Friendship Is Essential

So one of my best friends in college got a depressing phone call yesterday. One of the calls you never wish to hear. While watching tv he got a call from a friend back home telling him how one of his good friends back home had been found dead at his computer screen an hour prior. The cause of his death has yet to be determined but it absolutely crushed my bud, John. My friend's name is John. I had never seen a guy cry before, at least not one of my friends, but then again nothing this immense had ever happened to anyone we knew before. I came over to his house to find all the lights in the house off and John chillin on the sofa playing videogames with the third part of our trio of friends, Reggie. Reggie sat in silence as John remained silently on the phone with the occasional mumble and trickling from his eyes. It moved me more than I could say. He moped around half the night and we talked about death, friends, how important our friendship was to each of us and I discovered a new side of John and Reggie. All this time that we spent together since freshman year, goofing off, smoking, drinking, talking, playing basketball, learning to throw a football(well maybe that one's just me), and other random times of just hanging while John tried to cut the coolest design in my hair, at my request. I never realizedd that this time we were sharing was as important to them as it was to me. That maybe we weren't just wasting time together we were building a bond for a lifetime. "It's like if one of you died," John said tearfully. I didn't know that through our peace pipe smoking ritual and our arguing about politics/history we were making the friends they always say you'll find in college. I really don't know what to do without my boys. ::chuckles slightly:: It's funny how one tragedy can turn your world upside down and you find a new respect for someone that you at some point or another you take for granted. I know one thing I can say without reservations or "gayness": I love those dudes. They're living proof that even when you feel there's no one you need to take another look around and realize whoever makes up your circle is a vital part of what makes you who you are. And their friendship is essential to the soul.