I got invited to my niece's birthday party. The guests were mostly her friends, all of them in their early 20s, so a little younger than me.

One of her friends came with her boyfriend, a new guy. Let's call him Steve. Some people were having problems with him. Apparently, he earns more than an average wage at his job, and because of that, he thinks less of others. Or so I heard. I never had a chance (or desire) to chat to him, and he mostly kept to himself during the party — that's because most people there have known each other for years.

So, some guys (and gals) were talking about him behind his back, and I was mostly tuned out of the conversation — who cares about some stupid teenage drama? They aren't teenagers, mind you, but they acted like they're in high school, with gossiping and stuff. That's an unusual environment for me. I didn't care until they chose his appearance as the object of their attacks. I wasn't having it, so we started arguing. We were pretty drunk at this point.

So, how did Steve look? He dyes his hair, apparently, some normal color, mind you — I wouldn't even have noticed if they hadn't said anything. It was probably just blonde. I mean, I once had a male coworker who dyed his hair green! When asked why, he replied, "Because there's not enough spring outside." And the spring that there was really sucked.

Steve also had an earring, and a very noticeable one. I thought it was a cross, but I was told it's actually a sword. It wasn't my taste, but who cares what I think, right? Well, some people thought that their opinion had some significance, so they voiced it. They even called him gay — duh, he came with his girlfriend! And yes, using "gay" as a slur is very common here.

I don't like conflicts, and normally I'd just remove myself from a conversation of this kind. But for some reason, I made it my mission for the night to convince the most vocal guy, Mike, that he was wrong. I've known Mike for a while — he's a relative of some sort. And we were helping each other recently with things we're good at — he repaired my motorcycle, and I'm currently coding him a app for final qualifying work. It was shocking for me to see him in this new light. Although "shocking" is an overstatement — we grew up in a village, so it's not surprising he thinks like a redneck. But I was disappointed nonetheless. He was telling me that things like wearing earrings are not something normal guys do, and I told him that there's nothing wrong with caring about how you look and wearing some jewelry. He also tried to convince me that we're normal guys, we're like buddies, which was funny, because I don't see him as a friend. I mean, I don't mind being friends, but we have a strictly working relationship (my niece had called it "commodity-market relations") and don't talk to each other unless we need something. "But we have so much in common!" — "Like what? I can't think of anything but motorcycles."

In the end, Mike had nothing to say but, "At least we look like normal guys, right?" So I said, "Alright then. I'll get my ear pierced for you." I made it sound as gay as possible.

So, yeah. Now I'm going to pierce my ear. I'm not particularly excited about it, but at the same time, it's not a big deal. I was looking for some magnetic earrings, but I didn't like the ones I saw, so I'm going to get the real deal. After all, it's just another hole in your skin, and we all have so many already.

P.S. The next day, Mike hadn't changed his mindset, so it wasn't just drunk talk. He didn't think he said anything wrong or that he should apologize to Steve, who at a certain point, heard our conversation. I'm going to get my ear pierced anyway. For Mike.