A Long Distance Friend

Dear Long Distance Friend,

Trust me no one understood me better than you. You knew when I was depressed, you knew when I was happy, you just knew everything just by my voice. People say long distance relationships suck. Well, they’ve never tried a long distance friendship, because ‘suck’ doesn’t even begin to cover it. But life has a way of taking people we love and tossing them across oceans.  And I hate it.

Once upon a time, we were as close as two cars are on an Indian road. You knew everything about me and I knew most of the things about you. I didn't call you my best friend but I know you would have definitely taken a bullet for me.

You and I, we give meaning to ‘chalk and cheese’. Honestly, I’ve never met someone who is as different from me as you are, and still managed to be friends with them, without killing them/ being killed in the process. I hate how my phone is full of apps that claim to bring you closer, but honestly, they don’t.

We still talk occasionally, I wish you on your birthday and congratulate you for your achievements. Do you know I broke up with my girlfriend this February? Do you know I like a girl on my Instagram? Do you know I had a back in one subject, last sem? you don't know about my problems at college and I don't know about how you're doing at home.

As we went on with our lives, there came a time when we came to a junction from where both of us headed down two opposite directions. At the start of these roads, both of us had so many rivers to cross and hills to climb, but you still somehow find the time to look back towards the path I chose and you smiled and waved your hands towards me and I. I never found enough time to even look back towards you.

As I head down the path I chose, I often see flowers growing on the side of the road that I know you would have liked. I pick them and turn around to show them to you only to be reminded that you're too busy planting new flowers for me. Sometimes I even look back on the road we walked down together and realize that it was only because of you that it was so pretty.

But every now and then I will still turn around maybe to see myself fading further away or maybe you will have turned back too. But for however long I can see your silhouette, I will look back and smile, maybe because I'll always see my favourite parts of you and the road we walked down together or maybe just because you're one of the people I cannot look at without smiling till my wisdom teeth shows.

You don’t give me the silent treatment when I’m rude. You say the perfect things at just the right time. And all of that makes you one of my favourite people on the planet right now. So, I guess, I’m just saying, that we may be built differently, but there’s space inside me where you fit in perfectly. I Love you but then you are the one who knows I often use I love you to cover my mistakes.

So, thank you for existing. For being there for me. For being my opposite. But most of all, for being my complement. And please stay that way, always. Happy birthday to you, Sparsh.

A Hopeful Romantic

Nitish

P.S: - Thankyou Nishita jha for the original idea, the title and approving it.