If you plan on playing around with it and learning tricks, you'll want to raise your budget enough to get a full chromoly frame. However, since you said it's mostly to get around town and ride with friends, you'd likely be okay with either an aluminum race bike, or a cheaper freestyle bike with a chromoly main frame.

This one's cheap, though it's not full chromoly (in other words, it has some lower quality hi-ten steel in there): DK Cygnus 24" Matte Black (2014 Model) : Freestyle Line

If you're willing to consider something on the more 26" DJ end of the spectrum versus 24" cruiser, this one's even cheaper and actually is full chromoly: DK Xenia 26" : 24in and 26in Bikes There are plenty of bikes out there with geometry that's more dialed for jumping, but for just over $200, you can certainly do a lot worse.