My Best Friend

Alyssa Taylor, my best friend of almost twelve years. In first grade, I had moved schools and houses three times. I eventually moved into a duplex in Clovis that just happened to be next door to who would become the most important person in my life. We met in first grade, but for a while our friendship was the occasional conversation or "hello" in the school hallways. I knew she lived by me and one summer, being a bored and fairly lonely child from having moved schools, I continuously told my mom how much I wanted to go next door and ask Alyssa to play. Eventually, I got the courage to do so and I brought along my giant, foam Disney princess hopscotch puzzle pieces. Each piece had a princess on it and you connected the pieces in order to create a hopscotch set up. I nervously rang the door bell and waited for an answer. When she opened the door, I asked, "Hi, I know we only see each other at school, but do you want to play with me?" I know, kids are super awkward. Regardless, she said yes. That was the beginning of our friendship.

In the past, what I have always considered close friends were the small group of girls I had known since we were grade school. Never did I ever think one night would change my view and perspective on life for the next three years: the night I met my best friend. Will approached me when I was with a friend at a school football game, and we immediately hit it off. Before you start thinking to yourself, “oh another cliche high school romance”, think again, because it is anything but cliche. One year later of hours spent together, I was the happiest I ever had been because Will wasn’t just another boyfriend; he understood me like no one ever had, and seemed to know me better than all of what I ever thought were my closest friends.

Those words were some of the saddest ones I’ve heard. Living in Spanaway, Washington for over five years I’ve earned some pretty good friends. One of my best friends is a girl named Bella. Bella has medium length hazel hair matching her eyes and a tan small figure. Bella and I knew each other since second grade, but up until fourth grade we never really acknowledged one another. We only spoke in our reading groups and when we walked past each in the halls or at recess. We became friends on the first day of fourth grade. You see we didn’t become friends on our own. Not at all. Instead it was actually our other friend who introduced us to each other. The other girl who I will call J and I almost instantly found ourselves becoming friends as soon as I entered the school gate. We soon figured out we were in the same class, little did we know my future best friend would too be in that class. Later on in the day J had met Bella and later introduced us at lunch. We all instantly somehow clicked. And that was the start of a blooming friendship.

My best friend knew everything about me, he watched me grow up, he helped shape me into the person I am today. His help guided me through life, even with him being seven years older than me, and living with a disability. My best friend was my brother, Shawn, and before I knew it, he was gone.

We all need to be more grateful in life. You take a moment and you don't think about how it will affect you, or your family, or even your closest friend. Everything affects anything you do or say. I'm going to be writing about the day I lost my best friend. Well we made up now and are friends but we will never be as close as we were. I'm not going to be writing about why we aren't friends. More just some memories that have stuck with me over the last year. To basically show how these affected me good and bad.

It was pouring with rain, the soggy banners were peeling off the wall and the flags were hanging limply from the lamp-post above us but I had never felt happier. “Hi I’m Sophie, I just moved here. Will you be my friend?” Five-year old me asked, smiling earnestly at the marching girl I had ran up to. As the parade stopped at a traffic light, she grasped my hand. “Let’s be best friends!” She said. So we were, for seven years. Although I would hang on the words of people at school, willing them to like me, every evening I would hop round to hers. There I was happy, I felt safe. It was calming to me, to have an escape from the people my age who were growing up to fast in my mind. We stayed very close until I reached primary 7 and realised that soon I would be in high school – and alone. That terrified me.

My best friend and I have been friends for a long time. With this long relationship an enormous amount of trust has been built and I feel I am able to tell her anything. Abi has been there through everything both thick and thin, and I can definitely say she knows me better than anyone. In many cases Abi knows things about me that I do not even know but end up figuring out. Having a best friend that I can always count on to be there for me, has been a huge blessing in my life.

TJ Graves is not your average 21 year old, not many people can say they are 21 and driving a race car. Last summer, TJ went from being just a driver on a race track to someone I can call my best friend. At the time, I had never talked to him - that night in august changed my life for ever.

