I’m loving the contrasts you evoke from the two memories, and you use a finely crafted metaphor, it conjures a really strong image about the friends. The last line is almost eerie, nicely done.
And do you know what I find even more funny? A phrase I cut from the original was ‘mad as hatter’, with different context but it made me chuckle.

Thank you.

I don’t know why, but I immediately thought of a a big room in a psychiatric hospital (a la "One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) when I read “common room” in your story.

I think you meant a common room in a dorm or shared house. However, I thought it would be an interesting twist to take the common room setting to a different place.