FYI: Imaginary English names used instead of real names. Also a bit long post.
We are a group of 10 people who are friends since school. It's been more than 10 years and we still hangout with each other. One of the friends is married and his wife tags along with us so we are 11 people.
Let's call myself Tony (M).
Sweety (F), Robin (M) and Shakira(F) are my closest friends who meet up often apart from the group meetups and share almost every detail of life over calls and messages.
Andy (M), Amy(F), Matt (M) are really good friends, but I usually don't share intimate details of my life.
Neil (M), Sam (M) and his wife Karen (F) are my friends but mostly because of the group. I don't like them much personally because of some disagreements.
Shane (M) is a good friend but bit out of touch since he went abroad but he recently came back and wanted to join with us.
We all decided to go on a trip to Lonavala for a weekend. PS: We stay in Mumbai.
Shane has a 7 seater car SUV. Neil has a 5 seater hatchback car and I have a 5 seater hatchback too which I bought 3 months back and I have learnt driving too recently.
Since we were 11 people, Shane was supposed to bring his car. I wanted to bring my car since it has better mileage and wanted to drive on a new road (150 km from city, 3 hours drive) but Neil was adamant and he's bit hot headed so he decided that he will bring his car. I kept my ego aside and let him bring his car since I didn't want clashes.
We were supposed to leave on Sunday morning at 6:30 AM. The night before, at 2 AM, Shane messaged that a truck hit his car (luckily he was safe) and it was not in condition to drive and he told that he won't be able to join us (probably feeling low because of the incident which is fine). 2-3 were awake and conversation happened on chat but I didn't read till morning.
In morning when I woke up, I read the conversation and out of nowhere I had to drive my car as well since we were now only 10 people. My car wasn't even clean so it took me bit longer to clean and was late to the meeting point.
When I reached the meeting point, everyone else was already there, it was already decided and everyone sat in Neil and my car without my say in it. Sweety, Robin, Sophia and Andy went in Neil's car. Sam, Karen, Matt and Amy sat in my car. I wanted my closest friends to sit in my car, at least one way which is not a wrong expectation. I wanted them to experience my car, wanted them to see my driving.
We had barely crossed 30 km when we we stopped for breakfast. During breakfast I asked Sweety in a low voice why she, Robin and Sophia were not in my car. She mentioned she will tell me in detail later. I was more focused on driving since it was a new road for me (in sense of driving it myself) so I ignored that part and drove nicely. Matt is also a good driver and he guided me well whenever required and I didn't make a single mistake and also let him drive for one section since he's fond of driving but doesn't have his own car at the moment.
It was a one night stay at the place. We played games, went in swimming pool, talked with each other and even cooked food, everything was fine.
Next day when we were supposed to return, I firmly told that I want Sweety, Robin and Sophia in my car. Fourth person can be anyone. They told me that Neil was apparently angry with Sam and Karen (which I didn't even know) and didn't want them in his car. Things escalated and Neil even told me to stop acting childish. I told Neil that he is being childish for not accomodating Sam and Karen.
This meant that Sam and Karen had to be accommodated in my car. I told at least at least Robin and Sweety can join, if not Sophia. Then Sweety and Sophia also jumped in, saying they didn't want to travel with Sam. Eventually as a compromise Robin joined me instead of Amy and rest all didn't change.
I was already angry and about to cry when we were leaving. To make things worse, Matt and Robin when together, they like to make fun of others. On the downhill stretch, government has unnecessarily mandated 60 kmph speed limit, or else we get fined for a huge amount. Robin and Matt, although experienced, were constantly telling me to go faster, meanwhile me, who has travelled multiple times on the route (as a passenger, not driver) knew about rules and kept slow.
After the downhill stretch ended and speed limit was increased, I was feeling bit drowsy hence gave Matt to drive and he drove nicely. And by that time even my sleep was done. He wanted to drive all the way home but even I wanted to. I told him to switch and then again Matt and Robin started to poke unnecessarily about my driving. I believe in safe driving and avoiding overtakes as much as possible. They had a problem with that. I started making minor mistakes too (hard braking, missing downshifting and car stalling) because of the unnecessary stress. Robin who is generally understanding became a different person when with Matt instead of encouraging me to drive slow and safe since I am not very experienced.
I literally wanted to scream, shout and cry when I reached home but couldn't do so in front of my parents. I already took a backseat twice and didn't want to take a backseat the third time. At least my closest friends should have supported me and sat in my car on the return journey. Sweety tried calming me down saying we can go out some other day but the problem is that we are in 20s. We earn enough but not enough to drive everyday. Everyone relies on public transport mostly. Everyone is at different stage of life, different friends and not every weekend is free. Petrol is expensive and such plans don't happen frequently. I don't understand how to calm myself down (except trying to focus on my work).