F-R-I-E-N-D-S-H-I-P

Friendship, it's an incredibly hard relationship to describe, the idea that two humans (incredibly selfish beings) could share a bond in which they could share everything and anything without reservation. A relationship in which it doesn’t matter what is happening or who you are, the only thing that matters is that you are near each other. Of course, I am talking about a specific kind of friendship. 

Let me start over; there are many different kinds of friendships in this world and I have classified each and everyone into different categories based on observation….

• The ‘fake’ friendship: I’m pretty sure we have all attached this label to a relationship before but in this friendship both sides absolutely despise each other. It is such a hate that they will appear all affectionate in front of each but tear down any good image of the other behind their back. The people around these two dedicated actors will usually enjoy the drama because they know that these two people know extremely well what is going on and find it wiser to keep their noses out of a battlefield. 
• The ‘toxic’ friendship: this is most commonly referred to as the ‘fake friendship’ but it is not because one component (person) in that relationship actually believes in the term ‘friend’. The other person in the relationship, however, harbours some kind of conscious or unconscious resentment towards the other and usually relives through some sort of manipulation. The manipulation can also be conscious or unconscious but it happens and that, unfortunately, is the reality of the situation. 
• The ‘keep-in-contact’ friendship: this friendship typically involves strangers meeting for the first time, there are people that just click together and somehow find impossible topics to talk about that bond them with each other. These are also the people you usually meet on holiday and, after having sworn on keeping in contact, never actually see or hear from ever again. 
• The ‘one-convo’ friendship: whether this is considered a friendship or not is debatable but I will include it anyway, this happens when two people find themselves in a situation where it is preferable to talk and end up striking a very interesting conversation, needless to say they never talk again for the rest of their time together, but that conversation will most likely still haunt their minds anytime they catch a glimpse of each other.
• The ‘extremely weird’ friendship: I personally quite enjoy this type of friendship, it is when the two people involved are so utterly and completely crazy that they seem to be attracted to each other. Not only are these two personas out-of-this-world crazy but they are also so much bigger than life itself, I guarantee you it is impossible to find any of these two sulky or serious when they are anywhere near each other. It is also impossible to not find yourself smiling or suppressing laughter while watching them clown each other, their unsuppressed joy and silliness is almost contagious which is why I always recommend keeping these two people in your life.
• The ‘who-the-hell-are-you’ friendship: now, this is a very particular one; in this friendship neither of the two remember each other’s names. They call each other any nickname they can find to cover up their ignorance and yet they have a close bond. This label could also be attributed to a relationship to where only one person knows the name of the other and finds it highly amusing to see just how many nicknames the other can come up with. 
• The ‘long-distance-besties’ friendship: the two people in this friendship will either have known each for a very long time or known each other for a very long time. These two people will have an enormous amount of distance between them and will probably almost never contact each other but the second they find themselves together again it will be as if they had never left each other’s side.
• The ‘nosy’ friendship: This is the friendship that is typically found in movies where the main character always has a bestie who is always in her house or randomly anywhere she goes. This friend will know everything about the main character’s life and always end up threatening the main male lead in some way or another. This friend will also end up having some sort of highschool romance but the main lead will know nothing about it because the film is based on her and her life only. 
• The ‘click’ friendship: this relationship is one of those which I find incredibly intriguing. It is when two people meet for the first time and yet, manage to create a bond stronger than with anyone before. Somehow they find themselves placing an incredible amount of trust on the other and start basically recounting their life stories for no reason other than the fact that they feel like they’re in a safe space.

There are so many more friendships to describe but those are for another time. The story I want to start you on is that of two people that ended up having the relationship I described at the very start. As I already said: this relationship is incredibly rare and hard to find and form. And yet, it is what happened to Sarah and Heidi. 

It is incredible how two people can be doing completely two different things on different sides of the world which will lead them to meet, in Sarah and Heidi’s case it was purely academic. Both had applied to dozens of the top schools in England and were anxiously scanning their watches waiting for the last five minutes to pass, the difference was that Sarah was clawing away at her poor mother’s arm while Heidi was sitting there calmly, confident that whatever happened she’d be happy. Needless to say, they both got into the same school. They also got on the same plane to the school, and the seats next to each other. If that is not some extraordinary sequence of coincidences then I seriously don’t know what is. Anyway, they both felt something, the indescribable feeling that the person next to you is more intertwined in your life than you thought. They didn’t talk much on the flight, they were both engrossed in their own thoughts as they witnessed their lives transform in mid-air. 

When they landed they were immediately escorted to the school grounds where they found that, yet again by pure coincidence, that they had been put in the same dorm. That night they both lay in their bed taking in the new surroundings and trying to accustom themselves to the thought that this was going to be their life for a long while. 

Not much happened in the following weeks, they didn’t suddenly become besties or they didn’t end up immediately opening up to each other because that is not how this friendship works. This friendship is gradual, painstakingly so. That is because real, proper and lasting friendships are built over time, with trust and caution. People are horrible creatures, selfish and cunning and to trust and share everything about you with even one means finding out everything about that person as well, waiting and analysing their actions to see if they are really someone you can trust. Humans are wonderful liars, it takes time to understand whether they are telling the truth and the easiest way to see that is to watch their each and every action and see if it coincides with their words.

Needless to say their characters allowed them to analyse each other in such a delicate way that they were becoming friends unknowingly. They were becoming friends from the core. A friendship so beautiful that so many words are spoken in just a second of silence. A friendship where just each other’s company is enough to keep each other entertained for days on end. A friendship where…… yeah, you get it. 

After a few months they started to go out more, have movie marathons in their dorm and talk all through nights on end. They started to realise the unexplainable bond they shared, where they didn’t have to tell the other their troubles for the other to understand. A bond so significant that any doubt on whether they had chosen the right school was wiped out in less than a week. 

This was the first friendship I mentioned, the friendship that lasts for a lifetime and beyond, the friendship that bonds not only the two personas but the two souls. This is the friendship that Sarah and Heidi soon uncovered and that they nurtured for the rest of their days.