This room was so familiar. I had spent so much time in here when I was younger, but recently, I’d been here maybe once or twice a year. As I sat in my friend’s basement, I realized how much had changed over the years. The time that we lost over the past four years left a huge, irreplaceable hole in our friendship.
There were four of us sitting on that floor: Lexi, Beth, Sam, and I. These girls were my neighbors and I had grown up with them by my side until high school, which was the beginning of the end of our ten year old friendship. While I sat there with my friends, specific memories of times with each girl came flooding back into my mind.
I remember the first time that I met each of them. Lexi and I had met at our preschool orientation. We were inseparable after that day and we did absolutely everything together. I met Beth next. We became friends through Lexi. Sam was the last one that we all met, moving to the neighborhood when I was four. I first met her at one of our street’s infamous block parties. Soon after Sam joined the group, we became thick as thieves. Over the years, we like sisters, fighting at times and breaking up into groups of two and not speaking to the others, but then making up and acting like nothing had even happened. Even though we were all really close, I have more long lasting memories with each of the girls.
A strong memory that I have with Lexi was when my mom got a flat tire. I had already been playing with Lexi for most of the day. We had done all sorts of things such as bouncing in her trampoline, playing with our American Girl Doll babies, and dressing up in some of her mom’s old dresses. It was toward the end of my playdate when my mom had called her mom telling her that she got a flat tire and would not be able to pick me up for a while. This call meant that I did not have to go to gymnastics and I got to stay at Lexi’s house for dinner, which is huge to a five year old. Lexi and I were pretty close for a long time. We did all of the same sports and had all of the same things. Our friendship began slowing down towards the end of elementary school.
The biggest thing that I ever did with Beth was visit her grandmother in New Jersey when I was thirteen. There had been a lot of memories before this trip, but it was a turning point in our friendship. During this trip, we were free to roam the entire town on our own by bike and rode across town almost every day. We relished the fresh air and talked as we rode along the paths. This was a crucial time in our friendship because we were never really close after that trip. It was just before I left to go to a new school, and that transition changed everything.
Out of all three girls, I connected with Sam the most. We both had a love for animals and we used that in most of our play. Many times we pretended to be dogs and ran around the house on four legs. We had another game that we called “College” where our stuffed animal dogs would go to college, meet, and fall in love. We even came up with plans that we would live next to each other with the same kind of dog when we were older. Sadly, our friendship was also weakened when I left our public school.
As I sat in that room a couple of weeks ago, I realized how much has changed. I barely knew anything about these girls. Sure, I knew the information that I could find online or the information that they told me, but I no longer knew the little things about them. At that moment I realized that we would probably never share those intimate moments with my former best friends ever again and I was okay with that.