Friends forever...

Do you ever, ever know the person you consider a best friend, in fact the bestest, ever consider you as his or her best friend? Would you not mind if he/she doesn't, knowing that you love him/her to bits?

Ever thought of that?

Does a good friendship need to be declared? If it does, has it got to be like that of love? How does it all happen anyway? Remember your first one?

My first best friend was a chinese, Pooi Mee. Sat beside her in class 3 years in a row and we shared good times. We spoke to each other on the phone although, occasionally (phone calls were forbidden for me as at that time, it was considered inappropriate for a 9 yr old girl to phone up girl friends and chat). It felt good, she taught me of bananarama and the bangles. It was the 80s.I have always considered her my best friend but now,I stop and think, hey, has she ever considered me her best friend back then?

Life was great until finally I had a major screw up in standard 3 that mom decided I needed the transfer to the other class with En. Azmi, the strict one. Well, it wasn't major but at least she thought it was at the time. Major screw up: Scored only 84% in Maths. She believed I had drifted and needed a stricter teacher.

And so, bye bye to Pooi Mee. We did get to see each other at break time though but things went differently then. She paired with Linda Ho and Pooi Mee became from best friend to just good friend.

And then, there was Mastura the cat girl. I idolised her for being so cool. She has got the greatest smile and we hanged out with each other after school. She's all that and we became best of friends, until one day somebody came up to me and said

"Mastura told me you are not her best friend. Her best friend is from Kg Tunku"

Whatt?? It took me a while to answer

"She IS my best friend. And I don't care if I am not hers"

There you go. It was hard..but I had my pride.

I couldn't actually remember what happened when we all parted. We went to different high schools and lost contact ever since. The last time I saw Mastura she was tomboyish..and was pursuing a hotel management career somewhere in KL. It was awkward but I wished her lots of luck, anyway. And Pooi Mee, still wishing that I'd bump into her in PJ although I always picture her married to a tycoon and lives a high life in Hong Kong or Japan.