best friends forever? (1)

This idea has been in my head for a while, but I expect somebody would jump out to claim that I steal it from him. Well, I don't care. I am having my second beer, so the nice little buzz now makes me feel that nothing matters.

I have been lucky to have some best friends at each stage of my life, though not all of them left me purely happy memories. The first best friend of mine, as I define it, was the girl in the same class with me in elementary school. She lived in an apartment owned by a factory which processed Chinese medicine. Both of her parents worked there. So each time I went to her home, I had to walk through the big factory and there would be all sorts of unknown herbs lying on both of the road spreading some strange smell. Man, I can almost smell them now. We hung out a lot after school. I still remember that we sneaked out of the school to wander around the river in my hometown and pick some wild flowers.

I never had any doublt that I was also her best friend at that time until one day, she actually asked me this "hey, guess who is my best friend now". I was thinking that surely it's me. And then she said another girl's name. I was totally shocked and deeply hurt. That's one of the moments in my life that I can never forget, though I was only like 9 or 10 years old. Later on, I thought over and over again about what was wrong with everything. All I could remember is that there was one time when she came to my home to hang out with me and I totally ignored her because I was with other friends who were much older than me and I thought were very cool.

But I never asked her whether it was the reason. My pride forbad me to do that. So I acted like I didn't care. I never told her that she was the best friend to me. And since we were in the different classes in grade school, we walked farther and farther away from each other's path. Then finally I totally lost track of her.

Fortunately, I got to know some girls after I went to grade school, with whom I really felt like a family. We basically shared everything together, good or bad. It was so great that I got to see them when I went back to China last year. It's like all the years of seperation didn't exist.

Among them, Feifei was truly like a sister to me. Right after she got her first job, she sent part of her salary to me without even telling me. It was such a wonderful surprise. Though I sent it back right away because I knew she didn't have much money at all, that warm feelings is always there in the deepest of my heart whenever I thought of her. Rong had a very uplifting spirit. She didn't have chance to go to a good college, but she managed all th way to realize her dream. The latest news is that she opened an online store, just bought a nice apartment and was ready to get married. Wen is very caring and considerate. Her daugher is one of the prettiest girl I have ever met. Hey you girls, I hope you are all getting what you want from life.

Here I need to mention that I had a very special friend who had been with me in the same schools for 15 years until graduate school. I was especially close to her when we were in high school. Usually everyday in the afternoon we would lean against the wall outside our classroom talking about all our dreams that we could pursue after we went to the college. She was like my soulmate. Yeah, it was how I felt back then. However, it was my illusion again. Anyway, after we got into the same college, she seemed to me more and more like a stranger.

Until now, I still have no idea of what really happened. Maybe we were just growing up in different ways. As far as I knew, She was a much more practical person than me. There might have been a point where she thought I was too immature to be her best friend any more. Well, I am afraid I will always be that way. See, my mom still enjoys playing video games. What kind of person do you expect me to be? However, I do miss those days with her because after each conversation my heart was as light as a flying bird. It was a great feeling and for that I appreciated this friendship.

(to be continued)