What is friendship?
When I was in elementary school, I had a best friend named Vivian Burke. We were inseparable. She used to come over to my house almost every day, and every time she did, we'd play tennis together until the sun began to set.
But after the accident, everything changed. I became withdrawn- gloomy, quiet, distant. I stopped talking to people, even to Vivian, who went to the same middle school as me.
After I was taken in by my grandparents, I stopped inviting anyone over. I felt emptier. The quiet settled deep inside me, and that distance never really went away. It lingered through all my years in iddle school, like a wall I couldn't climb.
And it followed me into high school too.
Then came Emilia- the one person who kept showing up at my doorstep, no matter how many times I told her not to. She was persistent, cheerful, and somehow always found her way past my walls.
She said she wanted to be my friend.
And sometimes, when I watch her laughing with others, living so freely in the moment, I wonder- can I really ever feel that old feeling again?
The kind I once shared with Vivian?
Can I still make friends- like I used to?