In high school, I had this best friend. We were like two peas in a pod. We'd laugh at the same jokes, stay up late talking about everything, and knew each other’s secrets. It was awesome to have someone who got me so well.
Then, she moved to a different province for college. It was a big change. She was making new friends, and she met her boyfriend there. It was like all of a sudden, there was this whole part of her life I wasn’t a part of anymore.
We tried to keep in touch. We used to text all the time, every day, actually. But as time went on, the texts got less frequent. Sometimes I’d text her and not get a reply until the next day, or sometimes not at all.
Now, we’re out of college and working. We're in different fields and live in different places. Life just got super busy, and it feels like society has gobbled us up. We’re not the kids who had all the time in the world to chat anymore.
Years flew by like pages in a book you flip through too quickly. We lived in our bubbles, getting updates about each other's lives through social media posts and hearing about major events through mutual friends. It was like watching a movie of someone else's life, not really being a part of it.
Everything felt different, and our friendship felt like a well-loved book you haven’t opened in years — familiar but distant. The everyday moments that used to tie us together were replaced by the occasional 'like' on a photo or a brief comment.
And then, out of the blue, we bumped into each other at the airport lounge. It was awkward at first. We were like two strangers trying to find the right words. But then we started chatting, catching up on the big things that had happened since we last saw each other.
We talked about our jobs and how different they were from what we thought we'd do back when we were teens. She mentioned her boyfriend, now her fiancé, and I told her about my own dating life, which was a series of comical mishaps.
But the conversation was stilted, filled with pauses and hesitant smiles. It wasn't like before, where words would just flow between us. We had changed, and so had our friendship.
We said goodbye, promising to keep in touch, but deep down, I knew it wouldn't be like our high school days. Nothing stays the same, no matter how much you want it to. I felt a pang of sadness as I walked to my gate, realizing that some stories don't get the ending you always hoped for.
As I sat waiting for my flight, I found myself reminiscing about the old times, the laughter, and the whispered secrets. Our silent stories were now just echoes of a past that seemed so distant yet vivid in my heart. It was a chapter closed, a memory etched in time, and a friendship that I would always cherish, even if it wasn't the same anymore.