I BELIEVE FRIENDS ARE THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD. Anyone who disagrees with me has to be either, an antisocial horror or very depressed. Friends are the dysfunctional family that you chose. The family is loves you no matter what and is always there with a shoulder to cry on.
On November 29th 2007, I had to make the most devastating phone call of my life. Not only was I waking up my best friend at the unholy hour of six AM on a Sunday, but also I had to tell her that my world was going to [Hell] in a Hello Kitty handbag. The colonel answered, sounding sleep deprived from her recent trip to Switzerland. She must have been able to tell something was wrong. It might have been that I was crying, or I was apologizing for calling at such an evil time. She scaled the steps to Lauren’s bedroom and shook her seventeen year old awake. I said I was sorry again, as The Colonel told me it was okay. I could tell Lauren was going to verbally abuse me, claiming that she was in the middle of a Fall Out Boy dream or something along those lines. I told her that I was sorry. I could hear her sit up in her bed; I sat on my bathroom floor. It was the only place to be safe from the incessant hugs and “he’s in a better place”.
She yelled at me, but not for ruining her picture perfect romance moment with a certain bassist. She demanded answers. Why was I crying? What was happening? Whom did she have to sic the Marines on? I sat on the cold tile, explained what happened and all of the details that caused more tears to slide down my face and form a bottomless puddle by my bare feet. She told her mom to pack a bag. This confused me slightly, she wouldn’t tell me what she was plotting. Until she showed up at my house two days later with a jar of Nutella and a hug. She flew six hundred and forty-six miles to sit with me. She was my shoulder during the funeral. Got me out of the house when the cabin fever started to set in.
I don’t know what I would have done without her. Without the love and humor only, a best friend can provide. Lauren saved my life when I thought that I was broken. I believe in friendship, I believe in the secondary family. The people who will sit up with you all night, just to make sure the nightmares don’t come back. I owe my life to Lauren and all of the other friends who invaded my house that week. The friends who still call just to talk about everything and nothing at all. I believe that friends will be there, when all hope is lost.