I wanted to fit in like any other teenager and I scoured the school trying to find a person who I could call my best friend. I found that person and he was worth it at the time.We hung out, we shared secrets and he took me to my first football game. We were friends for about 2 years and I knew that he was my best friend. After his breakup with my friend, he told me that he and I were never best friends nor were we friends and that I was just a “mere acquaintance”. He also told me that he was just friends with me because his at the time girlfriend was my friend and now that they weren't dating he didn't have to be an amiable person to me. My first long friendship died and killed me for months.Time passed and I need help so my high school advisor helped me understand that I didn't need him and that he wasn’t worth my heartache and that all I needed was to just get over him and make better friends and enjoy life.

I have two best friends, Jimmy and Greg, and they have been my best friends since middle school. We met the first day of middle school during recess. All three of us loved hanging out with each other than, and continue hanging out every day now. Although, Jimmy and Greg do not normally hang out without me. My best friends, Jimmy and Greg, are total opposites of each other. Personality wise Jimmy is very outgoing, meanwhile, Greg is antisocial. Furthermore, my friend Jimmy goes to college unlike Greg who works two full-time jobs. Lastly, Greg’s hobby includes car racing while Jimmy’s hobby includes collecting sneakers.

My best friend, Hana is the person I cherish the most. She’s always been there for me; through my parent’s divorce, my anxiety and depression, and even the minor inconveniences in life. I never really found a way to express my gratitude and love for her, and she doesn’t either. Because we both know how much we care for each other… Perhaps it was how we grew up; where families don’t express love through words, but through actions. To be honest, I’ve never said “I love you” to anybody, not even my parents -- I didn’t even know what the feeling of love felt like, or how to describe it. I always thought that the word “love” was something associated exclusively with romance and family, but I was wrong; I remember the moment when I first used those words. It was probably one of the most important moments in our friendship that we have shared together.

Story begins in 8th grade. i have never really talked to her for the entirety of me being in larchmont, but i knew of her existence and that she had previously dated Ben (one of my good friends at the time). We first star kind of talking when someone made a group chat and claire was added to it, by probably Sadie, who was her best friend at the time. The group chat was just normal as usual, and just talking and chatting, until someone mentioned something of Ben or something and and Claire said something along the lines of Ben and i being best friends, and i replied by saying that it was arguable. By saying that, it lead to her want to know more about it, and refused to believe that we weren't best friends. She continued to pester me that he and i were best friends or why i said that it was arguable that we weren’t. For the rest of the week she’d see me in the hallway, and chase me down trying to ask me about what i meant about saying Ben and i weren’t best friends. in a way, we were kind of being flirty, considering, that this girl never have really talked to before, all of a sudden started getting interested in my life. As the week continued, she started hanging around our group more, which i believe is mostly because Sadie just had her exist around us more. By group, i mean (Sadie, Bryan, Quinn, Mason, Joseph, and possibly Caleb if you want to consider him).

I remember it like it was yesterday. Standing in front of the camera with a dirty white rag around my neck. Wearing the all-orange jumpsuit and the uncomfortable orange slippers. "Stand up straight and look forward." The only thing that was going through my head while the officer was instructing me as he took my mug shots was how everybody was going to know. "Now, turn to your right." Not only was I embarrassed but I was scared and I had this mega hatred towards my best friend.

The adrenaline rushes through my veins. My heart speeds and within one second, there is more than ten beats. The pain travels from my head to my toes as the cool object touches my skin. I shiver at first, just a little bit, and I start the punishment. School seems to be at the back of my memory. Well, that is until I am interrupted by the ringing of my phone. The song cool kids ringtone plays from my phone and I know who is calling just by one ring. It's him.

Life isn’t always what it seems to be. It’s always changing, no matter what. Even if you’re stuck in the past. It’s like it just happened yesterday, I’ll try my best to tell you about my life and how it made me who I am today.