just found out my Childhood Friend got 15 Years

about 6 months ago I get a message from my friend i had a crush on as a kid through the website we got reconnected that my old childhood friend was murdered. I don't exactly know whether or not he was trying to sell or buy a big portion of drugs, but he went to make a deal, the deal went wrong, they killed him and dumped his body in the river. now when I first heard this it was a shock. then I started thinking about it and it sounded like he was trying to punk the drug dealers/buyers, which ever one they were. and it sounded just like him.

when we were kids we were going to the same school. i'm not sure about today but back then the way school system worked in Uzbekistan was it was divided by classes. If you were in one class, you were with that class for the rest of your school career. so for 10 grades 1 through 10 you were in that class. the childhood friend who wrote me completed 11 grades so they must've added another one as the system developed. now it's maybe 12, i dont know. but i was in class "B" and my friend who got murdered was in "A". then at about grade 4 i transferred to "A" and me and him became friends. at first we were pretty close and teachers had to keep us separated on 2 sides of the classroom because if were sitting next to each other we'd disturb the entire class. even when they seperated us and made him stand on the other side of the room we'd look at each other and bust out laughing flipping each other off. you know how kids are they find silly shit funny and have a free spirit. that's how we were together. then we were on the same Acrobat team and were hanging out after school in a group just chilling, going around buying snacks and having fun.

he was the coolest guy in our school, was good looking, and had lots of charisma. every guy wanted to be his friend and every girl had a crush on him. he was a true leader and people followed him because he had that type of likable personality. everybody liked him. so as the time went on there was this other guy in our class who was more like a punk. he liked setting guys up against each other and see them fight for his entertainment. now one day the punk came up to me and says "i bet you can't beat him in a fight" and points at the "cool" friend, that's how he'd start trouble, and i was like yeah i can. or something like that, i don't remember. *BAM* fight after school. that's how many fights got set up actually, because of a punk like him.

and ever since i first got punched in the face and got a blue eye i started getting scared of fights. before id be all brave and shit like WHAT! all up in your face. after the punch i was the opposite and didn't know how to deal with fear when it arose. so anyway, when the fight started i knew this "cool" friend was a boxer and fought good because i heard stories how he's one of the best. we were the same height and weight and liked each other. we didn't want to fight each other so we just stood there like "you start".. "no, you start!" for like 15 minutes or so. so then these guys got bored and 1 guy each got in the back of us and started controlling our fists and make us hit each other. we were like common stop playing. so then this punk goes and talks to the cool dude in private like being slick and all. then they both come up to me and the cool friend was saying something and then he lightly kicked me just sort of like a play kick. i was like nah... and i kick him back just as light. then when i hit him back......... BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM!! like 20 punches flying in my face. then he gets me in a headlock and BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM!! more punches flying in out of nowhere i didn't even know what hit me. then afterwards he was like "had enough" and i was like yeah... fight over. i lost. everybody goes home. that day was when he set my soul down my ass crack. it was that day when i became more and more confused with fear and being ashamed of myself. that day was when me and him stopped being close friends and i think he stopped respecting me.

then he started changing for the worse. he always got away with a lot of things like we'd be walking in a pack and he's leading. then my other friend would be right behind him. we're walking to a cafeteria and all of the sudden BAM he closes one of the double doors behind him and my friend walks right into it with the door hitting him in the face. then he'd start busting out laughing hahahahahah hahahahahhaha and everybody else would laugh along because even though you wouldn't find shit like that funny, he'd make it funny. that was his type of personality. he had fun everywhere he went and people wanted to be around him as a result.

so then he'd start using people. one time i remember we were doing the bicycle sport together. it's them bikes with thin wheels, and one time when it was dark, guys were playing b-ball outside. they lost their ball and came to our bungalow where we were training to ask if we saw it. we were like nah. so as we leaving we go outside to look around and then i spot the ball. i pick it up and the cool guy is like "throw it to me!" i give him the ball, we all hop on our bikes and ride back home which was a long way. then the next day we standing around outside his building on our bikes getting ready to go train and he's like "hey [my name], you wanna buy a basket ball".. i was like the ball from last night? hes like yeah.. i was like that's MY ball. i was the one who took it. he was like pffffff and didn't say nothing. that's when i remember he started to use his personality to use others and turning into a nasty person. when i quit the bike sport him and this other guy came to get my bike back and he was like a totally different person. he was real mean and much taller then me. that was the last i heard of him, until my friend told me what happened. i can actually see him going to punk a bunch of drug dealers with fake money or whatever. it was something i can see him do.

now yesterday i get this message from my other childhood friend, the one i grew up with in the same building. he tells me he's in prison. in 2002 he got into a shoot out and got caught. the court gave him 15 years so he won't be out until 2017. Russian prison.. they allow you to have cell phones and shit. i'm not sure if he got in trouble back home and got transferred or moved there first, but he wasn't that good of a friend growing up. he would be always in trouble and he wasn't a tough guy actually. he'd find ways to steal, trick people, and still owes me money actually. many guys hated him and many were always after him as a result. one time we were riding around on a bike having fun-i was driving it. then a few guys spot us trying to go after us. he's like "don't stop" and we going down hill. so i go as fast i can and one guy threw a backpack at us and it hit me in the head. that fucked up my ear pretty good and i had pain there when it was cold for years.

last thing i want to add. when all this was happening, the "cool" guy had a father who later on died. my father was always dead to me because he was absent from every part of my life that was happening. so i was always alone whether i'm fighting after school or dealing with all the other life issues. maybe my cool friend got into deeper shit as a result of his father dying. i dont know. but i'll try to contact his brother and see if i can find out some more info on exactly what happened to him.