Back in May, Seattle-based radio DJ named John Richards received a letter from a Chicago mother that touched his heart.

Sheila Loop wrote that her son Jackson had been excited to attend prom from a group of his band friends. When the day of prom rolled around, Jackson received a text from them saying that they weren't going to be doing pre-prom photos, so he waited until 6pm to get dressed in his custom-tailored suit.

“And then he waited, and he waited, and he waited,” Sheila wrote. “No one responded to his texts or picked up his calls. His younger brother and sister and I watched him as he started to realize that he was being ditched and I have to tell you that in my 18 yrs of parenting I have never felt so much pain. It was mixed with an indescribable amount of rage. This was… painful. Then, after he changed out of his suit, he saw all of their pre-prom pictures on Facebook, and he all but collapsed in the kitchen.”

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Most heartbreaking of all was the fact that Jackson wasn't even too surprised to be ditched, as he told his mother that he had always felt like an “invisible, throwaway loser" in the group.

“He’s always been on the fringe and really wanted to be part of a group,” Sheila recounted. “It wasn’t until high school band where we thought, ‘Oh, great! There’s going to be band kids!’”

But the band kids did not end up being as nice to him as his family hoped.

“I’ve been kind of blind about it,” Jackson says, going on to blame himself partly for what happened. “I kind of showed them how to treat me. Like, ‘They can do whatever they want, I’m all right. I can be in the back.’ But I never really liked it. … It really hurts me when it’s almost every time that I’m just in the back, tagging along, and barely anyone is talking to me.”

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Thankfully, this story has a happy ending! When a group of Jackson's friends in the class behind him heard what happened, they hatched a plan with Sheila to surprise him. Two days after prom, Jackson went to his friend Sophie's house for what he thought was a "regular hangout," and he was stunned when his friends greeted him at the door shouting “Happy fake prom!”

“I was flabbergasted. I didn’t know how to respond," Jackson said. "I’m in the bathroom changing [into my suit] and I kind of shed a tear a little bit, because no one has ever done this for me, really ever. … This is what it means to receive a gift from friends who are doing something, particularly for me.”

Take a second to get to know some amazing kids who, on a Monday, changed one life. This is MUST LISTEN/READ. I'm not crying, you're crying. #DustyInHere @kexp https://t.co/jugG4KIGfR pic.twitter.com/0Gqs6DjPtm

— John Richards (@loserboy) May 31, 2018

The group spent the rest of the afternoon snapping photos and eating a cake that said "Fake Prom 2018."

In the end, Jackson says that he learned an amazing lesson about friendship, and that his prom was perfect.

“You may feel like you belong in a place and you’re in a great group of friends, but make sure that they’re taking care of you as well,” Jackson said. “Listen to your gut. If you feel pissed off about something and feel like they’re not treating you well, then you’re probably right. It took me a long time to figure that out.”

“You’re going to find plenty of people that will find you interesting and will actually care about you in the end,” Jackson concluded. “There are 7 or 8 billion people; at the same time, we feel like we’re isolated with these few groups of people, and if they’re gone or you decide not to be friends, then you’re alone. But there are plenty of people out there. Even outside of our country.”

We're so glad to see that Jackson's story had a happy ending! SHARE this story so your friends and family can see this as well!

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