He was envious

On the outside, John and David might've looked like very good friends, which in some way is the truth. John and David are very good friends, or at least they used to be. But beneath that friendship, there have always been feelings of animosity that David held towards John.

Ever since their friendship started when they were just a kid, John has always been the better one among the two of them. John, although a bit average as a person, still has somewhat above average looks and also above average grades. On top of that, he's also a naturally kind person. He would help the elders cross the street, help his classmates who are struggling with their homework, volunteer as a fundraiser for charities, and many more. All of that he did without expecting anything in return. That gained him the recognition of the people around him.

In contrast, David was a below average looking guy with below average grades. Worst yet, he's also a very naturally rude and blunt person. He would constantly offend the people around him and lower their evaluations of him. This led him to live under the shadow of his supposed best friend as people can't help but keep comparing the two. They kept telling him that he should be more like John. This was the start of a one-sided rivalry between David and John.

At first, David listened to what people were saying. He tried forcing himself to be polite, he tried volunteering, he studied harder. He basically tried to do everything that John did. But no matter what, he couldn't seem to beat John at all. John would constantly, with little effort, beat David in just about everything he tried to do. When David got a B on an exam after studying for a whole week, John got an A after only studying for a night. When David raised money for a charity in a month, John could raise double the amount in just a week.

This frustrated David to no end. On one hand, John was his best friend. But on the other, he was also jealous of the recognition John was getting. He too wanted the attention and admiration of the people around him. Yet no matter how hard he tries, his strategy of doing whatever John is doing but harder is just not working. Then it finally clicked for him. He shouldn't be copying John, he should just be his own person. As Einstein once said, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it's stupid. David realized he wasn't suited for climbing the tree called academics so he decided to swim the waters called sports instead.

In middle school, David joined the basketball club. To his surprise, he did really good at it. He played very well and won many competitions for his school. He did it. He finally found something he could beat John at. He felt that he had put in the effort and was now reaping the rewards. His peers at school were finally giving him the recognition he deserved and he was making a lot of new friends. But this did not fix the core issue, namely his terrible personality. While John was a humble person who disliked bragging about himself, David was the complete opposite. He gloated about his achievements to the people around him at every opportunity to the point that people started finding him insufferable. The people who used to praise him for his achievements were now starting to be very critical of him. But instead of listening to them, he doubled down and gloated even more.

This led him to be alienated by his peers. The new friends he made all turned on him. He now found himself alone, with John being his only remaining friend. But at this point, the two had grown a bit distant. Although John was still his old self, David had turned into this arrogant, cocky guy, drunk on his achievements. While John still thought of David as his good friend, David's envy grew even deeper by the day. He kept a somewhat cordial relationship with John, even if only on the surface. But deep inside, he started being unable to see John as a friend.

He was envious. He felt that it was unfair. He had already put all of his efforts into sports and gained the recognition of his peers, but he somehow lost it. He asked himself why he couldn't maintain the recognition of his peers while John could do it effortlessly. His mother, instead of giving him advice, compared him to John and simply told him to be more like John. That led him to go back to his old strategy of copying John. He failed again, of course, this time more miserably. When people saw that David was copying John, they mocked him for it, calling him a copycat.

That was it. It was the last straw for David. His envy had turned into anger, and his anger into hatred. He couldn't see John as a friend anymore. Instead, he only sees an enemy, his enemy. He felt it was unfair that it was always about John, John, and John. It was never about David. He wanted justice for this perceived unfairness, yet he couldn't do anything about it. He tried beating John countless of times already and failed every time. He wanted someone to take his side, yet no one would. Even his own mother had praised John and told him to be like John instead. He couldn't understand why people kept comparing him to John and then mocking him when he tried to be like John. He was just **** for someone to recognize him.

In his desperation, he started rebelling. When he entered high school, he cut ties with John and officially entered his rebellious phase. He hung out with bad people, started getting piercings and tattoos, started smoking, basically the whole package. He even started bullying people at school, his primary target being John. But John was strong, the bullying did not affect him at all. This angered David even more. He wanted John to suffer just as he did. In his eyes, John had the perfect life, and he wanted to ruin it. As luck would have it, his chance to do so would soon come...