Friday, October 08, 2010

The BFF

We dropped a few pennies into a well and made the wish that we would be friends forever.  We were three years old. 

We were so small we took baths together, slept in the same bed, shared movie theater seats, Happy Meals and even toilet seats.  We were that inseparable. 

We thought we were witches casting spells on the other kids at Vacation Bible School.  We were that anti-social with everyone else but each other. Two little peas in a pod.

We peed on the floor because we were pretending to be babies.  We were five years old and that authentic.

We grew into gawky girls together dressing alike, pouring over Seventeen magazines on our bedroom floors together reading aloud the articles and imagining ourselves ten years older.  We thought the movie Ghost was the epitome of romance and true love.

We biked to different states, broke curfew, shared New York seltzers (lime flavored only) with Twinkies, got grounded from each other as punishment and started high school. 

Four years of our own varying hellish experiences in those slamming locker halls.  One went to AP classes and dissected cats. The other "mourned" something new each day and maintained a "C" average, when A's were just as accessible but required slightly more effort.  We shared a hatred for Nirvana and anything that sounded like "DDDDDDDDD SHELTER!!!"  We learned to drive and went in search of coffee bars and broader experiences. Buying countless pairs of brightly colored and patterned tights we wore tiny jean shorts and statement t-shirts with them daily.  She never made fun of the fact that I wore orange almost every day.  High school dances, hours of post-school phone calls, late night drives and obsessive movie watching we were together 24/7 until we left for different colleges.  It was one of the hardest days of my life saying goodbye to her.

All those memories.  Dancing on the beach in the dark.  Watching the sunrise over that same stretch of sand.  Sunning ourselves by my parents pool with Chi-Chi's in hand.  Sharing absolutely everything with each other from proms to bad dates (More cushion for pushin'!), fights with our parents and the same need to break free from our tiny town. 

She went to Boston and traveled the world. I went to North Carolina and cried my eyes out for two years until I transfered the hell out of that too small for me school and found my place and heart in DC.  We wrote countless letters, shared ginormous phone bills on our Sunday post-hangover phone calls and used that new fangled email to describe our college adventures to each other.  She lived in a jungle and I a sorority house.  She studied science and I couldn't stop writing papers about dead people and the past.  On paper we seemed so different but as Anne of Avonlea put it, we were "two kindred spirits".

Our lives continued to grow and change.  We moved to different states.  We saw each other less and emailed more often.  It became harder to see each other on a regular basis but when we did we always picked up where we left off drinking wine, smokin' butts and staying up all hours of the night catching up.  It's what best friends do.

When I was nervous and panicky the night before my wedding all she had to do was hug me and I instantly calmed down.  The scent of her was so familiar it was a safe haven to me.  She handled my nerves on my wedding day better than anyone else could and knew how to make me laugh and smile when I was freaking out.  To this day no one can handle my panic attacks better than her.

She lives on the other side of the country now.  Our lives could not be more different.  It's been years of laughing, crying, peeing our pants and countless "dead soldiers".  To my best friend E- HAPPY BIRTHDAY!   Yeah, it's a day early but who posts on a Saturday?!  I love you and am thankful for you each and every day. 


4 comments:

  1. I know you're going to hate this word - but that was sweet. Happy birthday E.

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  2. Anonymous2:12 PM

    Oh my God, that WAS so sweet! I teared up reading that! So many wonderful memories, so many more to come! I love you, best friend! I am so glad you have been a part of my life since my very first memories. Thanks for such a wonderful post that made me smile.
    Love, E

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  3. That was amazing. It reminds me how lucky I am to see her every day.

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  4. This made me cry, dammit. Beautiful post, Vicky. Good friends are awesome.

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