I’ve known my oldest and best friend since the age of seven I believe, but we didn’t start being best friends until we were twelve. After that we were inseparable. We had so much to talk about, that even after we spent all afternoon together, we spent an hour or two on the phone at night talking about what we were going to do the next day, what we had for homework, how we were doing in school and of course boys. The subject of boys at that age was what really drove our conversations, we cared about school and our responsibilities towards school but it didn’t compare to the importance of boys in our discussions. We dissected every nuance regarding how a boy looked at either one of us, if he spoke to us, what he said or didn’t say, if a note was passed, what was written on it or not written on it and the potential meaning of it all. The requisite answer to the note or if we should even respond to it. There were so many things about boys to figure out, talk about and get mad about. Those conversations were real bonding periods because they meant so much to us and we trusted each other with our most private hopes, insecurities, dreams and of course first loves, broken hearts, bouts of jealousy, the whole range of emotion that runs through a young girls emotional life. It makes for an intense friendship and that is what I shared with my oldest and best friend. To this day, I know that I can go to her with anything and that she would listen and that would be enough, I know that my feelings would be safe with her and the same goes for her, if she ever needed me for anything, I would be here for her to listen and do what I did for her all those years ago.