Friendship is a strange thing, isn't it?
If you search the internet or ask someone on the street, they'll give you the usual poetic answer—"a bond of mutual affection between people, typically one that involves trust, support, and shared experiences." That's the textbook version. Sounds nice. Clean. Safe. Predictable.
Alright—let's dive into it. I'll write it from your perspective, continuing that raw, autobiographical tone from Chapter 1. This section can either serve as Chapter 2 or a kind of bridge before you return to talking about you and Lia. You can decide later where it fits best.
When you look around, I mean really look, you start noticing just how many different types of "friendships" are floating around out there. Some people wear it like a badge. Others treat it like a spare tire, only useful in emergencies. And then there are the ones who confuse proximity with loyalty.
I've seen too many of them, and I'm not afraid to call them what they are.
There's the one of conveniences. These are the people who hang around each other because it's easy. Maybe they sit beside each other in class, work in the same office, or share the same friend group. But take away the setting and the friendship vanishes like smoke. No real connection. Just shared space.
They'll text you when they're bored, but ignore you when it matters. And the funny part? Both sides know it, but no one admits it.
Then we have the seasonal type. People who enter your life during a specific time, college, a phase of heartbreak, a project .....and once that season ends, so does the friendship. You might even call them "close" during those moments. They're there, they talk, they help. But the friendship was never built to last. It was meant to expire, like a temporary lease on your time.
You scroll past their posts now, pretending you don't see them.
There's Trauma Bond and I even feel this is the most common because in some sense mine also started this way.
You didn't become friends because you clicked. You became friends because you broke at the same time. Maybe you were both hurting, both bleeding, both lost. And that made you cling to each other.
But when healing comes—or when one of you begins to move forward—the bond doesn't feel as strong anymore. Because it wasn't built on growth, just survival.
There's also the Conditional Friendship.
These ones are subtle. They act unconditional, but there are rules you don't see until you break them. Maybe it's about agreeing with their views. Or staying within their emotional comfort zone. The second you become inconvenient, too emotional, too distant, too honest, they start to withdraw.
They loved you, but only on their terms.
Finally the onees that feel like home...
Rare. Quiet. Real.
These are the people you don't need to impress. The ones who can handle your silence, your chaos, your worst days. They don't ask you to shrink or perform. They just want you to exist, with them.
You could disappear for months, come back, and it'd be like no time passed.
Well, that poetic fantastical definition of friendship it doesn't work for me or perhaps I didn't see it at the time....
To me, friendship is a game.
It's an illusion where two people trap themselves and benefit off each other, use each other but try to create a polite meaning to their actions and end up using the excuse of companionship.
There's no poetic line in that. It's raw. It's messy. It's closer to the truth than most people would admit.
Now, if you ask her...what she thinks friendship is, she'll probably blink twice, smile like a nerd or perhaps even scrunch up her face in contemplation ( just my imagination) you can see her type for ages and then say something like this:
> "A friendship is someone who will over look your flaws, fight for you comfort and ready to achieve goals together."
As you can see how dumb she sound.
But that's the thing about her. She doesn't pretend to be perfect. She doesn't need her words to be polished to make them meaningful. Her definition may not win her any English awards, but it showed me something I didn't expect when we first met: she actually believed in the kind of friendship I never believed in .
And that's how it began.
Not in person.
Not in some movie-scene encounter on a street corner or library aisle.
We met on social media. Just two usernames, floating in the crowd.
I didn't know who she was. I didn't know I'd still be talking to her till date.
But the irony right? I don't even remember what that first message was. I don't remember who said "hi" first. I just remember it never stopped after that.
I didn't meet a friend.
I met someone PECULIAR!!