When Dave told me that Greg pissed him off and later I found out that Ivy felt the same way, I thought, "Hm. Is there anything that pisses me off about Greg?" I came up with my answer pretty quickly. There is one thing that pisses me off about Greg: Ani.
Greg and Ani have been going out since the summer before freshman year. I've heard that they plan on getting married. In the morning, they stand in the middle of the hallway, surrounded by their friends (or Greg's, at least) and make out. They did this last year too. At football games, Greg, who played congas in the pit, would always go sit with Ani in the colorguard section. At band camp, the two were often missing at the same time. And she is always over his house. A few times when we went over for band practice, she was there, just hanging around as we were playing. While we played, she sat on the other end of Greg's basement, looking dejected. She didn't talk to us. She waited for Greg to finish practice. She didn't get up and look at her watch and say "You know what man? I think I'm going home," (If I ever have a boyfriend for as long as Ani's had Greg, I hope I'll be able to call him "man.") which you'd think would have been the logical thing to do.
And they fight. No, you know what? THEY don't fight. Greg fights with Ani, but Ani doesn't fight with Greg. They were doing it today at lunch. I didn't notice at first, but then I saw that Ani had her head in her hands. Her hair was covering her face, but when I looked for a second I could see that she was crying. A friend of hers that I don't know was rubbing her back and talking to her. To the other side of her sat Greg, eating his lunch, looking perfectly normal, not looking at her. I nudged Donna and tilted my head in Ani's direction, and Donna shrugged. I kept glancing over to them. At one point Ani looked up and said something to him in a pleading tone of voice. I couldn't hear what Greg said back, but his tone of voice was harsh, and it included the phrases "...one fucking minute..." and "...You NEVER listen." She went back to crying. He went back to eating. Very few people at the table seemed to notice that this was going on, and no one, with the exception of Ani's friend, seemed to care. Apparantly, this happens all the time. For a second, I considered the possibility that they'd broken up. But by the end of lunch they'd made up and he had his arm around her again. "Silly me," I thought. "They'll never break up. She'll never let it happen because she's afraid to live without him, and he'll never let it happen because he likes having controll over someone. At the rate they're going, they WILL get married."
If you look at Greg hard enough (as I do with most people) you can tell he likes being in controll. He makes sure that he is at the center of our social circle by throwing lots of parties and doing people favors. A lot of times, he'll take a bunch of people out for pizza and pay for everyone's food until they can pay him back later. Then if someone needs a napkin or something, he'll get up and get it. I used to think he was just a really nice guy, and I guess he is, but there's something underneath that. He has bands, and he makes sure that they are HIS bands. He has the tendancy to refer to "his" musicians. Like when he said "One of my guitarists isn't here and one's freaking out..." at the talent show. Or, on the night of that fateful New Year's Eve party that he threw, when I heard from above me "I don't know if we can play. My guitarists seem to be otherwise occupied..." But you know what? He is at the center of our social circle, even if people don't like him. I mean, why else do we all hang out in front of HIS locker?
Anyway, Greg doesn't REALLY piss me off. Not to the point where I'm not going to maintain ties with him. I mean, after all, he is the only drummer I have.
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