Remember The Days

I remember.

I remember the good old days, when you picked me to be on your tag team. We dominated everyday during recess. If somebody else tried to pick us, we would refuse to go on the team. All the other schoolkids were jealous of us, although we didn't know what jealousy was at the time. I remember when we won the 3-legged race at field day, and we split the bag of candy we won. When one of the worst things that could happen to us was losing our recess privledge. We were so innocent.

I remember when things began to change.

Boys and girls started dating. Girls began wearing bras and make-up and guys began sagging their pants lower and lower. When we had to go through health and correctly learn about sex and the dangers that come with it. Still, we stuck together. We would save each other seats at lunch, and we would trade whatever our mothers packed us. Whenever we went on field trips, you would be in my group, I made sure of it. We would help each other organize our desks so that we wouldn't get in trouble.

Even then, we were so naive.

Dating become a serious issue. Dating wasn't just holding hands at recess, or getting a paper valentine on Valentine's Day anymore. Pecks on the lip became full blown make-out sessions. Being home alone meant having sex, not playing a board game or watching a Disney movie. Rumors flowed like rivers. She had sex with him, he got her pregnant, she cheated on him, something new happened everyday.

Still, we remained together. Everyone thought we were dating, but we laughed them off. We would always go over each other's houses and rant about how stupid people are or how much homework we had or what rumors were rampant. I remember the day you stole your dads cigarettes and we smoked them to see what they were like. Or when we took beer from our older siblings.

That's when things began to change forever.

We entered high school. It seemed to hit us like a sack of bricks. Seeing kids walking the halls with tattoos became an everyday thing. The rumors only increased, and it drove some people insane. Cliques began to form. The skate rats smoked pot in the bathroom and ditched school, the preps and jocks fought to make the varsity teams, and the nerds watched anime. Everybody was always looking for weed, cigarettes, sex, and booze.

That's when we grew apart. We both made new friends, but we tried to hold on to our friendship. Your friends took you out partying and introduced you to daily drug use and drinking. My friends got me to join the lacrosse team. I was focused on school, maybe too much looking back on it. Your priority was to get weed or Budweisers A.S.A.P. The day I found out you dropped out, I cried in the bathroom for an entire class. I called you and begged you to come back, but you were getting drunk with your friends. That was the last time we ever held a conversation.

I see you in town every now and then. We lock eyes, but we never speak. We've both come to the understanding that our paths led us down different directions. I still wonder to this day what could have happened between us that could've kept our friendship as strong as it used to be.

Maybe one day, I'll organize a game of tag, and I'll pick you to be on my team.