Everything Girl

My best friend can be loud, opinionated, and she often says aloud the things most grown-ups only think. She is also generous, ride-or-die loyal, and brave enough to tell you the truth – even when you don’t want to hear it.

We met when we were around 12-years-old. We lived in polar opposite worlds in completely different parts of town. Our connection was a boy, a mutual friend. My relationship with said boy was love/hate brother/sister. Hers was a family friend turned possible love interest.

I met my future best friend when she and her family visited our mutual friend during my family’s short stay with them. We initially regarded each other with a bit of apprehension and suspicion. Her wondering about the girl that slept under the same roof with her potential love interest. Me wondering, ‘Who does she think she is?’

Our personalities and approach to situations were very different. She was outspoken. I tended to play the back. But we quickly discovered many similarities and began to form a friendship, first held together by our mutual friends. Later it would be cemented despite those mutual friendships.

The boy’s mother, Miss G, a dear family friend, was funny, eccentric, expressive, and full of nicknames and euphemisms. She sometimes called her son and me K.C., short for Kid Chocolate (a moniker I loathed at the time, but later remembered fondly). However, she usually called me Suzy Q.

I was Suzy Q because I was chocoloate ‘on the outside’ and ‘white’ on the inside (my eclectic taste in music, food, and literature were considered ‘white’). She was a black girl living in a mostly white community, fitting in both worlds seamlessly.

We quickly put aside any suspicions or jealousy over ‘possession’ of said boy and became fast friends. Better friends than we were with any of the mutual friends we’d previously shared.

We built a friendship across the East-West Chasm for which Cleveland is so well known. We rarely ventured across town to visit one another. We’d typically meet at an event that brought us to ‘the middle’ - usually a concert or a mutual friend’s home.

Perhaps because our friendship was built with distance as a constant, our relationship endured her move to Denver when we were 17-years-old. We remained close friends though five years would pass between visits and months could pass between conversations. We lived thousands of miles away, yet in many ways our lives echoed each other. Marriages, family relationships, children.

In recent years we’ve stayed more connected – thanks to unlimited long distance, cell phones, and email. Yet there is still the comfort of knowing no matter how many miles there are between us or how much time elapses between conversations we will always be there for each other. Supporting each other. Loving each other. Trying to be the voice of reason when our lives are filled with craziness.

We have other friends. Friends we see much more frequently, who might even have more in common with us. Yet, somehow when things are at their best or worse there is always one person I want to call: my best friend forever.

Roxanne is a freelance writer and a girlfriends getaway guide. Roxanne loves a great story, movies, music, art, and culture. She is currently working on her second novel and chasing her dream of being a published author of women’s fiction. She resides in North Carolina with her husband and son where she enjoys copious amounts of sunshine and tries desperately to avoid the ubiquitous bad drivers.

Share This Article »