• It's been a short time since we met, dear comrade, but time is a paltry force in comparison. Similarity and situation is what truly brings people together.
    It was the beginning of second semester and, as far as I was concerned, a fresh start. All but one of my classes changed, which meant a whole new pool of peers, new teachers, new classrooms... a whole array of new things to shock and amaze.
    I was the odd man out in many ways. Short of stature, talkative, inspired (but only after having a few hours to wake up and face the day), brilliant, a loner, a recluse, the only freshman in a class full of fifty sophomores who were brave enough to take on the challenge of a college-level United States history class. I didn't expect to be talked to, but rather to sit in the back of the classroom and go about my business quietly and invisibly.
    But this proved to be wrong.
    You were the first new person I really talked to in this wild new world. I must admit that I had trouble remembering your name, but I'm good with faces, and yours was inexplicably unique. Dark brown hair with that trademark shock of silver... how could I forget? You were polite and gentlemanly and kind, and those are qualities I have always loved in a person.
    The semester toiled on, and I became rather famous in our little family of a class. I was “the freshman”, “that really smart girl” and, on rare occasion, “that nerd who got asked to prom by a senior”. But to you, I was just me, not anything else, and I appreciated that more than you'll ever understand.
    I even got my little fan-club, and it made me laugh on numerous occasions how obsessed they were with me! But you stayed away from their giggling masses, instead choosing to remain on the sidelines.
    I remember when we did the skit of The Great Gatsby. Do you remember that day? I had to play three women at once, because I was the only girl in our group! I may love to act and get in front of people, but it's no easy job to play three separate and totally different people at the same time.
    It still makes me smile what you said when we reached the part where I had to be “punched” by a boy who is much bigger than me and, as I suspect, could bench-press me without much trouble.
    “If you actually punch her, not only will I beat you up, but her boyfriend'll beat you up too!”
    The skit failed dramatically, and I'm sure we got no more than a “D” on it, but I still remember what you said that day.
    That's when I decided that you were officially my adopted big brother. I had no other siblings, after all, and you were more protective of me than any other boy I had ever met.
    And I recall when you asked me to tell your long-time crush that you wanted to go on a date with her. I was so upset when she said no! I was afraid to tell you. It broke my heart that someone with a logical, thinking mind would turn you down.
    Ahh, and you were there for me when I no longer had a boyfriend to protect me, during those sad days when I wondered what on earth I had done wrong to deserve such a fate. You sent me a series of text messages, one dark and dismal day, telling me how I was a mountain lion and how I should go out and “slay” a boy's heart. That got me through that afternoon, even though I only left the apartment that day to buy a soda.
    And as I write these stories of our times together I can't forget all the times you've leaned on my shoulder. I try to be there for you, as you have been there for me all this time, but I'm always afraid that I'm not living up to your standards. But please understand that I do try to help you in every way that I can, even if it's something very, very small.
    And now it's summer. You're going into your junior year, I my sophomore, but we still share that bond that we have for a while now. I laugh when you send me worried text messages because I haven't answered you, when really I was just in some other world and not thinking of my cell phone. I wonder what you're really thinking when I, a limp-noodle of a 5-foot-3-inch girl put you into a headlock when you can pick me up off the ground completely with no trouble at all and carry me across the room. I smile when you insist on finding that required reading book for me at the library when I'm too exhausted and frazzled to do it myself, even though I have over two months to read it. And I know that you're my best friend, through thick and thin, through hell and highwater, through good times and bad.