Through the years (a short story)

A story about two best friends

Highschool. The time of ‘Firsts’.  First boyfriend, First Kiss, First Heartbreak…

A place of dreams, an escape to reality.  It is a time in our lives when everything is perfect.  I say these things because of you.  For the longest time, you’ve been there always… To talk, Laugh with, and cry to… You’re my best friend.  Always have and always will.  But the inevitable comes and time flies… From freshmen year, prom, and now graduation.  We’ve always been the dynamic duo.  Everyone sees, everyone knows, but you. 

It’s time to go now.  I’ve never seen you like I do now.  I realize what everyone sees, what everyone knows.  Not only do I see, I feel it within me.  I have known for a long time but I was scared to admit it.  It tried to hide itself, even from myself but the feeling has always been there, like a glowing ember wanting to be brought back to its wild flames. I’ve loved you then. I love you now…

It will never be the same again. To part ways and be in different places far away from your best friend… the person you love, is heartbreaking. 

College.  What now? It’s hard to think, hard to fathom… Should I tell you? I want to say something… But our friendship… I finally decided to be silent just like I always do.  Though it is what I’m best at, in my heart it’s not what I really want.   

You’re leaving. This is the last time and I know I have to let you go. We drive together like we always do, doing the most random things but feeling as if it makes the most sense in this world.  I’ll miss you…

Promises are made, some so small that I know are easy to fulfill, but some so big that I don’t know if I even want to hear.

School started and we talked, you laughed, I cried.  It’s like Highschool all over again but incomplete.  Your voice… it sounded so near and yet distant… I understand now, the feeling of being far away from the person you want beside you. Not once during our time together that I imagined things, situations to be this way… to hurt this way.  And just like that… everything stopped. Nothing. Gone. When you stopped calling, I started to wonder, I reached out but still, nothing…

We all have friends. But out of all of them, there is someone who never leaves us no matter what, Who sticks around not only when we’re fun to be with but is there even in the midst of our darkest and lowest point, that one person, that one girl or boy who becomes our best friend. Eventually and inevitably we feel something more even though we know it’s risking everything.  Just like most friends, at some point in our lives we were brought together and because of something bigger than both of us, our friendship was tested and we were separated without a voice, without a heartbeat for what I thought would be forever.  But I believe that it is those who endure the most heartbreaking pain and accept it that rises again, coming back stronger than ever before and ready to move forward.

I know this is not the first time you’ve heard this, but like a lot of people, I fell in love with my best friend and for a time in our lives we were faced with one of the hardest trials we ever faced.  When college ended he finally admitted that he shared the same feelings but have been scared to admit it from the very start. 

Years have passed… friends have come and gone.  But true enough best friends will be with you forever.  Not only do I wake up every day knowing I have my best friend in my life but I also wake up to the beautiful voice of our daughter and hearing the word ‘Mom’ like a feather brushing gently against my ear.