Loving My Friend

It hit me like a brick the day I realized I loved him. It wasn't anything fantastic that he did, I mean, he wasn't even with me at the time. I was looking through some old pictures, while enjoying some old jams and came across one from high school. He was in it, and so was I, we were in it, together and that's when it hit me. How good we looked standing there holding each other, you know, the way high schoolers do, all up close and personal. We were in each other's face, space and place, almost kissing, but of course, we weren't because we were friends, right? He was voted biggest flirt and I wasn't even in the running, for anything. So why were we even friends, who knows, call it fate, call it kismet, call it chemistry, call it love. There is no way we would have called it that back then, I mean, why would we when the L word wasn't even part of our vocabulary. But what we did together and where we went together was further and many of the relationship took me later in life. Yes, looking at that picture, I realized, I loved that man, more than anyone I'd ever met in life. Then the freaky stuff started. I started thinking about him, everyday, kinda looking for him on the internet and when I traveled into my hometown I started running into, and I kid you not! Running into our old high school friends and of course, I had to ask, "Have you seen him, tell me have you seen him?" Yes it sounds like a verse borrowed from an old R&B tune but doggone it, it fit at that moment and so I used it until finally, yes, someone had seen him and that was all I needed to let me know that one day I would see him again too. My heart opened, my internet vibe, the one we shared as 'friends' heightened and again, I tuned in on his spirit and the fact that we were indeed unwilling soulmates in this game called life. He and I, me and he, the two of us one, though two, everything began to remind me of him, of us, of we. And then it happened about six months ago maybe more, he contacted me. It was on one of those classmate sites; well anyway, he contacted me. Of course we both acted surprised and all that, but there really isn't any surprises where me and my friend are concerned. We are the same person, and frankly, I rarely surprise myself. Where are we now? Where we've always been, in love, only now, we can't see the need to call it anything else, not when love is what it is. Lifetime love, not lifetime TV, don't get it twisted, and I know I write fiction but I'm one to say right here and now, life can be stranger than fiction, wilder, more special, romantic, fantastic and longer lasting. I found love in an old friend and found a friend in an old love from first kiss to beyond it will always be, he and I, me and he, forever and ever we are.