A Love Story

We all have that person. That one person you were absolutely convinced growing up that you'd be with forever. I'm talking before high school, middle school, even before we went through the cootie stage! When we were little tykes running around and our best friend was whoever we happened to be entertaining us at that particular moment.

*Note: This is going to be a possibly horribly boring post that reminisces about childhood, friendship and loss. If these things bore you, or you simply don't care, fair warning! Close out now! I think as adults, we tend to brush aside the feelings of little ones as inconsequential or trivial and don't necessarily give them the attention they sometimes deserve. So I suppose in a way, this is my way of grieving something I was told to simply 'get over' all those years ago. *

My person was Chris. He lived next door to us while I was growing up. He was my best friend, and I was convinced we'd be friends forever. I lived an hour away from the city I went to school at, so getting together with friends from school rarely- if ever happened. So to have a friend to come home to was kind of a big deal after they moved in.

Chris was the eldest of 2. He had a brother, Tom, who was roughly my brother J's age. Tom and J were best friends as well. As you can imagine, the four of us had many adventures together. I distinctly remember several afternoons where we would play 'Princess and the Knight vs the Bad Guys' which would land me (despite my objections and frustration) reading in my tree house while Chris 'battled' Tom and J to 'save' me from being 'kidnapped'. We would spend hours in the summer picking raspberries and concocting various drinks/ snacks etc to serve to our parents after we'd eaten/ drank our fill (which would probably explain my aversion to them now. Too much of a good thing, ya know?).

In the evenings, after our parents had ordered us inside and to bed, Chris would climb out his window, then hop up over the water barrel next to his shed, walk across the roof of the shed and climb down the tree, then somehow climb up on the roof of my house to my window. I'd open it and we'd continue talking/ joking- in hushed voices of course because heaven forbid we get caught! He was my best friend, a brother, a confidante, and playmate.

One day I returned home from school and he was gone. His parents had split and his mom had taken off with the boys. I never saw Chris again. I felt his departure from my life keenly. Someone who had been so integral in my day to day life to suddenly just vanish? Surreal.

Looking back, had we all continued living in that little town, I wouldn't be surprised to find our story to be one you could find outlined in an old school Taylor Swift song.

A few years ago, I learned that Tom happened to be in the same high school as my siblings. What were the chances?! We now live over 2 hours from where we lived as children, however somehow they end up at the same school. Through some pretty amazing cyber stalking research, I found Chris on Facebook and sent him a message. Let's just say, what I found out was disappointing, sad, and that the years had not been kind to him. My rose coloured glass memories of him were smudged from the encounter.

Here's to innocence of youth. To lost love. To what could have beens and might have beens. To what made us stronger. To those we left behind. To those we still carry with us, and probably always will.