Gossip Boi: Keeping it in the Family

Another highlight from ATV Today past with issue seventeen of Gossip Boi. First published on October 23rd 2008 the second run of Gossip Boi continues with the secret feature writer looks at ‘Keeping It In The Family‘.

Our London-based columnist, Gossip Boy, continues his new season of columns as he reports all from the scandal-laced world of London. He’s restyled himself as Gossip Boi but he’s still reporting all from the Streets of London.

These dark, long, dull and wet nights are hard to handle for most of us. Suddenly the inviting warmth of the summer nights turns into the uninviting cold and bitterness of the winter nights. Going out at nights no longer seems like a good idea and instead staying in with a couple of DVDs and a bottle of wine seems more appealing. But the social scene continues. It doesn’t stop for winter. It doesn’t stop for anything. The scandal, the gossiping, the affairs, the addictions, they continue to matter what.

On Saturday night Gossip Boi was dragged out of his flat and to a night out. He had been happy to stay at home with his DVD’s, a bottle of wine and the heating on but his friends wanted to go out and get drunk. So Gossip Boi and his friends were heading down to Soho for a night out on the tiles, despite the cold weather. It was whilst in the queue that one of the group spotted an old friend further down the line, near the front. A debate started over whether we should go down and say hello. Some of the in the queue ahead of us might think we were trying to queue jump if we did that, hoping to get in with the old friend. Besides we couldn’t be sure of the friend’s reaction, it had been some months since any of us had spoken to him. While debating what to do we struggled to remember why we hadn’t spoken to him anyway.

Slowly we remembered why we had more or less turned our backs on the former friend. He had been drinking a lot, going out a lot, hanging around with ‘the wrong sort’, and pulling a lot of guys that some of ‘us’ didn’t ‘approve’ off. The friend had refused to listen to ‘us’ when we ‘had tried to help’ and so ‘we’ stopped texting him and socialising with him. The crowd that Gossip Boi was with were desperately trying to justify their actions and convince themselves that they had indeed ‘tried to help’ and hadn’t just abandoned the friend to deal with his problems on his own.

‘He must still be drinking then’, one of the group said. ‘He won’t be queuing up here if he weren’t’. Speculation continued over whether this ‘former friend’ was still drinking heavily and whether he was still hanging around with the ‘wrong sort’. Various rumours that had been spread were retold and twisted as everyone convinced themselves that he was beyond help. Of course, the group claimed that they hadn’t told anyone that he’d ‘fallen in with the wrong sort’ or ‘had a drinking problem’. Oh no. They had kept that ‘within the family’. What family, Gossip Boi thought?

The last time Gossip Boi had seen the ‘former friend’ was at a meal several months ago. The group had gone out to celebrate a birth and had a meal at a nice little restaurant we knew. Gossip Boi observed then that the friend has having a lot to drink but then again it was a celebration, but even so he was drinking far more than the others. Gossip Boi tried to talk to the friend but he dismissed the concerns and claimed he was just celebrating. Had the others, though, actually talked to the friend about their ‘concerns’. Gossip Boi doubts it. Gossip Boi doubts they even had any ‘concerns’ until they heard the rumours about the friend and decided they were true. Heard he had ‘slept’ with ‘so and so’ and had done this, done that ect. The group had heard all these and decided they were true and get contact with the friend.

Further down the line this former friend entered the club, with ‘the wrong sort’, and the group bitched about that, smiling that they were right on their assumptions that he was still drinking and hanging out with the ‘wrong sort’. Once in the club it was plain to see that he was indeed still drinking and indeed hanging out with the wrong sort. Did the group do anything about that? Did they go over and speak to him? Ask him if he was okay? No. They stayed in their corner and passed judgement over him and others. Standing their feeling so self-righteous but Gossip Boi did go over and he did make the effort. It may not have worked but it was worth the effort because if we are really ‘family’ as the group like to think they are, then we don’t give up on ‘family’. We stand by ‘family’ members no matter what, no matter how far they fall and we give them the support they need. And that is what Gossip Boi shall too. While the rest of the group will stand and judge from afar, believing that they ‘did all the good’, Gossip Boi truly will do all he can

Gossip Boi

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