
A FRIEND in need is a blasted nuisance," so goes the corrupted version of the saying. What the phrase in its original form does is to turn this colloquialism around.
"A friend in need is a friend indeed," is a statement that the ones who stand by you in times of trouble are those whom you can truly regard as friends.
With this in mind I failed a good friend completely through self-interest when I was needed, and the real shame of the matter was that a quiet word from me in the appropriate ears would probably have stopped the whole thing before it really had the chance to get going.
By that time the bullying, for that is what it had become, had spread throughout the school and I could well have stopped it from even germinating – I didn't.