Member-only story
I Miss Having a Best Friend
Maybe best friends are just for kids.
Growing up, I always had a best friend. Just one. I had other, peripheral, lesser friends — sort of pinch hitters that could fill in when my best friend was unavailable.
But there was always one special person, the person that “got” me. The person I could play pretend with and go on adventures with and tell all of my darkest secrets to.
My best friend in high school was Amy. I always introduced her that way, “This is my best friend, Amy” and that basically became her name, Best Friend Amy.
My crowd from high school all went to college together, and that’s where Best Friend Amy slammed a door in my face when I joined the campus Gay and Lesbian Alliance. We haven’t spoken since.
I had a back-up best friend, Heather, and I haven’t talked to her since then either. Even though we had adventures like showing up in the school parking lot for a dance completely obliterated, opening the car door, and having an empty beer can roll to a stop against the blindingly polished black shoe of an Ohio State Trooper.
Ah, those were the days.
That was 35 years ago. You’d think I could let it go. But if you think that, you don’t know me. I’m still…
