To miss your best friend is to miss the moon’s early rise during your evening drive home from work. You were so used to it being there, and now that it is not you do not know what to think of your day. Having lived with my best friend during our last year of college, Rachel, she was the early rising moon that I saw, every day. But then, having to move back home, in California, after college, I did not know what to make of each day after that. I knew I would miss her. She is my best friend. I did not know how much I would miss her, along with the little things that we did together. If you have been missing your best friend for some time, whatever the circumstance is, I am sure you can relate when I say there are things that they just do not tell you about when you begin to you miss your best friend. It is the everyday things you two did together. Whether it was saying “good morning,” to them when you saw them on campus or meeting up for much in between classes. To give you a better idea, here are five things nobody told me I would miss when I had to say goodbye to one of my best friends.
Car rides were an everyday adventure, for Rachel and I. Whether it was to go to school, get our small coffees with cream and sugar at Dunkin’ Donuts, babysit her niece, have dinner at Patti and Larry’s, pick up food for the family, grocery shopping, have a late-night food run, or on the rarest occasions we went out. We were always in the car, riding the road to wherever our destination was. Car rides were an everyday adventure Rachel and I had, and they were worth the gas money.
While we were in the car, on those car rides, we shared a lot of laughter. One night, I remember we were driving really early to school for a 7 am class. We had stayed up all night, literally, the previous night studying for our microbiology exam. We were both so sleep deprived. On the way to school, we stopped at a stoplight and I looked out through the passenger window and saw a fast-food restaurant. I cannot remember what it was, now, but all I remember that I busted out laughing when I saw the sign. Rachel asked what I was laughing about, and I told her what I thought the sign said. Next thing I know, she busted out laughing, telling me what it actually said. Let’s just say I misread the restaurant’s sign in an extreme way. To this day, I cannot remember what I thought it read or what the actual restaurant was and what its sign said. All I know is that it was dirty and that we were both in laughing-no-crying. After that morning, we both swore to never pull an all-nighter ever again, even if our life (grades) depended on it.
When we were not in the car, venturing the Arizona roads for some food in the evening, we were indoors. Every night, Rachel and I had a routine of watching OUR show, Friends, eating some leftover pasta, pizza, or we heated up a fatty snack, and maybe have a small glass of wine, if we had any, before we called it a night. This especially a tradition of ours to do every Friday night, Saturday night, or both. There were some rare occasions where we went out on dates. By dates I mean Harkins Theater for a chick flick, or to watch something like Hustlers. The reason this became our tradition is that, despite the car rides, we barely saw each other throughout the day. Our schedules were so busy and conflicting with each other.
It was always before or after we turned on Netflix, or went to the movie theater, that we had deep conversations with one another. Whether it was boy talk, venting about what has been on the other’s mind lately, what has been stressing or causing the other anxiety, or just simply talking to each other and making sure that the other one knows how much they appreciate them always being there for them. Yeah, the evenings were emotional sometimes, but every evening we spent was a memorable one well made. I can honestly say these are one of the things I miss the most when I was living with my best friend.
As I mentioned while explaining car rides, Rachel and I went shopping, a lot. Most of the time, it was for food. We were still college students, so of course, we always wanted food, especially the fatty and sweet kind. There were a few times where Rachel and I would go to Target to look around or to get a few things for her parents that they asked us to get for them. While we were there, we always made a point to just walk towards the food section. Instinctively. Even when what her parents asked us to get was nowhere near the food section. We would hold each other accountable for each other’s spending. Again, we were college students. We were broke. On multiple occasions, we would lose one another in the food section. Whenever this happened, one of us would call out “Marco,” and waited for the other to reply with “Polo.” You could hear the confusion that some other customers had when we did this.
The thing about Rachel is that she is weird. Not severely weird, but enough to say she is weird. Me. I am very weird. Maybe on the borderline of weird-weird and not-all-the-way-there weird. What I love about my friendship with Rachel is that part of its foundation, probably 75% of it, is founded on the fact that when we hung out together, we were just being ourselves. We were being weird together. Whether it was in public, on campus, in our rooms, or in the movie theater. Our conversations and facial expressions were enough to make any man turn around. That is probably why we were always laughing so much.
One of the most memorable things Rachel and I did together was laugh. It was probably one of our most defining factors that made up our friendship. Whenever we were together, we laughed. Whether it was in the car, classes, at a party or the movie theater, or while we were at school, babysitting her niece, cooking, and cleaning. You name it! We were always laughing. If not with each other then at each other. I miss laughing with Rachel, and I miss hearing her laugh. I miss the times when she made me laugh so hard I started to cry. I miss the bad pun exchanges (mostly me), and sassy honest remarks (mostly her). I miss it all. I miss laughing with my best friend.
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