dear M and K,

It turns out this life isn't as simple as it used to be.

***

You two are the closest I've ever had to having a best friend.  I've given several other friends that title throughout the years since we've drifted, but only because I believed somebody had to fill that role.  But titles don't change the quality of a friendship, even if they are real.

Do you remember making home movies of us pretend-fighting?  I was always the one losing and running away.  You two were fearless.  Are you still?

Do you remember when I got a phone call from my mother telling me that a friend of mine had died?  You guys were there, not to console me with words, but with actions.  We played gamecube or something and ate copious amounts of ice cream.  Was it that night we burnt a bag of popcorn and it smoked out on the porch for almost an hour?  Do you still make your friends laugh to forget their troubles?

Do you remember walking home from middle school to my place, just talking, dreaming, being kids?  Life was simple then.  We were who we wanted to be, and we planned to grow up the same way.  I'm still trying to hold true to that.  Are you?

Do you remember high school?  Our friendship started out strong at first, but we slowly drifted.  We just became different people.  No bad blood, no falling out.  Just friends who had different lives ahead of them.  Where are you now?

I pray that the path each of you has taken has been easier, or at least less complicated than I would consider mine.  At the same time, I pray that each of you has learned as much or more than I have along the way.  I miss you, what I remember of you.  Things won't ever be the same; I don't expect them to be.  The only thing we can do is take what we've learned and press forward.  But you two would know it better than anyone who has ever known me:  though I may lose a friend, I will never, ever let go of them.

sincerely,

vm