I have a group of three close guy friends. Let's call them W, Q and Z.

I knew W and Z through Q after a few drinking gatherings. W and Z were best friends since they were in the same tertiary institute; they even know each other's ex flames, ex best friends, and parents personally. Q and I got to know Z through W just this year, and Q and Z found out that they actually lived a few blocks away from each other. Imagine befriending someone who lives a stone's throw away from you. It's like living near a candy shop. So Q and Z started meeting up regularly for breakfast on mornings, and they'd hang out under the blocks after. It was pretty fun on some lazy days, where three of us would make pancakes at Q's place and watch HBO the whole afternoon.

W did not join our gatherings as much as I heard that he'd complained about Q and Z's estate being a little too far away for him. According to Z, W was pretty much an 'emo kid', always in his own melancholic world for no particular reason, and that it could get pretty annoying. Apparently W was jobless and always broke so he would freeload off Z for cigarettes and meals.

Well, I am a nurturing person by nature, so when I found a temporary job position for myself at the hospital, I decided to rope W in so that he'd have a job too. Z scoffed at me when I told him the news.

"Do you know that W can't be fucked to even work?"

"Well, I'm going to tell him that I already gave the agent his name and so he would find it harder to back out," I replied, "That way we'd see if he really wanted the job or not. If he can't be fucked, he wouldn't call the number that I'm about to give him."

And W called. We were both paired as partners for the job, and I found with relief that I had W as a working buddy, because the job was depressingly boring. I needed the cash so I had to work, but I know that if not for W's enthusiasm to clock in outrageously long hours and hence encouraging me with much fervour to do likewise, I would have probably not even continued after the first day.

I never thought I'd get close to W. He was the type that I figured I'd never click with, because he spoke quite a bit of Mandarin and I was clueless in that department. But we hit it off ever since the first day, and he became a really close friend over the weekend.

We'd talk about our other halfs, bitch about patients who just couldn't wait, and insulted each other while playing Bejeweled online. And we shared our problems.

Today W confided in me about Q and Z. Apparently, he felt very left out as they were always going on and on about an addictive online game that he did not want to get involved in. He told me that it was because of the game's addictive nature that his studies had slipped and he eventually dropped out of school. He did not want history to repeat itself as he was picking up his life and being more responsible. I felt that that was a very mature mindset.

On the other hand, he was mocked by Q and Z about it constantly. However, when he asked them to join him in another less time-consuming game that they used to play together, they'd push him away saying that the game was not as good as the addictive one.

"But why don't you just try to talk to Z about it?" I asked, concerned, "He is your best friend after all."

"Yeah right. Ever since Q and Z found out that they live near each other, they're always in their own world and they never include me in their outings. They only choose to hang around their estate and berate me for not wanting to come over often enough, when it's so difficult for me to do so. But when I ask them to meet me at my estate, they never do. At the end of the day, if I want to be with my friends, I have to go to them, but they never come to me."

"Geez." I was stunned by how Q and Z were acting. Immediately those stories about W being the "emo kid" were justified. Q and Z were being kinda... exclusive. It was true. Even I had to go to their estate to meet them, just because it was more convenient for both of them and they always claimed to be broke or the weather being too hot to go out. But what about W and I? We were the jobless ones who could not afford our bus fares, let alone lunch. And it is hot all around the island. Wouldn't we be feeling it too? I contemplated the thought; wouldn't it be more fair for the two of them to go to wherever either one of us were, as they could travel back home together? If not, what was wrong with meeting in the middle? That hardly happened.

And besides, wasn't Z W's best friend? He had only recently met Q. It was not really fair to bitch about W behind his back, or exclude him, even.

I felt bad. So I raised the issue to Q, who immediately got annoyed. "W never makes the effort. Ever since he got out of the army he had been jobless. He's always waiting around so why should we make the effort for him?"

That was not true. Just that day, W was encouraging me to take more shifts for the rest of the month. He was so motivated to earn money. I asked him whether he'd splurge on himself when Pay Day came and he said, "No.. Not really. I'll probably buy things for my girlfriend. And give some money to Z."

That statement had immediately moved my heart. He did not even think of himself first. He was hardworking for the mere reason that he wanted to make others happy. And to think he would still give some money to Z, who could not even appreciate his existence, and still constantly left him out of his life.

I knew Q did not see Z's real nature, but I was not to be defeated. We were to meet Q and Z that night so I told W, "Whatever it is, don't show them that you're upset about being left out. You should smile more, laugh more, and participate more in the conversations. It'd leave them wondering why you're such a changed person."

That night, I sat in angry silence as I listened to Z go on and on about how he wanted to "level up" in his game and how nothing else mattered because he had no other committments. I listened to Z persuading them to just join him for one hour of the other game, and the other two just retorted, "One hour?! That's a waste of time! In one hour, I could do so much in the other game. I'm not going to play with you. It's just too bad that you don't want to play with us."

If I had a gun that night, there would have been murder.

I chided Q, "Please just play for an hour with him. If that's the best you can do. Just make him happy, as he's done his best tonight to be optimistic and participative."

Didn't happen.

My heart was, and still is, with W. Whether or not he is feeling shitty for himself is the biggest worry in my head right now. In many times in my life I had been the one who got excluded out of social groups because of weird or petty reasons, and I knew that it really sucked. Seeing W in the situation that I was once in broke my heart, and I knew from the moment he poured his heart out to me about his lost best friend, that I would fight for him no matter what. No one should ever be left out like that, especially if they had never done a thing wrong. Even if W had overreacted previously, it was only because he was afraid of losing his friend, and what is wrong with that?

And so I have made a vow to myself that, starting tomorrow, I would be the most supportive friend that W needs so much. I never thought that I would be there for the excluded, but when I recall the pain that I had gone through myself, and how much I had longed for someone to stand up against the rest and be there for me, I decide that this time, I would be the first one to stand up.