Friendships

I met up with a childhood friend yesterday.

We began our day with a 9 am walk, with the sun peeking out and a brisk feel in the air. (Thank u Spring) I hadn't seen Melanie in about three years and it seemed as if we had some things to catch up on. She now has an ~almost~ three year old boy. A three year old boy!? I had known Melanie since third grade, how was this even possible.

Melanie was one of the first friends I made when I came to America. Her mom was a Salvadoran woman who had be-friended my mother at work and we just so happen to go to the same school and live, not even, two blocks away from each-other. I remember always going over to her house after school to watch Amazing World of Gumball (I didn't have cable nor my own TV for the matter) and to take naps. I remember her room always being cold, a difference from my own home as my parents refused to have the temperature in the house below 74 degrees. Melanie's house was the only house my parents ever let me spend the night at which, looking back now, they must have had a lot of trust and love for them to allow me to do so. Say whatever you want to say about my Catholic Immigrant parents but they were pretty progressive for their time. You see, Melanie's mom was dating a woman. That didn't seem to matter to my parents which in turn made my first same-sex love/partnership experience not anything out of the ordinary. I wasn't aware a woman loving another woman was considered atypical for some. I would of course come to find that out much later, but that's a story for another time.

Melanie and I had basically seen each-other grow up. How many people have you consistently known since age eight? We talked about the time when this girl wanted to fight me and how I was suppose to meet her downstairs of the school's first floor after classes. "Alright well, if anything happens, I got you, I'll jump in" she recalls her telling me. We doubled over with laughter as we remembered how we both walked down as planned, neither of us ever having been in a fight. The fight never happened of course, but let them know we showed face! More tears collected at my eyes as we recalled us just standing there waiting for something to happen. The girl never turned around to face us and after a while I said "Ok well if this isnt happening I have a bus to catch!!!?" We've always lived for some comedic timing.

I've thought a lot about our friendship throughout the years. I've loved telling people about our obsession with the Twilight Series when we were young. Her saying how she was going to write "Twilight" in white across the black guitar she owned and how when we were older we would drive Mitsubishi Eclipse's. The time my dad made us drink a whole pitcher of lemonade in one sitting as we had spoiled it by continuing adding powder again and again and again until the drink was purely acidity. The time I got in trouble for spilling a whole orange juice on the ground and how I was made to clean it all up as she watched while I silently cried. Theres been more than one instance where I've called her to ask if she remembers the immaginary character named "Kevin" whom we would play with, and how we would buy "bloody apples" from him. I think our play pretend was about embodying addicts and the apples we would buy was a substitute for illicit drugs. Kevin was our dealer and why our choice of play pretend was embodying addicts, I don't know. Girl ya'll were Ten!? lol

She tells me to stop telling people these stories but I love the giggles that build inside me when I recount them, time and time again.

We hung out for almost ten hours yesterday and I have to say it felt really really nice. Kind of like when you sit outside on a porch and let the sun hit your face. Towards the end she kinda looked at me and said "Just like when we were younger". My heart warmed at knowing some things never change.

Song of the Week: I Can't Handle Change x Roar