Friendship

[Sio]

Basically I have a problem, and thought maybe I could get your views on ym situation.
From the start: here at college theres a group of about 15 of us, have hung around since 1st year of college and spend all our free's togtehr nd are all friends outside of college. One of my friends is called Tom, and basically ive been pretty good friends with him since meeting him at college and he is part of the group, but for a while now he has been pretty much trying to put me down to make himself look better or funny in front of the rest of the group, or at least thats why I gather he does it, if its pretty quiet he'll throw stuff at me, or just plain insult me, now I dont take that kinda crap and I always stand up and tell him to piss off, and he does, but recently its really been wearing me down and I havent been goign out cause I cant be assed with the expected taunts from him, the rest of the group dont think any more of him or any less of me for it all but last night everyone went Ice-Skating apart form me, I said no cause I didnt want to, confided in a few friends that it was cause of Tom and sometime during the night someone told him that, he asked me today what the deal is, and I said, 'I dont like you, your an absolute asshole so ■■■■ off I dont wanna be mates with you anymore' now I dunno if he did this stuff purposly to get me down, but I do feel down about coming to college and the regular abuse just gets me depressed and more so as the week goes on, and at the end of the week im really really down and just lash out at all my other mates and keep myself inside all weekend and not going out after college and just been by myself all the time.
Now I dont think that I should feel this way, or my friends should be on the brunt of my agression because of Tom, I feel kinda bad about what I said to him, were both too proud to admit we were wrong so its not gonna be resolved im sure, but what do the rest of you think?? Was I right, or was I stupid to lose a friend over something that he may not of been doing on purpose?
I really want to hear your opinions so please post them.
Thanks

[johnny]

your friend tried to make you look bad in front of others, and insulted you. Nice friend you have, sounds like an asshole to me. How were you supposed to react ? I think you did good by telling him how you feel.

[Epona]

Sounds like an asshole. Unless you're female, he's male, and you're under 15 in which case he probably fancies you rotten which is why he's doing it.

If that's not the case, I think you did the right thing by telling your other mates and them passing it on. Also by confronting him about it. It's probably not that he dislikes you, just that he is trying to gain attention from the others and boost his own (low) opinion of himself by being mean. Hopefully now you have had it out with him he will realise that you weren't happy to play along with it (which is often what these people think when they do it, it's like a joke to them) he will be concillatory and you can join back in with your group again. If not, and your other mates also think he's an asshole, try and organise to leave *him* out, not you. That should give him the message that it isn't acceptable.

Good luck!