lewis's fault". Then Lewis said "Shut up Cody. It wasn't my fault it was yours". Then Justin who always was on Cody's side in our arguments that night said "No it was you Lewis". What Lewis said next really blew up the argument. He said "Shut up Justin. At least I'm not Autistic".

Here I need to give a little bit of backstory. Justin, Lewis, Cody, and I are all on the Autism spectrum but at this point in time we all had different knowledge and understanding of our disorder. Justin and I'm pretty sure Cody were well aware of their Autism. Justin's mom would always bring it up whenever she talked about her son. But for Lewis and I our moms never wanted us to know that we have Autism because they felt that we wouldn't be able to handle the fact that we had it. However Lewis and I were different in that I was starting to feel that I might've had Autism because of my quirks and how differently I think and perceive things compared to other people and I didn't really see that as a bad thing but Lewis couldn't even handle the thought of having Autism and he'd kill you if you called him Autistic.

As Lewis said "At least I'm not Autistic" a feeling of fear rushed over me because at that point I knew this party was ruined and that it couldn't be salvaged. Two years ago I simply said the word "vagina" and Justin's mom yelled at me and called up my mom just for that so I couldn't even imagine what was about to happen. I was thinking to myself 'Lewis you idiot. Why would you say that when she's right here'?

Surprisingly Justin's mom didn't go off as badly as I expected but she was still pretty pissed off. She said "Lewis why would you call him Autistic in front of his mother? You know how rude that is? And it is so disrespectful to me to hear that as his parent". Justin said "Yeah Lewis". Lewis said "Shut up Justin. I have higher grades than you and I'm smarter since I'm not Autistic". Then Justin's mom said "Wow Lewis that is so rude to me as a mother" and Lewis says "So what I don't care". The whole argument was getting worse and everyone was talking over each other. I say "So what we're all autistic. We're all different from most people. Most people don't have these arguments like we do". I keep repeating that we are all autistic and that it's not really a bad thing. But then the argument hits its climax when Lewis confronted me.

Because Lewis and I have always been best friends he felt that I would be the one to support him in this argument. But this time I didn't agree with him. He was being rude and he was ruining the party for all of us. Although I do agree that Cody played a big part in this because he spent the entire night up to the point trying to piss Lewis and I off. Also when it was just Justin, Dave, Lewis, and I the parties went fine and we never argued. Lewis came up to me and said "WHY ARE YOU CALLING ME AUTISTIC" and I said "I'm calling all of us Autistic but that's not something to be ashamed of we're just a little different than most people. You don't have to be mean about it". Lewis then realized that he had no allies in this argument because I would be the last person to not support his argument and he yelled back "WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE ON JUSTIN'S FUCKING SIDE". I said "I'm not on anyone's side" but Lewis didn't listen as he was already making his way towards the bathroom crying.

Lewis called his mom and was yelling about what was happening. Justin's mom started yelling at Lewis she yelled "STOP SCREAMING YOU'RE GOING TO WAKE THE OLD LADY" and Lewis said "I DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT THE OLD LADY. I'M TRYING TO TALK TO MY MOM. AND YOU'RE THE ONE SCREAMING 10,000 DECIBELS LOUDER THAN ME". They were really going at it and I knew that it was just going to get worse. Ultimately I was afraid that Lewis was going to call Justin's mom a bitch or some other terrible word and then things would really blow up. So I moved myself away from the situation and I called my mom.

My mom never really liked Justin's mom. My mom was always reluctant to let me go to Justin's house because she felt that Justin's mom was mean, irresponsible, annoying, and that she was always looking for trouble. I told my mom that the party was going very bad and that Lewis was arguing with Justin's mom. Without hesitation my mom was on her way to pick Lewis and I up. I knew that this was the last straw and that this would be the last time that my mom would let me go to Justin's house. My mom didn't even want me to go to the party in the first place. Even though I didn't do anything wrong I knew that my mom had enough of Justin's mom and how there was always a complaint about something or an issue whenever I went there.

After I hung up I hugged Justin and said that I was sorry for pushing him earlier. I also knew that it would probably be the last time I was allowed to hang out with him so it felt like my final goodbye. I also apologized to Cody for our earlier arguments even though I really didn't want to. I felt so sad on the inside and I could tell that Justin, Cody, and Dave felt the same way. It felt like we were being split apart and that this was the last time we would ever see each other. We were all so disappointed in how the party went. Justin, Dave, and their mom still wanted me to sleep over but there was no way my mom would allow that to happen especially after that whole fiasco.

So Cody left and my mom came and Lewis and I got in the car. Justin's mom gave my mom the whole recap of the night while my mom was trying to politely get her to stop talking. We drove away and my mom dropped Lewis off. But before we went home Lewis and I complained to our moms about the whole situation and about Cody and how Justin's mom didn't yell at Cody when he was being a jerk. It wasn't a very happy night.

Anyway here's how things stand between us as of today, 9/17/2018, two years after the party. I was correct about how my mom wouldn't let me see Justin anymore after the party. My mom went an entire year without answering Justin's mom's phone calls and Justin and I had an argument over that when his 17th birthday party was near so we stopped being friends temporarily. But thankfully I have an awesome stepmom and she called Justin's mom and I became friends with Justin again and I finally went to his house again on March 17th, 2018 which was exactly a year and a half since his 16th birthday party disaster. Lewis apologized to Justin when the three of us were playing xbox one night and they kinda became friends again but the damage from the party was done. Justin didn't attend Lewis's birthday party in July of 2017 for the first time in over a decade and Lewis wasn't invited to Justin's 17th birthday party. In fact I found out through Instagram that Cody was the only person invited to Justin's 17th birthday party. Since I was pissed of at Justin due to our recent argument over the party I sent the picture to Lewis and he cursed at Justin through text message during the party for not inviting us to his party and Lewis ended up ruining a birthday party that he didn't even attend. So Lewis and Justin are no longer friends and Lewis ruined two birthday parties in a row. And Cody was once again the only one invited to Justin's 18th birthday party this previous Saturday, the 15th. I'm especially bummed out about this one since it was at Dave & Buster's but I'm not mad at Justin this time because I'm living 90 miles away at Villanova.

This whole series of hating each other and becoming friends again and hating each other again all occurred because of one stupid Monopoly game that we all took too seriously. So the lesson is that friendship is more important than a stupid game, especially Monopoly. Don't let silly games come in between the ones you love and care about. Because of Monopoly Lewis and Justin are no longer friends and I almost lost my friendship with Justin too. Monopoly is just a game, not life.