Day o7 - Best friend
In grade seven I was grouped with two strange girls on a band trip. I didn’t speak at all because they were tall and intimidating. Flash forward 3 years to grade 10 science class. We are seated in alphabetical order and who do I end up sitting behind but one of these very girls - a beautiful, big-eyed cultural chameleon. We made small talk about bugs in jars at the end of the first class, and I’m not sure how we became such good friends but we did. At that point I was so dissatisfied with my social life that I practically leeched on to this girl and for the first year of our friendship a lot of it was just me writing on her myspace page saying “WE SHOULD HANG OUT SOON” like a needy little asshole. Eventually we did start hanging out. At first it was quite infrequent but always so much fun that we ended up just hanging out all the time. Grade 11 I got drunk for the first time alone with her in her basement, we made frequent trips to watch punk shows in Regina and go shopping, we were in the same group of friends and it had gotten to the point where I was comfortable calling her mother “mom”. I moved away at the end of the summer before grade 12 and we cried in the street, even though I ended up coming home at least once a month.
I guess the biographical and chronological details don’t matter much. She shaped who I am today and to be honest I don’t even want to think about who I’d be without her. When we’re together I’m not ashamed to be myself and I’m sure at least three quarters of our friendship has been spent laughing, whether we’re together in person or talking online or even if I’m just thinking about some of the shit we’ve done. Our longest fight was about 2 hours long, and I can only recall having about 2 fights in the time we’ve been friends, both of which were resolved quickly and don’t matter now.
Now I live thousands of kilometres from her and we don’t talk as often. We’re different people and we lead different lives, and I have to say I’m jealous of everyone who gets to hang out with her or talk to her often, but when it comes down to it, none of this really matters. I feel like no matter where life takes us, we will always have that connection and that sense of comfort with each other. We always make fun of friends who live on small talk because we know we couldn’t be those kind of friends if we tried. And I know that sometimes we get kind of fed up with each other, because she’s crazy and I’m sometimes a lame negative nancy, but I love her all the same and I don’t think all the crazy shit in the world could change that. I’m still not going to dance with her at the bar, though, JUST SAYING!
