Right, you've read the text on the actual project. Now read this and please give me advice: I have this classmate who considers me a friend and I used to consider him one but I've been wanting to distance myself from him recently. He seems to want to be a "popular kid", but it's not in his nature and so he masks by acting "tough and edgy". He constantly brags to me and my friends about his nicotine addiction, his involvement in gangs and other illegal stuff he's done, bear in mind he's 13. He's all flavours of discriminatory and acts like he's proud of it. He also spreads often homophobic rumours about people either to spice things up or whenever he has a disagreement with them. I heard him talking to my friend yesterday and he said he wasn't crazily addicted to vapes and he could quit whenever he wants, but I know he's just saying that to cope. He has done and said genuinely awful things and often likes telling our friend group about them and acting like we'll all cheer and congratulate him for being a bad person. He just seems extremely conflicted between being friends with us and being "cool". I just can't keep up with it. It's tiring being around him and I often feel genuine fear about telling him to stop, since he boasts about being in a violent gang, something which I'm pretty sure and I desperately hope isn't even true. I just want some advice on how to separate from him, because I don't want people like him in my life. I know the right decision would be to report him but I'd feel awful if I did. He trusts me and considers me one of his closest friends, but I'd be telling responsible adults his darkest secrets that he's trusted me enough to say. I also fear he'd either spread rumours about me being gay and I'm queer so he might out me to the whole school or get a mob of edgy teenage "popular boys" against me, neither of which I want happening.
This is an unusual serious project. Please take it seriously. Thank you, of course, to the two who gave me advice on the hive.
