I'm sure your friend thought it was reall funny too
Well sometimes it takes something like that to get used to it so I would just leave them right front left rear. I just did mine that way to and so far no problems but I am not one to really hit the brakes hard. The reason for the left being the rear is so that when you dismount on the left as you approach a fence or some such object you have your left hand on the bar and your right on the top tube. So if you need to brake then you will brake the rear and not the front which may cause the bike to lift up.