Platonic Bond

Dedicated to Samanatha, Sailor, Cassidy, Abigail, Katelyn, Briana, and Allie. 

There is so much thrill behind the idea of friendship. Friendship can be healing and heartbreaking. You grow up and maybe even grow apart. Friendship is trial and error. 

It can start in kindergarten, when you both reach for the same blue crayon during arts and crafts. You show each other the family picture you colored, both to find that mom and dad aren’t next to each other in either of your drawings. You learn that their dad yells and they learn that your mom cries. You form an instant bond, even if you’re too young and naive to understand why. 

Before you know it, you’re on a high school basketball court, when you show up for the first day of practice and don’t know if your free throw will be as good as the girls in front of you. But you make it too, and she gives you a smile and fist bump as you head back in line for the next drill. 

These interactions are followed by late night sleepovers where you laugh hard and cry harder. You gush about the boy who asked her to prom, and rant about the one who didn’t ask you. You find that common dislike for the curfews your parents put in place and don’t understand why they just can’t trust you yet. 

You just walked across the stage, diploma in hand. You have three months before your late night sleepovers turn into countdowns to Christmas, when you’ll all be in the same city again. You all have your first job, first apartment, and first time realizing you might actually have to grow up. 

Now you’re 25. You all live in different states and different states of mind. You’re in school, another’s at work, and another just can’t seem to find her way. There is a part of your heart that wants to be 17 again before you all went your separate ways. Stealing liquor from your parents cabinet instead of trying to steal more time to balance your mental health, exercise, and time with family. Driving to the gas station for candy and popcorn rather than driving to your 9-5, because the rent won’t pay itself. Taking hours to decide the best shoes to match each other for the Friday night football game.

But you can’t go back. Now instead of holding her hand after a heartbreak, you hold her bouquet as she says “I do” to that same guy that asked her to prom. Neither of you roll your eyes at your mom for telling you to be home at 10pm because you’ve learned to love crawling in bed at 9pm. 

You dismiss the fights you had in the school hallway because she talked to the boy you used to like. She forgives the time you took her favorite sweatshirt before moving halfway across the country. You both can’t recall the crayon you grabbed in kindergarten when you first told each other your names. 

But we won’t forget those moments. Those moments are what brought us to now. To know how far we’ve come is healing and heartbreaking. We all grew up, but we’re lucky enough to have never grown apart.