Kyle, I start thanking your openness and your thread. Really fresh point of view and it moves all of us further in our common hobby: photography, when used right. Thank you for sharing 'your cabin' with us!
First I think that both the photographers, you and your friend, have done good job, independently. Set of your Pro-friend is very nice, good story as John above already pointed out. Post-process and constant image quality and usage of single lens / angle of view, gives strength to the story telling. If I hadn't seen your shots, I would think: "Wow. Nice. But what are they selling?", if you get what I mean. It is almost too good to be true, and without knowing, I would expect it to be set up.
You're shots are more personal, and by no mean 'worse' than your friend, IMO. (And I don't even like to use words worse/better in this kind of sentence). And I really like a lot your set too (in Flickr). I don't want to repeat what John pointed out, I believe you got it in the first time already
Little bit thinking, learning, practise, so that you can concentrate to subject and on the same time make a story (what I mean is that 'taking pictures' is not making you feel that you disturb someone or that you're not taking part in your time with your friends, that it is natural to grown up a camera from your hand
)
Good luck and thanks, this inspired me a lot, already